How do you get Republicans like this person to care about others?

[genius]

Today, I was talking to a teacher, who was saying the grocery workers deserved the benefit cuts as "we" shouldn't have to pay for braces for the kids of the grocery workers. She went on to say that, since she had gone to college, she deserved more benefits. Her view was that "unskilled grocery workers" didn't deserve the benefits that a skilled ( meaning someone in a profession requiring college) received. It was a real us verses them attitude. I pointed out that, while she and I were in college, the grocery workers were working hard at their jobs. I also pointed out that Vons made huge profits off the hard work of the workers who got their benefits cut and that no one would have suffered if the execs shared a little of their profit with the workers. Her retort was that anyone could do the work of these unskilled grocery workers. My response was to point out that, during the strike, the scabs reportedly didn't know what they were doing and the shelves were largely unstocked. She said she had heard that too. However that didn't change her opinion of the grocery workers.

If the problem with the Republicans is that they feel superior to people in other groups and don't care about people in different circumstances, how do we convert them or should we give up? She seemed nice but her lack of empathy was almost unbelievable. How can people not care about others?

[Oversea Visitor]

1. Its call

disconneted from reality. No one will tell you they got small penis

[BMG]

2. Their feeling of supierority will be their downfall.

Their haughtiness and their overconfidence is going to be their downfall. (Republicans) currently at least. So just sit back and let it happen.

[Deja Q]

3. We're raised to be self-centered, unempathic, "me me me"

This has put American society into a position far worse than what it was in, back in 1979.

And it's got to be turned around.

The only way to convince freepazoids of something is to ensure they personally need the services they intend to cut from the rest of us. (not that I'd wantonly wish ill will on some, but if that will cause them to see how their actions and greed hurt others then so be it.)

[dorktv]

4. You could point out that those grocery workers taxes pay for her

salary.

[genius]

6. I like that argument.

Next time I see her, I'll try it.

[LightningFlash]

5. How pathetic.

Point out the blatant copying of fascism and then walk away. She has a cold reality coming.

[Erika]

7. We shall be judged by how we treat the least amongst us

Ask her to discuss that. Many Americans are sickened by the GOP worship of the rich. How many of them are in Afghanistan or Iraq?

Ask her to discuss that.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

8. I.Got.Mine

That would be her attitude in a nut shell.

Is she union? It would seem odd that someone whose livelihood depends on her union rights as much as her diploma would be a bit less critical of another laborn union.

[LostInAnomie]

9. Jokes on her...

... Cons don't think to highly of teachers either.

[Career Prole]

10. One or two bad breaks...a school closing, a prolonged illness,

and "Teach" will be left wondering why nobody gives a damn about her or her kids.
It seems they all need to learn life on the other side, and only Dickens' spirits could convert Scrooge...there'll be no ghosts showing Teach life on the other side.
Know what I think? I think if the economy collapses we'll see a whole lot of new socially-conscious folks. It's a shame they can't learn to care for the less well-off without becoming poor themselves.

[Historic NY]

11. And she belongs to a Union I presume..........

a Union not unlike the grocery workers, that fought to get her the benefits she has. When you talk to her again tell her the taxpayers think she is overpaid and her benefits should be cut. The taxes people pay our only supporting her lifestyle too. And people are being over taxed by school districts that can't or won't live within a budget. Heck she only works part of the year anyway. I'd bet she closes her yap at that. If she does not suggest she turn in her Union card since in her view a Union is a socialist organization.

[genius]

16. Good point about they 10 month work-year.

I was really surprised that someone belonging to a union would feel the way she does.

[LiberalAndProud]

12. I consider that an elitist attitude.

And they call us elitists.

[noahmijo]

13. The Doctor vs The Beer Guy (inspired by your post)

whole thing about how since she went to college and they supposedly didn't.

First off, some would argue that certain college degrees were harder to obtain or took more money and effort to obtain. Few would argue for example that getting a medical degree would be far more costly and difficult than say a degree in beer making.

Does that mean that the guy who got the degree in beer making should be treated like shit next to the doctor? hell no because everyone has their roles and all roles are important.

In fact I bet the doctor visits the beer guy everynight after a stressful day's work :)

[Journeyman]

14. Those grocery workers get what they do because of their Union. . .

Run that past your college-educated friend who evidently didn't learn any practical knowledge from her books.

Tell her its the Union that gets them their wages, the Union that gets them their benefits, the Union that fights to keep their jobs, and the Union that struggles to get them whatever retirement benefits they have.

Then tell her she can make her own life better -- no matter what kind of job she has, or what education she may possess -- by working either to build up the labor movement in this country, or by trying to push our political party back towards more active support of the laboring class and retention of the hard-won middle class lifestyle so many want to retain.

