It sucks to be a middle-aged white person
The New York Times reports that the death rated for middle-aged white people (45-54) has increased substantially during the last 15 years, and that middle-aged Hispanics have a much lower death rate.
Suicides and drug/alcohol addiction are the reason why the death rates have risen.
The good news, however, is that if you have a college degree then this rising death rate doesn’t apply to you.
But why is it happening? I think that it’s the declining economic and social fortunes of middle-age whites without college degrees, causing them to turn to drugs, alcohol, and suicide.
Lion of the Blogosphere 
It eventually takes a toll on you, if you’re a Meriprole!
Meriproles tend to have less self actualization tendencies, which prevents them from enjoying life to their fullest, besides the usual money, booze and (women?).
JS
November 3, 2015 at 1:55 PM
I feel like all of your comments say the same thing: America is prole, America is prole!
I think it’s time to cut back a little.
Although I agree that middle-aged white people without college degrees have not been given any direction on how they should proceed with life if they only qualify for minimum-wage jobs.
Lion of the Blogosphere
November 3, 2015 at 1:58 PM
Indeed. Depressing. They’re too far down the disenchantment road to rediscover religion. Work life and all it brings is the only anchor left.
Dain
November 3, 2015 at 2:10 PM
I’ll cut back. But it’s the same w/o saying that America is prole. The average citizen (regardless of college degree) in this country have no concept of appreciating anything beyond its borders, let alone anything that is SWPL-High Brow. And SWPLs in America, have no concept of what is bourgeoise, because they are provincial minded as much as their prolier counterparts. They only come across as more righteous.
JS
November 3, 2015 at 2:12 PM
“The average citizen (regardless of college degree) in this country have no concept of appreciating anything beyond its borders, let alone anything that is SWPL-High Brow.”
A German guy once told me that the average guy in Germany, after work, goes home, drinks beer, and watches TV.
Lion of the Blogosphere
November 3, 2015 at 5:56 PM
In 2000, Steve Sailer wrote a five-part piece on IQ for his website Vdare, concluding with “Some Good Ideas for Helping the Left Half of the Bell Curve.”
http://www.vdare.com/articles/america-and-the-left-hand-side-of-the-bell-curve
njguy73
November 3, 2015 at 2:25 PM
Wow, do his conservative readers realize that Sailer endorsed free nationalized healthcare?
Lion of the Blogosphere
November 3, 2015 at 6:03 PM
I find JS’s remarks interesting and probably would agree with many of his conclusions, but I usually hunger for more reflective and reasoned explanation of these. Furthermore I wish he would share more about his alternative propositions for building a meaningful life and self-actualization.
On one level I’m not entirely convinced that Meriproles are lagging SWPLs or Bobos (Bourgeois Bohemians) in chasing values that are false idols and won’t provide any deep and lasting meaning or satisfaction. Look at the interests and hobbies of SWPLs… obscuritarian hipster arts and culture, international travel, local artisanal crafts, organic sustainable foods. All of these are passive activities of consumption. Perhaps there is no eternal significance to actual self-mastery and creation, but these probably give more satisfaction than mere consumption of fad status goods.
This weekend I went to a memorial for the father of an acquaintance. These were highly educated, cultivated and well-travelled professional artist types living in a Pacific Northwest hipstertopia. There were no children, no significant family ties… People talked about their pets, their international adventure travel, their homes and their struggles in the very competitive real estate market of this booming city. I asked a few if they had kids, the responses were the same. “EWW Noo way!!!” These folks are free but apparently they choose freedom and shallow superficial existence along with the distraction of shallow superficial flaky “friends” over the inconvenience, duty and sacrifice of real substantial relationships. More and more I’m thinking that the ubiquity of these companions of convenience on command, aka “fur babies” – locked up at home and waiting for the master to return are a significant sign of decadence and decline.
Contrast the emptiness of this collection of SWPL BoBos with a gathering of “Meriproles” who are family blood relations. Sure they argue and suffer the tensions and strife of family and all its duties, but from that suffering the connection and love that comes is much deeper and sweeter.
No matter what, the the pleasures of both Meriproles and BoBos chase are false idols and dead end distractions from our boredom and mortality. SWPLs are just snootier about their craft IPAs, fine wines and single malts. And how are going hiking, international travel and sustainable organic foodie-ism inherently “better”‘ than ATV riding, bass-fishing and barbecued and deep-fried gluttony? Pick your poison kids, plebeian or pretentious…. it’s all a distraction.
Thin-Skinned Masta-Beta
November 3, 2015 at 3:01 PM
“A German guy once told me that the average guy in Germany, after work, goes home, drinks beer, and watches TV.”
Germany has one of the most well-travelled citizens, when it comes to outbound trips. We do not and so is the rest of the Anglosphere.
JS
November 3, 2015 at 9:12 PM
“I find JS’s remarks interesting and probably would agree with many of his conclusions, but I usually hunger for more reflective and reasoned explanation of these. Furthermore I wish he would share more about his alternative propositions for building a meaningful life and self-actualization.”
Many Americans are socially disconnected with family and friends. Life revolves around frivolous consumption, as first priority, and that means careerism.
For a country of its immense wealth, geography and resources, the average American is rather incurious and lacks ingenuity, because he is too busy with # 1.
JS
November 3, 2015 at 9:21 PM
He’s been saying the same thing forever, latching on to your “prole” hobbyhorse. Aside from that, I think his diagnosis is wrong. If anything, tendencies toward self-actualization are likely to make someone miserable in middle age, because it will have deflected them from paths toward economic security that were available to them.
One example that comes to mind is the hipster cop who became famous during Occupy Wall Street. Clearly a guy with some artistic/self-actualization tendencies, but he was smart enough to put those on hold and join the NYPD in his 20s. He’ll be retired and collecting a pension when he’s your age, and can self-actualize then (I recall some of the commenters on the NYT article about him expressing shock about how early he could retire).
Dave Pinsen
November 3, 2015 at 10:58 PM
I read an article about the most-travelled American once. His hobby was visiting a different country every vacation, and he’d visited almost all of them (even North Korea). He also ate in McDonald’s in every country. An extreme example, but traveling doesn’t necessarily make one cultured.
Dave Pinsen
November 3, 2015 at 11:02 PM
If the choice is either prole or SWPL culture … why not shoot yourself?
