Joe Sixpack!!!!!!!!!!

[LotsOfQuestions]

And that is seriously condescending my mind!

"Joe Six-Pack" is not sitting around and watching Jerry Springer. Joe Six-Pack is who makes this country work. Joe Six-Pack is out there busting his hump everyday. This country is built on the sweat and effort of Joe Six-Pack. Joe Six-Pack doesn't think he's better than anybody else, he just knows a job needs doing, so he's going to do it. All work is noble. Just because somebody where's a blue-collared shirt doesn't make him less of a person or less important than you. Disgusting.

Well, according to the Urban Dictionary, where America writes the definitions they perceive the word to mean:

1. Joe Sixpack 610 up, 166 down
Average American moron, IQ 60, drinking beer, watching baseball and CNN, and believe everything his President says.
This is so simple, even a Joe Sixpack can understand

2. Joe sixpack 29 up, 59 down
US equivalent of "Gary Tracksuit"
Any real people there?
No. Just a bunch of Joe Sixpacks

 

[corndog]

Well, according to the Urban Dictionary, where America writes the definitions they perceive the word to mean:

1. Joe Sixpack 610 up, 166 down
Average American moron, IQ 60, drinking beer, watching baseball and CNN, and believe everything his President says.
This is so simple, even a Joe Sixpack can understand

2. Joe sixpack 29 up, 59 down
US equivalent of "Gary Tracksuit"
Any real people there?
No. Just a bunch of Joe Sixpacks

IQ of 60 is mental retardation. I doubt that's right. I also don't think Joe Sixpack watches CNN, or any cable news for that matter.

I do like "Gary Tracksuit," though. Is that a British idiom?

 

[*Fantasia*]

Can she just say "the average Americans"? I'm not a guy, my name is not Joe, I don't have a six pack, nor I don't drink, but I am your average American.

 

[JenM]

And that's precisely why you don't get it.

Don't get what? Going by Palin's rhetoric, I'm some kind of elitist that's out of touch with "real" America because I grew up on the liberal east coast and I like to travel. According to her, "real" Americans live in small towns, drive their kids to hockey, and discuss the economy while watching their kids playing soccer.

Well I didn't live in small town. I was born in NYC, and I've never lived more than 30 minutes from NY my entire life. And you know what? I'm just as American as she is.

I have no problem with people from small towns and certainly don't look down them because our lives are different. I drove from CA to NY this year and I know we have beautiful country with plenty of amazing places for anyone to live.

But I'm getting a little tired of this attitude that someone like Sarah Palin can come up with an empty demographic like "Joe Six-Pack" to make one of group of Americans better than the rest, when we're really no different than anyone else.

 

[corndog]

But I'm getting a little tired of this attitude that someone like Sarah Palin can come up with an empty demographic like "Joe Six-Pack" to make one of group of Americans better than the rest, when we're really no different than anyone else.

Or like constant repetition of "middle class"?

 

[JenM]

Love it.

http://blog.indecision2008.com/2008/10/02/average-joe-sixpack-sarah-palin-is-worth-12-million/

Average Joe Sixpack Sarah Palin is Worth $1.2 million
POSTED BY: G. Xavier Robillard

Governor Sarah Palin has claimed that she's an "everyday, working class American", and that "it's time Joe six-pack American is finally represented in the position of vice presidency." I think so too, in the same way that I'd like to see a forklift operator operate on my brain.

Palin explained that her blue collar regularness helps her understand that regular Americans get regularly annoyed when the stock market takes a hit. But that might not be the Joe Six-pack she was talking about. Recent estimates state that the Palin household is worth at least $1.2 million...

Sarah Palin and her husband have pieced together a uniquely Alaskan income that reached comfortably into six figures even before she became governor, capitalizing on valuable fishing rights, a series of land deals and a patchwork of other ventures to build an above-average lifestyle.

It must be a six-pack of that eight-dollar-a-bottle Belgian beer.

The estimate includes 5 properties, a few planes, some boats, and don't forget, the very non-elitist gubernatorial salary of $125K/year, but it doesn't include the $11K the family receives every year in state oil dividends that help enable Alaskans to be so anti-tax.

