Many people really like Chris Hedges but I’ve always found him off a twist & kind of long-winded. It’s his misanthropy that bugs me, his elitism. He has an article out now titled “A Nation of the Walking Dead” about addictive habits among Americans. It’s his rendition of the stale claim that American workers are all doped up on consumer goods only he’s talking drugs & gambling.

Addiction is a social problem–a hell of a social problem. But it reeks of contempt to speak of millions of people as the “walking dead.” Who the hell does he think he is that he can talk about working people like that? The chances are that he hasn’t spent time among us ever in his life, that he comes from an upper class that disdains us & thinks we’re all losers. Pardon me if I resent the hell out of that.