Glengarry
November 4, 2015 at 2:45 AM
Hipster cop: Lee, 45, said people have a perception of police officers as old and staid and “then they meet me, they’re like, ‘Oh, he’s cool.'”
Gag, retch.
http://images.csmonitor.com/csmarchives/2011/10/1020_Hipster.jpg?alias=standard_600x400
“We need to infiltrate the gay crystal meth disco bath house gang but the undercover officers have all called in sick, captain.”
“Only one thing to do. Call Hipster Cop.”
Glengarry
November 4, 2015 at 3:17 AM
If anything, tendencies toward self-actualization are likely to make someone miserable in middle age, because it will have deflected them from paths toward economic security that were available to them.
Economic security sounds as nebulous as the term prole. The truth to the matter is, many Meriproles lack social capital, hence, all the depression and suicides you hear about, because people in this country only cares about money and the status that goes with it.
JS
November 4, 2015 at 10:13 AM
I’ve known people who basically threw it all over early on to hang with family and friends, and it can get pretty pathetic as people die off or move away. Either you end up destitute (getting SSI if you’re lucky) or you start maneuvering for security by ripping off friends, or get ripped off by panicky hangers-on the same boat.
Mrs Stitch
November 4, 2015 at 4:30 PM
Maybe they just have low hormone levels and just need to see their doctors about getting a hormone pill or patch or whatever, and some vitamins, some exercise. etc.
not too late
November 5, 2015 at 6:47 PM
What’s nebulous about getting paid half of your peak cop salary for the rest of your life, without having to work, and getting gold-plated healthcare coverage along with it?
Dave Pinsen
November 6, 2015 at 12:05 AM
“…traveling doesn’t necessarily make one cultured.”
A person can learn more about a foreign country by reading a good book about it than by visiting it.
Jonathan Silber
November 9, 2015 at 11:25 AM
“Being well-travelled does not make you cultured.”
If it did, airline pilots and stewardesses would be the most cultured individuals.
Jonathan Silber
November 9, 2015 at 11:30 AM
Traveling gives you a set of experiences that other people of the upper-class and upper-middle-class have, allowing you to better fit in with them.
Otherwise they will look down on you, they way they looked own on Sarah Palin for not having any international travel experience. As much as I hate the Palins, I understand that a school teacher with a big family doesn’t have enough money to travel, so that’s one thing I would never criticize them for.
Lion of the Blogosphere
November 9, 2015 at 11:49 AM
@JS, “Germany has one of the most well-travelled citizens, when it comes to outbound trips. We do not and so is the rest of the Anglosphere.”
A German traveling to France is akin to a South Carolinian going to Georgia. If that’s what you mean by ‘outbound’ trips perhaps the distinction is not quite what it seems.
Curle
November 3, 2015 at 9:21 PM
Yes, and yet it appears that German tourists are the one of most weit verbreitet around the world.
JS
November 4, 2015 at 10:17 AM
Being well-travelled does not make you cultured. Most Germans fly to Egypt, Turkey or Mallorca for a holiday in the sun. They expect their beer and sausage to be served at all of these place including dark bread.
Germans place more emphasis on having a nice car and going on vacation, the latter being because it’s cloudy there all the time. They also get six weeks of paid vacation, so they have more time to travel, versus the two weeks the average American gets. They have neither the space nor the outdoor activities to pursue what American proles like to pursue, which is boating, jet skiing, snowmobiling, hunting, fishing, mudding, etc. Most also rent, so they don’t have as much money tied up in a house that could be a money-pit.
Evidence: I’ve lived in Germany many years, go back there frequently for work, have many German friends, speak the language fluently.
DdR
November 4, 2015 at 12:10 PM
So basically people from Knoxville going on vacation in Cancun, only German.
J1
November 4, 2015 at 4:48 PM
Canadians are also better traveled than Meriproles. Can we assume Canadians become snowbirds in the dreary winter time? Perhaps, Canada is so boring that they need to leave for more exciting places.
Let’s be honest here, your typical Northeastern Provincial Guido doesn’t even see the west of the Hudson as a viable destination, with the exception of the sand on the Jersey Shore. It also never ceases to amaze me that high proles from the NYC-Tri-State Area has never even visited California, but they’ll spend a large sum of money for a live baseball game either at the Mets or Yankees playground.
That says a lot!
JS
November 4, 2015 at 9:34 PM
Excuse for me for the bad grammar, proles or prole, what difference does it make!
JS
November 4, 2015 at 9:35 PM
“Germany has one of the most well-travelled citizens, when it comes to outbound trips. We do not and so is the rest of the Anglosphere.”
I read somewhere that Australians are the most well traveled people on the planet other than Swedes. If true, it doesn’t prevent us from being the proliest people on the planet.
James N.S.W
November 5, 2015 at 5:53 AM
Our local news station is running a series on baby boomer drug addicts, who are having to go to rehab in their 50’s and 60’s. More drug use than was typical could be a reason.
Mike Street Station
November 3, 2015 at 1:58 PM
The most significant change the paper notes is the large increase in poisonings (including drug overdoses from oxycodone and benzodiazepines). Although the paper claims of a significant death toll are premised on the idea that there should have been a steady 2% yearly decrease in mortality and thus everyone who wouldn’t have died under this assumption can be considered a fatality.
It is interesting that mortality for Hispanic Americans is so low. Often enough we are told that the black white mortality difference is due to discrimination (which seems reasonable enough) however the assumptions behind this would predict that Hispanic mortality should be roughly similar to white (HS only) mortality. Instead w is 735/100,000 and h is 435/100,00.
Magician
November 4, 2015 at 7:29 AM
“I think that it’s the declining economic and social fortunes of middle-age whites without college degrees, causing them to turn to drugs, alcohol, and suicide.”
Yup. Whites are being targeted for extermination, and lower end whites are feeling the brunt of it first. Job prospects are close to zero for them (nearly ALL new job growth has gone to immigrants). And white people just aren’t that good at lazing around on welfare year after year like blacks. It messes with the white soul.
But don’t kid yourself. This is a lower class phenomenon now, but it’s rapidly approaching the middle class. We’re one economic downturn from a wave of white middle-class death/suicide. Everyone is maxed out on credit. If you lose your job and can’t find a new one, it’s going to get ugly fast.