In defense of Sally Chardonnay, life in Alaska is expensive -- you need those whale-blubber suits for the winter, a giant house with a large Sub Zero freezer for your moose carcass, tanning beds and a home-installed Russian detection system.

 

[elan]

I heard a commentary the other day about Joe Six Pack. Joe can't afford a six pack any more it's Joe Three Pack.

 

[JenM]

One of many op-eds I've read about Joe Sixpack:

http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/diarypage.php?did=9862

Joe Six-pack and Hockey Mom?

I don't understand why more Americans aren't displeased with the characterizations "Joe Six-pack" and Hockey Mom." They're both rather demeaning, really. As if every American male lives for the six-pack of beer. Or every American woman centers her self-concept on her children's athletic endeavors. It's stereotypical rhetoric right up there with saying blacks can't be trusted, Mexicans are lazy, gays are promiscuous and straights are prude. It's the same slander as saying no woman can drive well and all men cheat on their wives.

Yet many Americans, male and female, just eat this stuff up. They identify with the label, see themselves when they hear the words.

And they should be offended.

Why aren't they?

My wife and I are not Joe Six-pack and Hockey Mom. We are Barry and Susan, two people leading one conjoined life of blissful, harmonious union interspersed with moments of chaos and strife.

Just like everyone else.

Joe Six-pack and Hockey Mom don't even exist. They're figments of someone's imagination, someone who craves power, and seeks to acquire it by capturing your vote. Don't give it to this person. Reject the labels of Joe Six-pack and Hockey Mom.

Be who you are.

You deserve better than this person will give you.

You are better.

 

[daisax]

But I'm getting a little tired of this attitude that someone like Sarah Palin can come up with an empty demographic like "Joe Six-Pack" to make one of group of Americans better than the rest, when we're really no different than anyone else.

That's what's so wacky about this election (most recent ones, actually) -- facts don't seem to enter into the rhetoric. They rhapsodize about small town America, demonize those big city folk who don't understand "we the people"... and yet 80% of the US population lives in metropolitan areas.

 

[smartestnumber5]

I don't know what the heck "Joe Six-Pack" is getting at--I never heard it before Palin.

My parents are totally blue collar. My dad works in a factory. He has an east coast working class accident (that stream of water is not a "creek" it's "crick" and it's not "DeTROIT" it's "DEEEEtroit" ). I don't know if Palin was trying to appeal to people like them, but they are totally true blue democrats who are pretty much disgusted by Palin.

And anyway, they aren't beer drinkers. They prefer wine. Usually white wine at $5 a bottle or less (they're jealous we have Trader Joe's $3 buck chuck near us and they don't). And instead of chilling it, they drink it over ice!

Does that make my mom "Sue-3-Glasses-of-Cheap-Chardonnay-Over-Ice"?

Actually, of my whole working class family the biggest beer drinker is GF (I had to stop because of GERD problems ). But we're gay, liberal, feminists, with post-graduate degrees, and white collar jobs. I don't think she meant to appeal to us.

 

[AndyLL]

I was listening to clips of the debate. Palin said that she and McCain will help average familes, like her and Todds. But there is really nothing average about her and Todd. They have 5 children, that's way above average, they have a large home on a lake with a plane. They have 2 vacation homes and make $230,000. Average, I don't think so.

Sadly that is average to many politicians.

Funny that she hinted that she and todd will have to try to figure how they are paying for their kids college.

 

[SplshMtn99]

I hear you. Jon Stewart summed it up for me a few months back when people were all bent out of shape because Obama was an "elitist."

"Doesn’t elite mean good? Is that not something we’re looking for in a president anymore? … The job you’re applying for — if you get it, and it goes well, they might carve your head into a mountain. If you don’t actually think you are better than us, then what the **** are you doing? … Not only do I want an elite president, I want someone who is embarrassingly superior to me. I want someone who speaks sixteen languages and sleeps two hours a night hanging upside down in a chamber they themselves designed."

Great quote. Where can we find some people like that to run for POTUS?

 

[DisMN]

It is a stereotype and I, too, find it offensive.

although.....

