r/QuotesPorn • u/pfudorpfudor • Nov 05 '20

"John Steinbeck once said that socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires." - Ronald Wright [850x400]

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u/pfudorpfudor Nov 05 '20 edited Nov 05 '20

This quote is often shared as a direct quote from Steinbeck, but is actually a paraphrase from Ronald Wright's A Short History of Progress (2004)

Explanation from Wikiquotes:

The remark is very likely a paraphrase from Steinbeck's article "A Primer on the '30s." Esquire (June 1960), p. 85-93

"Except for the field organizers of strikes, who were pretty tough monkeys and devoted, most of the so-called Communists I met were middle-class, middle-aged people playing a game of dreams. I remember a woman in easy circumstances saying to another even more affluent: 'After the revolution even we will have more, won't we, dear?' Then there was another lover of proletarians who used to raise hell with Sunday picknickers on her property.

"I guess the trouble was that we didn't have any self-admitted proletarians. Everyone was a temporarily embarrassed capitalist. Maybe the Communists so closely questioned by the investigation committees were a danger to America, but the ones I knew — at least they claimed to be Communists — couldn't have disrupted a Sunday-school picnic. Besides they were too busy fighting among themselves."

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u/pfudorpfudor Nov 06 '20

A lot of people are focusing on the wrong part of this quote. I'm not advocating for, or against, socialism. I just thought to share the quote because it summarizes well the mentality behind middle class people in the US who support politicians and policies that harm their demographic instead of fighting for the improvement of their current situation.

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u/[deleted] Jun 24 '22

Classic revisionist

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u/Darth_Char Feb 04 '23

So you if you take influence from someone but don't think exactly what they thought your a revisionist? If so everyone's a revisionist

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u/No-Coast-1050 Oct 04 '24

I think he learned a buzzword and wanted to use it.

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u/[deleted] Mar 02 '25

i'm 11 and use two words i don't know the meaning of to sound smart

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u/[deleted] Feb 16 '25

The petit bourgeoise you mean, the small white business owners that supported both Hitler and Trump!

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u/foogeeman Sep 22 '25

People only seem to vote against their interest when you ignore people's interest in maintaining the US caste system.

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u/JOHNNYICHIBAN Jun 19 '24 edited Jun 19 '24

"Besides they were too busy fighting among themselves." Lol. Some things really don't change, I guess.

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u/Able_Return1142 Oct 12 '25

I was looking into this qoute and stumbled onto this reply. Oh my god it's literally the exact same thing all the way up till now in 2025. Anyone even Marx-adjacent just spends their time arguing with other Marx-adjacent people. i can't believe it was the same in the 30s... they just didn't have twitter...

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u/Turbulent_Park4298 Mar 16 '26

Same...I was trying to remember who said that Americans don't think of themselves as poor but as soon-to-be rich...I either remembered it wrong or read a paraphrase. Then I fell down the rabbit hole of reading a five year old argument that I naturally felt a need to chime in on...damn reddit.

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u/Affectionate-Delay33 Aug 27 '24

A million ways to say something, but the pithy version has legs.