Meanwhile, whites work their asses off to pay for lazy blacks, Mexicans, etc., to say nothing of providing multiple benefits to Asian scam artists and benefit hucksters. Which is pretty much all of them.
peterike
November 3, 2015 at 2:00 PM
Men in their 40s off themselves when their expectations for life are dashed. You saw it in Japan during the 90s as the economy tanked. You saw it as the Soviet Union fell apart. When your career and social standing and expectations for life fall apart at 45 a fresh start is probably not viable, but you’re also not old enough to take it in stride in a more detached way.
The elevated suicide rate of Japan in the 90s is probably comparable in a few ways to what’s going on now with American whites post housing bubble.
joeyjoejoe
November 3, 2015 at 10:56 PM
“The good news, however, is that if you have a college degree then this rising death rate doesn’t apply to you.
But why is it happening?”
Simple: what it means to be a middle-aged White person without a college degree has changed over the years, since more people go to college.
In other words, these are the genetic dregs that are dying off.
JayMan
November 3, 2015 at 2:22 PM
You really are an idiot.
Axismundi
November 3, 2015 at 8:07 PM
Ha! I wanted to say this but you beat me to the punch.
Of course you always hit this type of thing out of the park.
ruhkukah
November 3, 2015 at 8:48 PM
Adam Carolla uses the expression “It’s just Darwin taking out the trash”.
Rifleman
November 3, 2015 at 11:33 PM
I would most bet suicides have a higher than average IQ.
Dave Pinsen
November 4, 2015 at 4:24 AM
But if that were the case, wouldn’t you expect mortality for the group as a whole (including both educated and uneducated people) to track that of other groups?
sabril
November 4, 2015 at 4:03 AM
If that were the case, then the mortality rates of blacks should have spiked even higher. Virtually all of the black population in the US would be dying off. I don’t think that’s the case.
Tom
November 4, 2015 at 12:30 PM
@Tom:
And why is that?
JayMan
November 4, 2015 at 3:32 PM
@Jayman
Because a lot of them are uneducated.
Rosenmops
November 5, 2015 at 3:29 AM
@Jayman
See this article here:
http://qz.com/318356/white-americans-who-dont-finish-high-school-have-better-job-prospects-than-black-americans-who-went-to-college/
Tom
November 5, 2015 at 12:19 PM
Jayman, they have already reproduced by middle age. Are you the same Jayman who posts at HBD Chick? I guess we are all clannish people at heart, including you.
Rosenmops
November 5, 2015 at 3:26 AM
@Rosenmops:
For my personal curiosity, what do you think I’m saying?
It’s easy to misunderstand in text.
JayMan
November 5, 2015 at 10:47 AM
“The good news, however, is that if you have a college degree then this rising death rate doesn’t apply to you.
From the Simpsons:
Crowd: We need a cure! We need a cure!
Dr. Hibbert: Ho ho ho. Why, the only cure is bedrest. Anything I give you would be a placebo.
Woman: [frantic] Where can we get these placebos?
Jonathan Silber
November 9, 2015 at 11:41 AM
I think one reason why death rates are rising among this group of whites in comparison to blacks and Hispanics is that whites aren’t given the politically correct option of blaming others fo their failures. If a black or Hispanic does poorly they are allowed to blame their failures on “white privilege” and other socially acceptable nonsense. Whites who do poorly are just written off as losers.
Joe Walker
November 3, 2015 at 2:22 PM
What are you supposed to do as a lower-educated white person?
Here in Montgomery County, Maryland, we took our kids on a field trip type tour of the giant (government-run) recycling facility in Rockville. It was staffed by perhaps a hundred Hispanic (and only Hispanic) people all chattering away in Spanish and seemingly happy. How is an unskilled white person supposed to fit in at a place like that? Aside from being socially ostracized, he or she wouldn’t even be able to communicate enough to do the job.
This problem is at the feet of the Democrats. They entirely abandoned their core constituency of working class whites.
There shouldn’t even be an election in 2016. They should just give the presidency to Donald Trump, who represents the group that has been continuously shafted for 50 years.
Dan
November 3, 2015 at 2:36 PM
Isn’t this behavior quasi-rational?
By their late 40s, many men have realized that they have as much status as they are ever going to have. If they are losers, they know it — and they know that a change for the better is unlikely.
So it’s a choice between suicide quickly (gun) or slowly (drugs).
JA
November 3, 2015 at 2:59 PM
Now I’m wondering how many suicides were frequent readers of this blog.
Dave Pinsen
November 4, 2015 at 4:25 AM
It’s prole to take one’s own life!
JS
November 4, 2015 at 9:38 PM
Me too. How many times have you seen someone here mock the idea of associating with a woman who was anything less than an 8, wasn’t white and had a few extra pounds on her because to do so would be a sign of loserdom or betadom? Truth is, being around and with women is better than the alternative no matter what they look like or where they rank on a numeric scoring system.
Curle
November 5, 2015 at 12:39 AM
Curle, You can have all the black women in the world!
JS
November 5, 2015 at 12:49 PM
I’d say white girls who are 7’s are acceptable, 6’s if you’re drunk.
jack
November 5, 2015 at 4:08 PM
You’re a broken record. Plenty of non-prole artists and others have killed themselves.
Dave Pinsen
November 6, 2015 at 12:08 AM
Jack — I say stay away from Meriprolesses who are average or less. And you know what I’m saying if you are a non-black man!
JS
November 7, 2015 at 12:55 PM
How many times have you seen someone here mock the idea of associating with a woman who was anything less than an 8, wasn’t white and had a few extra pounds on her because to do so would be a sign of loserdom or betadom?
Sometimes the best medicine is a fat Mexican.
Jonathan Silber
November 9, 2015 at 11:45 AM
In Charles Murray’s excellent book “Coming Apart” he analyzes the growing divide between the white lower class and upper class. He identifies four main sources of human happiness: family, vocation, community and faith.
In previous generations it was entirely possible for lower and working class people to attain all four pillars of happiness. This created a unified civic culture in America. In recent years, with the emergence of outsourcing, feminism, multiculturalism and spiritual bankruptcy all of these pillars have been blown apart for the lower strata of society. And it all leads back to liberalism.
B.T.D.T.
November 3, 2015 at 3:15 PM
Yes, and liberalism was supposed to specifically stand for those lower class people, the common man.