Find out if her illustrious "education" taught her to read, and if she says it did, then set her finally to educating herself about the true state of society today, the history of the labor movement, and the role "labor parties" and socialism has played in elevating the standard of living for Europeans. There are plenty of books that will help her.

Try those ideas on her. If she persists in her ignorance, you can only conclude that higher education was wasted on her. . . and so would be any additional time you might spend trying to help her.

On Edit: It evidently didn't register in my head that she's a teacher, and so already belongs to a Union. As this is the case, my final statement holds: She's probably not worth your time trying to educate her. There's something thick in her head that prevents knowledge from seeping in.

[Stinky The Clown]

15. That superiority she expressed is from the exact same gene from which

all 'isms' grow .... racism, classism, etc.

I'm not really saying its genetic. But what I *am* saying is it is essentially as hard to correct as a genetic defect. It can be done, but it takes time and a great deal of effort.

The best cure would be for her to 'have it all' and then lose it. Or to have grown up in far more modest circumstances, assuming her only issue is classism. If she is 'multi-ismal' she's probably not worth the effort.

[newswolf56]

17. Unfortunately this teacher's attitude is typical: note how...

...so many teachers venomously oppose any and all attempts by taxpaying parents to reform the hopelessly broken public school system -- merely one of many expressions of how teachers regard themselves as an untouchable elite. A good slogan for these people would be "collective bargaining for me -- but not for thee." Of course not all teachers are such knee-jerk fascists, but far too many are -- a fact proven beyond any argument by the racism and classism that dumb down so many schoolrooms.

Staunchly pro-union myself, I am old enough to remember when teachers would loudly denounce any newspaper reporter who dared identify teacher unions as unions ("the New Jersey Education Association is not a union; it's a professional association and we demand a retraction"). But then the AFL-CIO became increasingly desperate for members, and the teachers were invited in, working-class solidarity be damned. The result has given not only unionism but the Democratic Party a bad name ever since.

As to this woman herself, the only thing that MAY cure her or any other non-plutocratic Republican of reflexively identifying with the oppressor is a bad dose of sudden and total poverty. But sometimes even that doesn't bring 'em around: note how after the Crash of '29 there were still working class people dumb enough to vote for Herbert Hoover.

To me, the real horror is that somebody that arrogantly blind is teaching our children.

[nonconformist]

18. Big words from someone whose salary and benefits are funded

by taxpayers.

She's clearly an elitist asshole with a superiority complex (ironic since she's in a poorly paid profession), so you have an uphill battle.

I'd point out "we", taxpayers, are the ones paying for braces for HER kids. And I'd point out that those lowly grocery store workers unworthy of licking her shoes pay those taxes.

I'd point out that low-wage workers without benefits often qualify for, and are encouraged to partake in, social programs like Medicaid for their children. Funded by taxpayers.

I'd point out that such a heartless twat has no business teaching children, since she most certainly thinks that the ones that come from non-professional backgrounds are SUBHUMAN.

I'll stop there before I regress into a stream of obscenities. People like that INFURIATE ME.

[ninkasi]

19. I have no idea how they can be like that...

It absolutely mystifies me that a person with a college degree, like this teacher, can feel that people working at certain kinds of jobs somehow don't deserve to make a living wage. I was raised to believe that no work should be looked down on, as long as it was honest, and the person was doing what he could to be self supporting.

Her education must have been sadly lacking, if she is unable to understand the benefits of a society where everybody can afford the basic necessities, and some of the luxuries, of life. Attitudes like hers are arrogant, cruel, and mean spirited.

Because she has a better education, she deserves more? Does she believe also that grocery clerk's children don't deserve the same level of education that her children do? Her attitudes were much more common in past years, where people were expected to know their station in life, and remain there.

Somehow, I feel that as far as teaching about life, she has nothing of value to contribute. She would be the first to scorn anybody down on their luck who had to rely on welfare, too; I think her good opinion of herself is highly misplaced.

[Stirk]

20. She's working for the government, correct?

Indirectly, of course. I mean- is this a public school teacher?

[LibDemAlways]

21. One of the thickest books possible would be

the complete collection of acts of cruelty and callousness perpetrated by repukes.

I know a woman whose in-laws have mega bucks and are staunch repukes. Over the years they've hired a succession of live-in housekeepers. They pay minimum wage and provide a bedroom. In exchange the "servant" does all of the shopping, cooking, cleaning, and laundry for the household with no benefits and no time off on holidays.

The same people took their new daughter-in-law aside on the day she married their son and told her to call them "Mr. and Mrs. Snob" and let her know that daughters-in-law weren't real "family."

That's how these snotty, wealthy repukes view other people - as objects of derision or simply to be used and discarded.

[roguevalley]

22. tell her when her tenure gets removed and she gets booted for

cheaper younger people that its social darwinism, you know ... like when grocery workers get their bennies cut.