Victoria S

Do the middle class hate the lower classes? More the deemed undeserving poorer members of the lower classes, the unworking or invisibly disabled. Yes, I think they do. Not cos they understand our realities, I'm sure if they did they'd change their tunes.

I used to enjoy people watching in cafes, a cheap cuppa and nice view for my version of a day out. But these days it's becoming an activity I partake in less and less often because of the conversations I overhear. I live in a middle class town, with pockets of deep poverty but mostly middle and upper working class majority. And their attitudes towards people on disabilities benefits and the unworking are getting more and more derisive. This last year esp I feel everytime I force myself to go out, get out of my flat and try to have at least a semblance of some kind of life around my invisible but debilitating disabilities, I overhear more and more that makes me fearful for my safety. To hear strangers casually debating at the local coffee shop which disabilities are deserving of aid (often summarised as if I can see their disability then I won't argue they deserve aid - when most of the people I know in wheelchairs can do so much more, day to day functionality, than many with hidden disabilities, cos all disabilities impact each persons differently, visably or not). Or the usual complaints that if you're on benefits you shouldn't be able to go on holidays, if you're not working what do you need luxuries for, they're a reward for hard work, etc. I can go on and on. The tones they use when they say "unworking" "faking/lifestyle disabled" feel like a slur, like we're dirty. Undesirable, undeserving, unwanted. When we just want basic level of liability. Same as them.

But I don't get the impression they have this view due to lack of compassion, they often talk if one or two people they know who are deemed deserving in their eyes, due to harsh traumas or long term relationships(we have more empathy for people we know than for unknown strangers who are just numbers, statistics on a screen). It's a mix of accepting propaganda meant to turn the masses against the poor (and distracted from the rich), and a bit of fear. They fear becoming like us, so internalise their own work based abuses like a cloak of pride. Like if we get basic nessecities when such things are increasingly harder for even the middle class, then are they even better than us anymore. They fear us coming up to take from them, when it's rich businesses and corporations taking from all of us. They're closer to us than to the aspirational upper classes. But they're so busy trying to maintain their lifestyles that they fear it all being taken away, which it easily can be (as many of their deserving disabled poor friends who used to be super hard working before some tragic accident or illness). I have empathy for their fears, their instabilities and their anxieties. Why can't they see we're dying down at the lower classes, why can't they empathise with us and use their brains to see past propaganda. Why is that so hard.