Dan
November 4, 2015 at 12:45 PM
The race mentality that proles are taught to worship from birth is rigged. If your expectations aren’t high, it’s a lot harder to lose. That philosophy has worked wonders for this educated prole.
cultural meat grinder
November 3, 2015 at 3:32 PM
“I think that it’s the declining economic and social fortunes of middle-age whites without college degrees, causing them to turn to drugs, alcohol, and suicide”
I agree.
1) Economic outcomes are worse because: a) Wages at prole jobs have been devastated by outsourcing, automation, and immigration; b) blue-collar work environments have become more terrible as liberals have abandoned their role as protectors of the white working class in order to suck up to SWPLs with white collar jobs and ghetto dwellers who don’t work.
2) Social life is worse thanks to the atomization caused by increasing diversity, the decline of churches, neighborhoods and the breakdown of the family.
McFly
November 3, 2015 at 4:54 PM
maybe the proles shouldn’t have blown off their unions after all. And they were all complicit in their demise.
Mrs Stitch
November 4, 2015 at 4:48 PM
It’s a bit more complicated than that. You really need a system of economic nationalism, where labor and capital work together. Until recently, at least, Germany pretty much had that (thanks to laws set up by us, after WWII, to make workers happy enough to reduce the chance of communists taking over).
In the US, we’ve had economic globalism, working under a naive assumption that what’s best for the global economy will necessarily be best for the US. And we’ve had big unions like the UAW, together with crappy management, squeeze their golden geese to death. That said, the threat of unionization has helped lead to good wages and working conditions in non-union, foreign-owned auto plants in the American South and Midwest.
So, unions can be part of the solution. But without a constructive relationship with management, and without a national industrial policy that favors the interests of American workers (on trade, immigration, etc.), unions alone won’t do much good. You need some profit margins to play with. A union can’t do much to improve jobs at a low margin retailer.
Dave Pinsen
November 6, 2015 at 12:16 AM
Middle aged people, especially men, dying early from drugs, alcohol, and suicides was also a common part of life in the old USSR.
Sgt. Joe Friday
November 3, 2015 at 6:37 PM
Working class/poorer white guys have all the problems of every other “disadvantaged group” without the specific programs to help them.
chairman
November 3, 2015 at 6:41 PM
Add in any kind of physical disability that also doesn’t have programs set up, and it’s even worse.
I could see what would eventually be my lot in life and left the USA straight out of college.
Kyo
November 4, 2015 at 7:56 AM
Hispanics have lower mortality rates than whites for almost all diseases. Alcohol related diseases and diabetes are exceptions. American Indians have even lower rates of mortality for most diseases.
Jim
November 3, 2015 at 7:40 PM
Low class white guys might be white, but since they’re low-class , so they have prole problems. But since they’re white guys they’re expected to solve their own problems *and* the problems of women, immigrants, non-asian minorities, lbgts, muslims, and whoever else is a recognized victim group by the progressives.
Suicide offers a permanent sweet release from all that BS.
DSGNTD_PLYR
November 3, 2015 at 7:41 PM
It means less competition. I like it.
MyTwoCents
November 3, 2015 at 8:03 PM
You’re competing with white underclass? LMAO
shiva1008
November 4, 2015 at 6:11 PM
My guess is unfulfillment. In the past God served that role, but the developed world is becoming more secular
grey enlightenment
November 3, 2015 at 8:37 PM
My guess the root cause is unfulfillment. In the past God served that role, but the developed world is becoming more secular
grey enlightenment
November 3, 2015 at 8:48 PM
Whites now exist solely to keep people like the lady linked below (Q.Q.) employed (no doubt) through the transfer of wealth to whatever organization, likely governmental,that might actually hire people who call themselves critical race social scientists. Read this portion of a review (I know, kind of off-topic) from a black woman (hopefully the Yelp photo links) complaining (mostly) about Doe Bay Resort in Orcas Island WA discussing her observations on ‘worker dynamics.’ Ha! Talk about mixing concepts, Foulcaultian circular reasoning mumbo-jumbo mixed in with the word scientist. And note the sense of pride in being someone who sees things others do not see. Remember she’s recording for posterity her observation of an Hispanic taking orders from a white boss at a resort.
“I also noticed the white authority/Hispanic- worker dynamic, too — who gives the orders and who is taking them. I’m a critical race social scientist so these types of hierarchies really stand out to me. The POC were in more subordinate positions compared to the white folks — in one particular instance I noticed a young white woman giving orders to an older Hispanic woman and it reminded me of the book “Fresh Fruit Broken Bodies” by Seth Holmes, and how he explains that this is the M.O. in numerous places but that often it goes unnoticed by the general populace who are just in awe at how a place looks without recognizing the racialized dynamics behind it. I noticed it.”
http://www.yelp.com/biz/doe-bay-resort-and-retreat-olga
Curle
November 3, 2015 at 9:14 PM
“I’m a critical race social scientist”
Is it possible to get further away from being an actual scientist?
Glengarry
November 4, 2015 at 3:04 AM
Title should read “It sucks to be a middle-aged alcoholic or drug addict.” This is what happens in a liberal, democratic society. Democracy is shit.
destructure
November 3, 2015 at 9:37 PM
Gee, doesn’t anyone remember how white strivers in this age group used to die young from massive coronaries? After my father passed away I found his diary, and in the 60s it seemed like all his executive colleagues at Pac Tel were dying off. He was always going to funerals..these guys were 40s-50s. He was in over his head himself (due to the Peter Principle) and freaking out, drinking every day. But he had stopped smoking long before and lived into his 80s and that alone probably saved him.
Mrs Stitch
November 3, 2015 at 9:49 PM
The less white people this country has, the worse off it will be. Highly educated whites should start having large families again to pick up the slack. Also as an atheist it pains me to say this, but America really could use some sort of modern religious revival as the poor seem to need faith for their well being.
Calogero
November 4, 2015 at 12:03 AM
The poor seem to need faith for their well being
Sounds like a good idea for a novel…
njguy73
November 4, 2015 at 8:06 AM
Even if there isn’t a God, that doesn’t mean that humans need him any less.
