> Sorry, I don't buy the "Harvest of Rage" thesis.

You don't have to, but having seen in it with my own eyes I can tell you its real.

> Far more workers suffered far more terribly when the workers at steel mills, coal mines, car manufacturers, etc. all got shafted at the hands of Reagan in order for the oligarchs to bust up unions.

This isn't about whataboutism, those are all symptoms of the disease that occurs when Free Markets aren't allowed to introduce direct competition to the established players ecosystem; I can say right now having been in the Auto Industry and a car enthusiast my whole Life that Japan's dominance was already well established by the late 50s, some of it complicit with US Industry in Post-WWII Japan--I highly recommend the book Martin Bormann: Nazi in exile to see how deep Industry was in the latter years of WWII and how it led the rise of the rise of many Auto manufactures.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is the most obvious case, one that led to DSM partnership (as was Daimler-Benz and things like Operation Paperclip and staffing NASA scientists with ex Nazi/SS, but I won't go into that), that made Japanese car manufactures displace the stagnant and quite frankly obsolete designs and engineering of US manufactures. The same goes for Nissan, BMW, VW etc...

Unions are exactly what made US manufactures obsolete and complacent, and the fact that the big 3 still had them up until 2008 is partly what sent them into bankruptcy and required bail outs. There were people on payroll who paid to not show up to work, that's what a Union can do, whereas a properly Free Market rewards based on merit and quantifiable, valuable input to an organization. Granted its not perfect, but its way more effective than what made US manufactures obsolete. Tesla's story is worth noting as it's turmoil as a small car startup, with a privately funded tech based ethos, was near bankruptcy; it took the loan/bailout like the GM and Chrysler, and then paid it back with interests. And still wasn't allowed to enter many Markets because they refused to adopt the Dealership model. Very interesting worth following up on.

I cannot speak about mining or steal mills, as I wasn't even born when most of those things were pretty much gone and outsourced to China.

> "Harvest of Rage" is trying to excuse a bunch of bigoted idiots who aren't smart enough to figure out that maybe ... just maybe ... they have more in common with the poor city dwellers than the billionaire oligarchs.

That may be true, but that's not the only take away, it lineouts how its those very same oligarchs (Dupont, Monsanto/Bayer, Eli Lilly et al) are the ones that systemically took their way of life in Rural America that was based on Agriculture based lifestyles and displaced them. Its not surprise these very same regions are the ones hardest hit by the Opioid Crises, either; I'd argue they were creating their demographic in a multi-phase strategy. And again, all done with State approval.

> Quoting LBJ...

Very insightful, but only further proves the notion that Unions and even racial tensions are not much different than they are today and instead we have enabled them to dictate the terms to its populace through Lobbyists and favorable legislation, which is like the Precursor to every Cyberpunk MegaCorp-ruled dystopia.

Its also telling how much more 'American' made Japanese manufactures are in comparison to its US counterpart, many of which are made in Mexico and Central America.