# Why is America so polarised?

*Demographic fear and the shrinking American middle class*

- URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/wce73zqci_i/s/12/
- Date: 2020-07-10 · Kind: discussion · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: Shaykh Omar Baloch | Cynicism, Consumerism & the Catch 22 of Riba | Mindtrap with Mufti #30 (41:19–46:28)
- Status: a view quoted in order to be discussed, not a position held
- Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCe73zqCi_I&t=2479s
- Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/wce73zqci_i/

**Topics:** Current events commentary; Race, nation and identity

**Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** The guest argues that demographic fear and the hollowing out of the middle class by big corporations are driving American polarisation.

## Longer summary

Mufti Abu Layth asks whether differences are not simply part of the fabric of human beings, and questions the guest's leap to Nazi Germany. The guest compares the fear to that of Pharaoh's rulers as the Children of Israel grew in number, saying intellectuals are worried about demographic change, with minorities such as black, Hispanic and Muslim Americans blamed for a decline once guaranteed by lifelong jobs, pensions and Medicare. Mufti says he hears similar claims in the UK and asks whether that era was not a selective post-war period. The guest blames large companies that use cheap and abusive labour overseas and pay Walmart workers so little they need food stamps, cites a Harvard study of revolutions finding that unrest follows when the middle class is hit, and describes small family stores being displaced by chains such as Best Buy, Amazon and Walmart.

## Sources and names cited

- Shaykh Omar Baloch
- Adolf Hitler
- Bani Isra'il
- Walmart
- Amazon

## Transcript (machine tier, 41:19–46:28)

[40:40] the cops in our area one of the chief person told us well we really don't really want to do anything he's saying in a kind wait we really don't want to do anything because if we do then we're blamed for what we do it's kind of like this child oh you blamed us cops oh they're they're being very everything is being becoming so sensitive everything there's no conversation no authentic conversations taking place in America Democrats hate Republicans Republicans hate Democrats like across the board I'm like serious but it's it's bigger than that because even within the Republican Party or even within the Democratic Party they don't like each other but he

[41:19] says that shift isn't that just the fundamental fabric of human beings I mean human beings wherever they are will always have differences sure absolutely so when is society has polarization like this I just read the history of Hitler right bit of a leap though it is straight to hit level do you feel it's getting to Nazi Germany it's getting that bad I'm saying that you know think in normal life normal life what happens as things go wrong and over time things go back to normal right that's the that's the normal route the problem over

[41:57] here is the same problem that the Bani Israel had with their own and this is what the intellectuals are worried about okay that's interesting and that problem is this is that when you have minorities because this is a problem of demographics if you read what the intellectuals are worried about I'm talking about academic papers academic writing oh well I thought you I think you might want people like me I'm worried about intellectuals what they're worried about is the change of demographics so you had bunny historian that was becoming larger than the fifties that were ruling them

[42:34] right and that that is that's where the fear of politics of fear comes in you have this minorities the blacks the Spanish the Muslims all these group of people that have a different culture than the main white that have been there for from the beginning right and they had built America they have struggled hard they're the ones that made the sacrifices they're the ones that came from you know on the boats to America and and now here these minorities are and they're ruining everything because America is is not prospering economically because there was a time

[43:13] where you work for one company all your life and you had your retirement pension and you had your social security and you had your Medicare and you had everything taken care of now a person has to change jobs every few years you know but I do I do hear this like so for example I've heard that here as well that in the UK you know there was a time when people worked you know they joined a particular Factory and they retired with that factory but I mean I understand that and I've heard that I mean I was in teaching profession and I would have people come in sometimes on Korea's days and they would say this to the kids but you know

[43:51] first of all don't you feel that's a very selective it's not history generally but it was just like because after the war and factories were needed and things like these and development technology and then today the day and age is different but their reasons for that right that is that these big companies that majority of them that use child labor and abusive labor practices overseas outside America whether in China or anywhere else they are this is the you know food companies or iPhone companies or any of these tech companies that are using very cheap

[44:31] labor and that to-to-to then they're not giving their employees like the biggest employer in America is Walmart or is it in Wohlers 40 hours in Walmart and still need food stamps that just means that corporate America's become more greedy just tell me what I want to explain this in another way understand this look there's a study done in Harvard there by this Harvard professor who looked at all the revolutions in the last 200 years right the French Revolution the Chinese Revolution all these different social changes that had taken place one thing was very clear in all of those studies is that when the middle class gets affected the middle

[45:09] class the mama Papa stores which is the backbone of American society it's the mama Papa stores right what I'll give you an example there's a person he has a computer store he pays somebody to make computers it's a mama it's like a you know middle-class store he makes computers and he sells them right now you go to Best Buy and Best Buy says oh we'll give it to one loan you know you could pay $14 a month and it'll be paid you don't have to pay the guy that made that computer you were paying in $14 an hour to make that computer right and now you have to pay his salary and now you can make maybe a profit of two three hundred dollars if

[45:48] you sell it at its full price right and and so the those mama Papa stores are have closed in America for the most part even the big stores are closing for that matter and it's just a conglomerate of very specific stores like Amazon Walmart eccentric cetera the big stores and what they have done is they're they have treated you any one of these stores whether you look at Walmart whether you look at Amazon you look at any of these big stores look at how they're treating their employees but shift here the question comes I do get this and I was having a discussion with her but you see what I wanted to say they just

[46:27] interjecting is I was having a very good friend of mine who's into all of this and into AI and and you know and he works with all these major corporations speaking about how these huge you know kind of conglomerates are swallowing these tiny kind of businesses and how workers are being replaced by machines and artificial intelligence is replacing doctors and so on now and you speak about Watson and all these kind of latest medical kind of inventions but you see I was saying that that although that is true but don't you feel with that a new market is then generated for

## Cite

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment wCe73zqCi_I/s/12. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/wce73zqci_i/s/12/

Not a fatwa: these answers were given to specific people at specific times. Ask a qualified scholar about your own situation.