Mike Street Station
November 4, 2015 at 9:21 AM
Calogero & Mike Street — I’ve thought similarly for a long time. I normally wouldn’t comment just to say “I agree” but I think those points are important enough they should be seconded. So that people know others agree.
destructure
November 4, 2015 at 3:08 PM
Add my name to the list of people who agree with this idea. And Calogero, I assume that the “large families” you’re talking about involve a married man-woman combination. You aren’t referring to young white women having out of wedlock children, right? On the threads about Bristol Palin’s recent pregnancy I was surprised at how many white conservatives seemed to think Bristol’s situation was just fine because it was increasing the white and/or conservative birth rate. As if fatherless white children are likely to become readers of National Review and the Weekly Standard! Even active membership in the white racist subculture would require more literacy and future-orientation than most of these children are likely to emerge with.
Maryk
November 4, 2015 at 5:31 PM
I don’t think that “average Hans” in Germany is much more sophisticated than Joe sixpack.* But there are a) still far more well paid industry jobs for “qualified proles” (although unions are weaker than ever and it is not going to get better) b) a not quite so dysfunctional health care and pension system and c) not such a strong focus on achievement.
In the more rural regions there are also rather quaint customs and hobbies still going fairly strong that give (early) retirees some meaning and activity in a community, as well as a stronger sense of community: gardening, singing clubs, hiking clubs, bowling clubs, small animal husbandry clubs… volunteer firefighters, non-professional soccer and other sports.
* I think the middle class in Europe is on average (still somewhat) more sophisticated in the appreciation of “highbrow” stuff (and I mean real highbrow like opera, not SWPL fads) than the American middle/upper middle class. That’s where JS harping has some truth to it.
nomen nescio
November 4, 2015 at 4:00 AM
Germany has a solid middle class, and their educational system (and the rest of Western Continental Europe) is superbly better than any of our diploma mills.
Furthermore, many Meriproles act like perpetual adolescents, which gives off them that prole vibe.
JS
November 4, 2015 at 10:31 AM
This country doesn’t have bad schools. It has bad students. Before the 1960’s and integration the American school system was on par with Europe. Today, if you only focused on the white students we would still be competitive with the rest of the industrialized world. It is underachieving and menacing nams that have ruined public education in the United States.
B.T.D.T.
November 4, 2015 at 9:18 PM
An increasing number of White students are just as bad as NAMs. Go visit your alma mater, and you’ll be shock how students today are a lot more immature than those from 10 years ago. It’s disgusting to say the least!
JS
November 4, 2015 at 10:44 PM
As someone who lives in Europe, I see Germany’s educational system becoming increasingly mediocre, and it is only going to get worse with the number of immigrants pouring in. Any public high school in an affluent town in the Northeastern United States is generally superior to a German Gymnasium, and our top 50 colleges are better than anything in Germany (if you ignore the price tag). The trick to a decent public education in the US is simple – avoid NAMs. If you need to move to Utah or Vermont to do that, then move. And while immigration is destroying German schools, in America it sometimes improves them. A side effect, at least in the greater Boston area, of the wave of Asian and Russian Jewish immigration over the last 30 years is that math classes in public high schools in the Boston suburbs are far more advanced and more rigorous than in my day. I remember when German high school students would scoff at 17 year old American college bound kids taking Algebra II. Now we have American kids doing advanced calculus and the Germans are clueless.
Peter Akuleyev
November 5, 2015 at 4:59 AM
blacks are the most hedonistic race, and now meriprole colleges have set themselves to become play schools with state of the art facilities, lounges etc, and then fill them with a large AA AA demographic, forcing the White students to interact them in the name of diversity is a good perversity at the university.
JS
November 5, 2015 at 1:14 PM
American public school that I went to was pretty good and comparable the Russian school that I had attended. This Halloween, I was working out in the gym in my mother’s building till 12 am and was watching the kids from the building, who are attending the same H. S. having a Halloween party across the hall. I was pleasantly surprised how well they behaved and how normally they dressed. They were mostly white with some thoroughly assimilated Koreans and Indians. There were no NAMs then or now. So I think without NAMs America is fine. The town remained white through the last 40 years because of high property values. I love this town. New homes build for sale have top of the line Carrier central units in them. Impressive. So here Lion is right – living among well to do people is very advantageous.
Yakov
November 6, 2015 at 7:36 AM
Somehow I missed the definition of “meriprole”. Is that just “American prole” shortened?
CamelCaseRob
November 4, 2015 at 8:50 AM
Yes!!!
JS
November 4, 2015 at 11:16 AM
Duh.
The Scourge of Silicon Valley
November 4, 2015 at 11:22 AM
Aspergery people aren’t good at gestalting.
CamelCaseRob
November 4, 2015 at 5:35 PM
I have Asperger’s and got it. But then again, one of my special interests is linguistics, and I especially like portmanteau words.
njguy73
November 4, 2015 at 10:10 PM
The general response to this story on my local forum (whose commenters are overwhelmingly female SWPL Democrats):
1. “Good. Ha, ha, they’re probably all stupid Republican proles anyway.”
2. “Obamacare will fix it!”
Tarl
November 4, 2015 at 11:29 AM
Are you from dc?
uatu
November 4, 2015 at 10:07 PM
80% of suicides are men.
i wonder what percent are white men.
women don’t kill themselves as much because they have an easier life.
rivelino
November 4, 2015 at 2:10 PM
Riv, I’m not sure that we can ever effectively prove which gender has the easier life – I know this question has been debated for ages. But I can speculate that the reason there are fewer suicides among women has to do with women’s role as mother. In general, woman take motherhood more seriously than men take fatherhood (no offense to the many decent fathers on this blog.) Very few women, even women whose offspring are well into adulthood, would leave their sons or daughters motherless. I know this even without being a mother myself.
Of course men will probably speculate that the reason is neither heaven nor hell has spring clearance sales or credit cards!
Maryk
November 4, 2015 at 5:19 PM
Way to digress like a female. The percentage encompasses all men, not just married men. More men kill themselves than women. It’s that simple. Single men, married men, divorced men, they all kill themselves in higher numbers than their female counterparts. Men have to earn their worth in this world, and that is becoming more and more difficult with each passing day. That struggle is what kills men.
