I have a techie coming to fix my computer. These are much harder to get into political conversation than plumbers/builders/electricians etc, but I shall give it a go. As you know, interrogating my countrymen and women on their political thoughts is a hobby of mine.
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Question about "middle-class" in a British context. "Techie" seems like a blue-collarish job, so what makes him middle rather than working class? Just an accent and manner of speaking that you wouldn't hear from a ditch digger?
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Middle-class accent, yes. Also, no, techie is not considered blue-collar but college graduates making good money.
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As a non-Brit, economic classes having accents is odd. I thought middle-class roughly meant "vaguely posh bourgeoisie", David Mitchell being the stereotypical example. In most places, if you can tell a person's economic class by their speech, they're unemployable juggalo types.
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It's very much down to accent here. Upper class people can be poor. Working class people can be rich. The middle class breaks into upper middle, middle middle and lower middle. David Mitchell is at the top of middle middle, bottom of upper middle. I am middle middle middle.
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Is middle class vs working class sort of like "acting white" vs "keeping it real"?
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No. Much much older. Predates our racial diversity by centuries. We didn't really have black Brits until the 50s and South Asian Brits until the 80s. They kind of slot in to pre-existing categories depending on their British accent.
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eg, I have exactly the same accent as Maajid Nawaz. This places us both in middle, middle class families in Essex. We would be expected to come from professional parents but not linked to the aristocracy.
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Whereas someone like Richard Dawkins, Stephen Fry etc, you know come from families that have land, went to public (boarding) schools, have at least a 'right honourable' in their recent history/extended family.
End of conversation
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When you are trying to think deeply on a particular topic you are probably also single focused. I think it's less a matter of personality, though that play's a part, and more a matter of task at hand and its requirements.
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Depends on the problem. Replacing memory? Not single focused. Diagnosing a problem of unknown origins? Single focused. Once the problem is known it's easy. Figuring out requires focus. The other professions you mentioned usually take less time to problem solve.
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One wonders if Indians fare better at the microwaved tea test than Brits.
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