Reality TV's Working Class Warriors
We've written before on the blog about "He-Man TV", a genre of reality TV, where white working class men struggle against the forces of nature. Think of shows like Ice Road Truckers or Deadliest Catch. A friend very familiar with this sort of programming described them as "shows where nature is a metaphor for the uncontrollable forces that working class America contends with."
You can see a good example of this genre in a 30-second promo for the new History Channel show, Great Lake Warriors:
Watching the promo, I think the premise is more subversive than just working-class men struggling against nature.
Why are these tug-boaters risking their lives on the Great Lakes? Trade with Canada. Why is there trade with Canada? NAFTA, the original sin that the anti-globalization movement points to as cementing the decline in America's manufacturing and the Pandora's Box that opened up the economic forces that destroyed working class jobs.
About the Author
David Frum
David Frum is a contributing editor at Newsweek and The Daily Beast and a CNN contributor. He is the author of eight books, including most recently the e-book WHY ROMNEY LOST and his first novel Patriots, published in April 2012.
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