Anon
November 4, 2015 at 6:42 PM
MaryK — Either one can have a very easy or very difficult life depending on choices and circumstances.
destructure
November 4, 2015 at 8:24 PM
“I’m not sure that we can ever effectively prove which gender has the easier life”
maryk, you are right, it is hard to prove anything. even science is changing and occasionally full of crap, since scientists have their own agendas — especially the social scientists, like this guy:
http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2015/05/how-a-grad-student-uncovered-a-huge-fraud.html#
nevertheless, whenever i hear american women complaining about men taking up too much space on the subway, or compaining about twitter harrassment, or wikipedia intimidation, or video game sexism, or getting paid less, or the double standard, or the male gaze, or catcalling — basically, any time american women complain about the oppressive male society they were born into, that’s when i think we should “gently” show them this tweet:
rivelino
November 6, 2015 at 2:49 PM
Plus the fact that men die several years before women do, on average.
Lion of the Blogosphere
November 6, 2015 at 3:18 PM
‘Plus the fact that men die several years before women do, on average.’
This is due to excessive sexual intercourse, so in a way the women are the cause of men’s death.
Men and women have different natures, you can’t simply compare them. Women have to spend a lot of time trying to look good, men have more responsibility. Each to his/her own. Women are light hearted – they talk on the phone and laugh the whole day and this helps them to live longer, or at least this is what I think.
Yakov
November 6, 2015 at 4:26 PM
I hope I didn’t give the impression that I agree with the idea that women are oppressed and that men have it made. I have never been a big fan of the women’s liberation movement. And unlike a lot of women, I have never wanted to be a man, even briefly (“to see what it feels like.”) Basically, I agree with Destructure that it depends on life choices and circumstances. Some people never seem to get a break in life (my Dad fell into this category – with the exception of who he ended up with as a daughter!) and my Mom is the type who if you bought her a red Cadillac would threaten to retaliate and accuse you of sarcasm and spite because you were supposed to have known that she wanted a blue Cadillac (I’m being somewhat hyperbolic, but you get my point.)
Yakov, at the risk of sounding anti-male, I’m astonished to hear any man use the phrase “excessive sexual intercourse.” For a lot of men, there is no such thing as too much sex!
Maryk
November 6, 2015 at 7:50 PM
@MaryK
Talmud teaches that 9 out of 10 men die from excessive sexual intercourse. I think it’s true. Anyone wise understands that sex, like any other physiological function, should be practised in moderation with the goal of procreation and health.
Yakov
November 7, 2015 at 6:15 PM
Here’s the last word:
“You think I’m a loser? Because I have a stinking job that I hate, a family that doesn’t respect me, and a whole city that curses the day I was born? Well, that may mean loser to you, but let me tell you something. Every day when I wake up in the morning, I know it’s not going to get any better until I go back to sleep. So I get up. I have my watered-down Tang and my still-frozen Pop Tart. I get in my car with no gas, no upholstery, and six more payments. I fight honking traffic just for the privilege of putting cheap shoes onto the cloven hooves of people like you. I’ll never play football like I wanted to. I’ll never know the touch of a beautiful woman. And I’ll never know the joy of driving through the city without a bag over my head. But I’m not a loser. Because, despite it all, me and every other guy who’ll never be what they wanted to be, is out there, being what we don’t want to be, forty hours a week, for life. And the fact that I haven’t put a gun in my mouth, you pudding of a woman, makes me a winner!” —
Al Bundy, “He Thought He Could” Season 3 Episode 1, Married With Children
njguy73
November 4, 2015 at 4:51 PM
LOL! Al Bundy (Ed O’Neill) was actually signed as a defensive lineman by the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1969, but was cut from the team during during his first pre-season training,
E. Rekshun
November 4, 2015 at 10:26 PM
He’ll always have four touchdowns in a game…
jack
November 5, 2015 at 4:19 PM
Are you going to post anything about Germany’s cultural suicide? And Swedens?
CamelCaseRob
November 4, 2015 at 5:32 PM
No offense but I think it’s the oxy epidemic. Just like crack killed blacks in the ’80s. I don’t think it’s ghetto (prole) behavior tbh.
Minnie Pax
November 4, 2015 at 6:23 PM
Is oxy really that bad? I’ve taken hydrocodone, which is weaker yes, but I didn’t really feel much of an effect.
Lion of the Blogosphere
November 4, 2015 at 6:40 PM
Many years ago in NYC during the downturn, I actually worked a temp legal job for the suit against Purdue Pharma, the company that manufactured Oxycontin. It’s a wonderfully effective medication because it delivers time controlled doses in a single pill. The hillbillies (who were prescribed the drug due to injuries sustained in the coal mines etc.) learned to bypass the time release function if they crushed the pill and injected it directly (I.e. they would get a massive high immediately, from a pill that was supposed to last a long time).
Purdue lost the case, but I think that’s a shame. For people in extreme pain (burn victims, palliative care etc.), it offers long lasting pain relief without the need for additional doses (I.e. it would allow you to sleep through the night). But if crushed and/or abused, the stuff is really awful. I mean, it’s a synthetic opioid after all.
People build up a tolerance (cf: Rush Limbaugh) and end up taking huge doses.
SWPL2
November 4, 2015 at 8:59 PM
Sailer touched on this a little. Oxy users are getting hooked on heroin at frightening rates.
http://www.unz.com/isteve/the-new-hillbilly-heroin-is-heroin/
Curle
November 5, 2015 at 12:54 AM
“But why is it happening?”
Sailer thinks that mass immigration is a cause. This would explain why lower class whites are more effected than upper class whites, and why this is happening in America but not Europe. But if mass immigration is the cause, then we would expect to see the effects among lower class blacks as well.
Joe
November 4, 2015 at 6:48 PM
I dunno. A lot of whinging and I can’t stand it. I don’t have any problem being middle aged or prole and I love being white. Learn a trade and go to work. ‘Read Poor Richard’s Almanac ‘ and the Good Book and don’t listen to any nonsense. I’m so busy with my own side jobs that I had no time to comment properly on the previous posts. What’s this? white is bad, prole is bad, religion is bad, trade is bad, America is bad. This is crazy. All these things are the best to be a part of. With my own prole white hands I’ve made $8,000 clean last month and I’m gonna study the story of Abraham tonight, because these is what we are reading this week in the synagogue. Remember, 8 and a half years ago I’d started at $10 an hour.
When I start my own business, anyone who can install as much duct and piping as me in a day’s work will come home with $200. Life is great, just don’t listen to anybody stupid or lazy, just listen to the hard working successful people and the Bible.