DH and I talked about having a drinking game last night. Each time she said "maverick" we had to chug a beer.

DH and I were playing a similar game and I got quite tipsy.

 

[TomLovesBecky]

And that is seriously condescending my mind!

"Joe Six-Pack" is not sitting around and watching Jerry Springer. Joe Six-Pack is who makes this country work. Joe Six-Pack is out there busting his hump everyday. This country is built on the sweat and effort of Joe Six-Pack. Joe Six-Pack doesn't think he's better than anybody else, he just knows a job needs doing, so he's going to do it. All work is noble. Just because somebody where's a blue-collared shirt doesn't make him less of a person or less important than you. Disgusting.

Oh for the love of Pete, get over it!!! We have different views of a stereotyping name, so what?? There is no one (real person) named Joe Six-Pack. I bust my butt as much as the next person. I'm sure in some ways we fit that description, good or bad, but I find it to be a lowest common denominator type of term and I don't like that. I don't need some holier-than-thou speech from a guy on a message board because I was offended. I WAS OFFENDED. If that offends YOU, then too bad!!!!

 

[TomLovesBecky]

I think that is exactly why people find the term "Joe Six-Pack" offensive. The term itself sounds belittling to the blue-collar workers that you're describing. As far as I can tell, no one has an issue with the fact that Sarah Palin is trying to connect with blue-collar people. It's the fact that she's doing it by characterizing them in such a condescending manner.

ABSOLUTELY, you said it better than I could express myself. Yes my husband enjoys a beer with friends now and then or at the end of a long hard work day, but he is offended (yes I asked him) by being characterized as nothing more than a beer drinker, a SIX PACK at that. It makes it seem like all the average "Joe" does is come home from busting his hump and crack open a beer and that's all there is to him. Very condescending IN MY OPINION. Not everyone has to like that, lol. I agree that "average Americans", "blue collar workers", "middle class" etc. are all better terms than Joe Six-Pack.

 

[yeartolate]

And that is seriously condescending my mind!

"Joe Six-Pack" is not sitting around and watching Jerry Springer. Joe Six-Pack is who makes this country work. Joe Six-Pack is out there busting his hump everyday. This country is built on the sweat and effort of Joe Six-Pack. Joe Six-Pack doesn't think he's better than anybody else, he just knows a job needs doing, so he's going to do it. All work is noble. Just because somebody where's a blue-collared shirt doesn't make him less of a person or less important than you. Disgusting.

Joe Six Pack implies to me---- the guy that goes home and drinks a six pack after work. I think that is not just unhealthy, but a crappy asinine way to characterize American workers. Seriously. Joe Six Pack - the guy drinking heavily after work is a crappy father figure and goes against any decent image of our hard working men we should have.

If Palin winked at Joe Six Pack----he would be looking for a Hockey Mom Booty Call.

I know she is trying to be folksy/cutsey ---but that is against the image that I would like a leader of this country to project.

 

[corndog]

Oh for the love of Pete, get over it!!! We have different views of a stereotyping name, so what?? There is no one (real person) named Joe Six-Pack. I bust my butt as much as the next person. I'm sure in some ways we fit that description, good or bad, but I find it to be a lowest common denominator type of term and I don't like that. I don't need some holier-than-thou speech from a guy on a message board because I was offended. I WAS OFFENDED. If that offends YOU, then too bad!!!!

You need a timeout, son!

 

[jrmasm]

Joe Six Pack is a derogatory stereotype. Something else Palin doesn't know....

 

[Tigger Woods]

In common parlance, an elitist is someone who only thinks they're better than the rest of us, when the reality is they're not.

That is my understanding of the word.

 

[shortbun]

Why does being middle class mean you aren't smart? I don't think the two are mutually exclusive.

I want somebody who understands my life and the pains I feel. People like the Kennedys, who have lived lives of privilege, can't possibly know what it's like to struggle to pay bills.

They care. They have empathy and they have the power to do something about it. BIG BIG BIG difference from the rich folks who sit around and say 'Ah, I wonder what the poor people are doing tonight! snort!' People who are having trouble paying their bills would not have the time to dedicate to governing. It's that simple, therefore we need people who care.