Wyt ti’n siarad Cymraeg? Rarebit Cymreig oedd fy nghinio.

God I wish I could visit snowdonia. Cambrian Way is a dream hike.

“The group that should be in the streets has been bought off.”

He is at least aware of the inequality and would have empathy with protesters.

Of course, it doesn’t necessarily follow that he would want “hip black people in hip cars” to protest so I’m not saying he is innocent, just that this email doesn’t necessarily imply evil thinking.

Indifference.

They’re aware of what the world they built does to people, but that’s just what they think the natural order of things should be.

There are people who find looking at homeless people depressing because they empathize with someone who is suffering, and to be clear, nothing about my first comment implies that prejudice against the poor is a universal attitude among US liberals and Democrats.

But there are also people who don’t want to look at homeless people because having them around brings down their property values, or it makes them feel threatened, or judged, or because they believe everyone who’s homeless brought the situation on themselves. A decent number of these people are what the US calls liberals, they verbally support racial equality, equal rights for LGBTQIA persons, and probably pay lip service to public education and the idea of economic mobility. But, when you suggest something like building more public housing they whine about crime rates, complain about how people who live in the projects will just languish there and not improve themselves, and wring their hands over the safety of their children.

Hell, some will donate to build portable sheds to keep people from freezing to death, but will fight against building proper homes for them. That only makes sense if part of you believes that the homeless no longer deserve basic human dignity.

Look at the media representation homeless people have, crazy old men, exploited runaway teenage girls, and drug addicts. All people who “brought it on themselves” and all people to be pitied. You almost never see anything else. No one who simply got priced out of the housing market. No one who got evicted due to medical bills. No one living in a car while they work at McDonalds. No one moving from cheap motel to cheap motel while getting the kids to school. Few are in a situation that can’t be blamed on their own actions. No one who isn’t a danger or a cautionary tale. No families. No young children.

The US’s ideal of rugged individualism has absolutely pickled some people’s minds with the fundamental attribution bias to the extent that they don’t seem to believe the poor really belong among “productive members of society”. They didn’t keep up with the Joneses, as the good kind of people should, and somehow it must be their fault. They should be… elsewhere, and they don’t much care as long as they’re out of sight and out of mind. Prison might seem harsh, but at least they’re off the street and getting hot meals… They’d never suggest something so cruel, but they won’t turn out to protest or vote against it…

So, until these people feel directly threatened, they’re going to cling to the “consumer goods” the OP’s image is talking about, to the things that make them “belong” in our society, a big TV, an SUV instead of an economy car, a mortgage they can’t really afford, and the job that pays for them. They want those things more than social justice, not for the sake of the things, but because of what they represent in a consumerist society. They won’t go out and protest and they certainly wouldn’t risk participating in a general strike, at least not until there seems to be enough of a change in public opinion that they can do it safely. They’ll let the fascists win as long as they can keep counting themselves among the non-poor, to avoid being pushed out to go elsewhere by their former neighbors.

Their complacency is driven by classism. They’re just too dumb to realize that someone like Staley thinks they’re also worthless as anything other than another demographic to exploit.