Yakov
November 4, 2015 at 7:27 PM
Nice comment. When I think of white guys who drank themselves to death in middle age, I think of the late English writer Christopher Hitchens, although he was highly educated, unlike the class of people the NYT article focuses on. Not at all a coincidence that Hitchens also wrote a book criticizing organized religion. He totally missed the point: authentically religious people get a guide to living that works, a community of people that care about them, and probably improved chances of health and happiness. Furthermore, it was/is allowed to be a doubting believer in most traditions, what some Christians call a “Doubting Thomas.” The point is, Prole whites would benefit more from listening to someone like the LDS church than the SWPL media.
McFly
November 5, 2015 at 12:05 AM
Hitchens died from cancer of the esophagus. Which CAN result from excessive alcohol consumption but also can happen to anyone.
Peter
ironrailsironweights
November 5, 2015 at 11:26 AM
O/T – Lion, did you ever blog about this? Your posting about the Ferris Wheel in SI?
http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/real-estate/staten-island-new-brooklyn-article-1.2301695
Old news, but it now appears that guidos want to be like SWPLs. Perhaps many of them have stumbled upon your blog and felt the sting from the comments of your readers.
JS
November 4, 2015 at 9:53 PM
Staten Island is never going to become hip or SWPL.
Lion of the Blogosphere
November 4, 2015 at 10:30 PM
“The launch is just the first phase of a project, dubbed URL Staten Island”
So hip.
Glengarry
November 5, 2015 at 5:10 AM
From Guido Island to SWPL Island??? Dream on – as Lion would say!!!
JS
November 5, 2015 at 1:30 PM
Was passing a union crew today at about 11am. So one guy is operating a back hoe, one guy is guiding him, one guy is a standing and watching and two guys are sitting and watching. Four real whites and a black. These kind of jobs will not come back, and it’s good that they are disappearing. They just corrupt people’s work ethics. They were working outside of one of my own gigs where I was spitting blood redoing lousy duct work till 2 am. A Mexican or a Tajik would produce more than these guys. If you are white, you are supposed to be the best worker and not be lazy, or at least that’s what I think.
Yakov
November 4, 2015 at 11:28 PM
Don’t be so quick to judge. I did this type of work one summer and the reason people are standing around is that lots of men are needed at certain times and then the employer has nothing for them to do for days on end, so they stand around. You can’t just hire guys for the days you need them and then fire them and expect them to accept those employment conditions.
I see Mexicans standing around on road projects the same way whites used to do.
CamelCaseRob
November 5, 2015 at 11:19 AM
You may be right about that, I hope you are, I’m going to take back my words for now.
Yakov
November 5, 2015 at 6:03 PM
Yakov – Camel Case Rob is right. Civil engineering is nothing like any other form of engineering. If you, as a civil engineering leader, don’t have people resting and waiting around much of the time, you can’t possibly be doing it right. Civil engineering problems don’t allow for constant busy-work. Earth is not a 24-7 friend and is not a reliable dancing partner. You do what you need to do, wait for things to settle, and then do what you need to do again.
howitzer daniel
November 5, 2015 at 10:06 PM
Because white people tend to have higher educational levels than blacks and especially Hispanics, a poorly educated white person is more likely to be dysfunctional than a minority with similarly low education.
Peter
ironrailsironweights
November 5, 2015 at 7:13 AM
Lots of low education whites are rural, whereas low education blacks and Hispanics are urban. There are a lot of ways to find work if you low skilled in a big Metro. There is not a lot to do if you are low skilled and rural, especially since manufacturing and farming became automated. Trucking is the biggest employer of low education whites, by a lot. If Google gets their way, things will get worse for a lot of people.
Dan
November 5, 2015 at 12:51 PM
Higher education is correlated with higher IQ (of course). Lion said one time something to the effect that, in America virtually everyone with higher IQ/social class gets a college degree. The benefits are still there. I resisted for a long time, but I eventually got my degree.
People with higher IQ (pre-frontal cortex activity) are better able to resist negative societal-wide trends. And of course being surrounded with other above-average IQ people and their habits and social pressure has a huge effect. Take a walk around Cambridge Mass or Seattle and tell me how many overweight people you see. The ones that there are are probably minorities or service workers.
shiva1008
November 5, 2015 at 12:53 PM
I suspect a genetic link between higher IQ and ectomorphic body types.
Lion of the Blogosphere
November 5, 2015 at 3:22 PM
It may also have to do with rk selection theory. There is also an interesting link between this theory and political ideology. A blog post on this would be right down your alley.
B.T.D.T.
November 5, 2015 at 3:34 PM
Ectomorphs are substantially underrepresented in the prison population.
Jim
November 6, 2015 at 9:11 AM
Ectomorphs are usually “beta”.
JS
November 6, 2015 at 11:08 AM
Right, beta’s created civilization.
Lion of the Blogosphere
November 6, 2015 at 11:47 AM
There are commentators on the blogosphere who say blacks are the most sociopathic race (mesomorphs who turn into endomorphs with age). black women are notorious endomorphic.
JS
November 7, 2015 at 12:53 PM
People with higher IQ can actually consciously decide what they want to do with their life, what they want to eat, etc., instead of just following society. Although, my experience at university makes me question whether the cultural elites really question and authentically arrive at their political views all that much. Most of it is just unconscious, blah blah, blend in, follow the herd and profit from it. And at the same time think you are fighting against “the man”…
shiva1008
November 5, 2015 at 1:01 PM
No reader of a blog like this should need to be told how conformist progressive elites are.
chairman
November 5, 2015 at 7:07 PM
They hate proles, but love seeing NAMs fill their roles. Wow, some nice rhyming poetry there!
JS
November 6, 2015 at 11:41 AM
America isn’t Zimbabwe and Obama isn’t Mugabe. America was and still is the best country in the world for individual advancement. That’s the great thing about America.
The great thing about the middle age is a decrease in sexual desire. This enables you to focus better on intellectual and spiritual matters and your job. This is very nice. I enjoy this. Also, the kids are usually grown up, so that burden becomes easier.
Do I need to tell anybody why it’s nice to be white? Anyone wants to be yellow, brown or black?
Being a white prole tradesman is really nice. I’ve noticed that many people are visibly relived when they open the door and see my face. Many are not afraid to leave me alone in their homes. This is funny, just yesterday a custoner asked me: ‘How many guys like you are there in your company?’. What can you answer? Everyone is unique in their own way is the PC answer that I’d given, but I know the truth.
