Working Class People Are Morons: Difference between revisions

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{{quote|''"You have to understand, these are just simple farmers. These are people of the [[Arcadia|land]]. The common clay of the New West. You know... morons!"''|'''Jim (aka [[The Trope Kid|The Waco Kid]])''', ''[[Blazing Saddles]]''}}

[[Exactly What It Says On the Tin]]. But fret not, ye honest poor - thanks to the rules of your universe, all your problems can be solved [[Dumb Is Good|without the use of complex reasoning skills]] or [[Book Dumb|book-learnin']] anyway! You can get by just fine on your [[Good Old Ways|folk wisdom]] and [[Ludd Was Right|life-loving]] [[Closer to Earth|affirmations]]. And if anyone [[Good Is Old Fashioned|criticizes you]], well, clearly they're either evil or too rich to know how to loosen up. Don't worry, a few weeks around you and your wacky 'ethnic' family will give them a little pep!

[[Exactly What It Says On the Tin]]. But fret not, ye honest poor - thanks to the rules of your universe, all your problems can be solved [[Dumb Is Good|without the use of complex reasoning skills]] or [[Book Dumb|book-learnin']] anyway! You can get by just fine on your [[Good Old Ways|folk wisdom]] and [[Ludd Was Right|life-loving]] [[Closer to Earth|affirmations]]. And if anyone [[Good Is Old-Fashioned|criticizes you]], well, clearly they're either evil or too rich to know how to loosen up. Don't worry, a few weeks around you and your wacky 'ethnic' family will give them a little pep!

This is prime-time's go-to plot device whenever embarrassing relatives come to visit the [[Girl Who Married Up]] or the blue-collar schlub wins the lottery. Basically, in TV Land, it is impossible to be both poor and intelligent unless you're the show's [[Insufferable Genius]] or precocious child. Indeed, one would almost be tempted to believe that [[There Are No Libraries]].

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Contrast [[Lower Class Lout]], the malevolent version of this trope.

== Film ==

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== Literature ==

* Eric Flint [[Word of God|explains in the afterword]] that he wrote ''[[~~Sixteen Thirty Two|~~1632]]'' in part to combat this:

* Eric Flint [[Word of God|explains in the afterword]] that he wrote ''[[1632]]'' in part to combat this:

{{quote| Part of the reason I chose to write this novel is because I am more than a little sick and tired of two characteristics of most modern fiction, including science fiction. The first is that the common folk who built this country and keep it running blue-collar workers, schoolteachers, farmers, and the like hardly ever appear. If they figure at all, it is usually as spear carriers or, more often than not, as a bastion of ignorance and bigotry. That is especially true of people from such rural areas as West Virginia. Hicks and hillbillies: a general, undifferentiated mass of darkness.}}

* ''[[Nineteen Eighty Four|1984]]'' has Winston, newly emboldened by the idea of the resistance, stop in at a pub occupied by "proles"... only to see that they're taken by the (fairly substandard) [[Bread and Circuses]] provided by the Party, and unlikely to lay the groundwork of any revolution. {{spoiler|Then again, neither is he...}}

* ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four|1984]]'' has Winston, newly emboldened by the idea of the resistance, stop in at a pub occupied by "proles"... only to see that they're taken by the (fairly substandard) [[Bread and Circuses]] provided by the Party, and unlikely to lay the groundwork of any revolution. {{spoiler|Then again, neither is he...}}

** To be fair, though, the Party [[Invoked Trope|refuses to educate them well and deliberately keeps them ignorant]] so they will be easier to manipulate and less likely to engage in the kind of revolution Winston is hoping for.

* ''[[Animal Farm]]'', by the same author, features Boxer, a horse meant to represent the working class. He is shown to not grasp reading and writing, and remain completely loyal to the farm's new management, which makes Napoleon's disgraceful treatment of him all the more sickening.