Now the thing is to take advantage of what America and life has to offer and the white people are in the best position to do so they shouldn’t listen to stupid and lazy people, like I’d said. Sun always shines in America and the streets are paved with gold! Not in a literal sense, obviously.
Yakov
November 5, 2015 at 7:06 PM
“America was and still is the best country in the world for individual advancement.”
This is just factually inaccurate.
Click to access chapter%205%20gfg%202010.pdf
chairman
November 5, 2015 at 7:39 PM
Can you digest this for me? Where is America according to this study and who is ahead?
Yakov
November 6, 2015 at 2:34 AM
i wouldn’t mind being an asian woman
GM
November 5, 2015 at 11:04 PM
You wanna transgender?
Yakov
November 6, 2015 at 2:36 AM
Regardless of how superior a given European culture might be, as some may tout, I’m sure a madrassa and mosque on every corner (with teeming, fanatical hordes to pack them) will soon radically alter this calculus in short order. Residents of nations like Germany, that let in excess of a million unassimilable aliens in, have let their traitorous politicians stab them in the back while they smile and ask for more in response. This is the behavior of cucks, plain and simple.
At least America is not that far gone yet.
Sanjuro
November 5, 2015 at 11:38 PM
Reading comments on this surge of immigration at the leftist Guardian gives me some little measure of hope since 9 out of 10 commenters are strongly opposed to it and are really angry with the Elite. I was under the assumption that all Leftists supported the Elite in this matter, but it is now clear that they only support increased social benefits for themselves and want less wealth inequality, but aren’t pathologically altruistic.
CamelCaseRob
November 6, 2015 at 6:27 AM
[…] from lion’s blog. […]
The struggle that kills men. | Rivelino's Diary
November 6, 2015 at 1:50 AM
The blog commentariat seems off on this topic, except for maybe Minnie Pax. I think it’s because many of you like Lion, Yakov and Pinsen are based in NYC (or other first tier city) where there isn’t much prole culture. In most of America, outside of small enclaves of upper middle class, you have NAM areas and prole areas. These range from many low prole areas to fewer decent working class neighborhoods. B.T.D.T. mentions Coming Apart, and that’s outlines most of the cause of decline, probably along with economic malaise and media-fed social expectations that can never be met. The end result is that “disability” is rampant, everyone comes to believe they have some painful condition where they can’t work, and they get painkillers and build a case for a Worker’s Comp or disability payment. The painkillers can be used to psychologically self medicate or may be sold to increase income. I know bobos don’t watch much TV, but if you did in most of America you would see near endless ads for personal injury attorneys specializing in auto accidents and disability claims. Same ads on billboards if you drive in any lesser urban area. This has gotten bad to the point that the WSJ reports that NH voters put the prescription drug epidemic above jobs and the economy as something candidates should address.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/drug-deaths-becoming-a-2016-presidential-election-issue-1446596075
RP
November 6, 2015 at 7:07 AM
New York City is very prole aesthetically, and further prole, because of its parochialism.
And proles are abound, everywhere. In fact, NYC is a cesspool of SWPLs, NAMs and proles all rubbing shoulders with one another, in one way or the other.
JS
November 6, 2015 at 11:14 AM
Well, turn it to your advantage. I did both the computer programing school and APEX on disability. Back ache to qualify for computers and carpal tunnel to qualify for HVAC. It doesn’t matter what the actual tests show, just tell the doc that you are in pain, make it terrible pain, and make him give you a medical report saying that you can ‘benefit’ (this is the key word) from a change of occupation. Disability is a total racket.
Yakov
November 6, 2015 at 1:44 PM
Late night TV in the New York City market is full of personal injury commercials too, some with catchy jingles (see example below). Also, something I’ve noticed more after going to physical therapy last earlier this year after an operation: there are lots of new physical therapy centers, which is a cash cow of an operation. There’s usually one licensed physical therapist with maybe half a dozen patients at a time. You get 5 or 10 minutes of hands on manipulation/massage, and then most of the rest of the hour you spend doing a few monotonous exercises on your own, followed by 5 minutes of ice/electrostim at the end. The center probably bills insurance for ~$200/hour for every patient there, and maybe pays the PT $40/hr.
A new thing is billboards advertising medical marijuana for pain management.
Dave Pinsen
November 7, 2015 at 6:00 PM
You do know PI Lullaby ads are prole, and there’s plenty of them in NYC.
JS
November 8, 2015 at 2:49 PM
I would have thought that by far the biggest factor is the decline of marriage and family. There have probably always been many people living lives of quiet desperation and despair, but in the past they usually held it together for the sake of their spouse and children. Without those stabilising factors it’s that much harder to resist the allure of hedonistic, short-term fixes for a lack of purpose or simple boredom in one’s life. Reastically, few blue-collar single and childless workers are going to be able to find salvation in art or learning as they enter middle age. When faced with the temptation of drink and drugs, what is there to hold such a person back?
Where immigration does come into the equation is that it has significantly raised the bar for how much one needs to earn to be able to pursue a quality family life with a decent, moral partner, in a good area with decent schools as a realistic possibility. Those who come to the West from a peasant culture arrive with lower expectations and are thus more spiritually and culturally equipped to deal with new economic realities that are proving soul-destroying (much to the deep, gloating satisfaction of illiterate commentator JS) for poor whites.
One way of looking at things is that whilst gays have won the right to ‘marry’ more heterosexual whites have adopted the gay lifestyle. I’m guessing that there has always been a pretty high mortality rate for middle-aged gays, even adjusting for AIDS (itself partly a product of hedonism). I imagine this is part of the reason that gays wanted the right to marry–a cargo-cult logic that the institution itself will protect against early death. Maybe it will. Or maybe they will simply make marriage more hedonistic.
There is a scene near the end of the film about Hitler’s final days, ‘Downfall’, that depicts the Nazi elites indulging in a wild drink-fuelled orgy. The point was that these people were turning to hedonism as an escape from their impending annihilation. But the uncomfortable thought struck me that this wild hedonism is exactly what one sees as a matter of course in all Western cultures these days. If this behaviour was a function of despair and defeat when displayed by beaten Nazis, I’d love to ask the makers of that film how they explain the same behaviours by Western men and women today, in our era of triumphant diversity and tolerance.
prolier than thou
November 7, 2015 at 2:46 AM