Nobody falls for TB's little charts and diagrams.

Not because they're phony, or even mistaken. It's because they have been carefully selected for specific effect, just as the stats in those Daily Kos links were.

Anyone who's read as much Red propaganda as I have knows how much a glib talker armed with lots of numbers can get away with. Why should the other side be any different? And when the writer is sincerely convinced he's right, you can't even claim fraud.

Still, it's reassuring to hear the second side of a story, especially when one is being monotonously bombarded by the first. After a while, even the most intense skepticism gets worn down, and you catch yourself giving in an inch at a time, making excuses, self-censoring, just to be "fair". The propaganda war is often a battle of attrition.

I've talked to enough well-payed industrial workers, union and non, to know that the lucky ones may make a good living, but they aren't on any gravy train. I know, because I worked as a highly skilled craftsman for five years (stereo plotter operator) in the 70s. I started at minimum wage and undertook a difficult apprenticeship. When I left for a career as a computer programmer I was earning only twice what I made when I started. But in my new job as a novice programmer I was earning twice what I had been making as a master map compiler. Like the prospect of hanging, facing the prospect of having to spend the rest of your life as an industrial worker tends to concentrate the faculties.

The sad thing is that when I left aerial cartography, I was making more money than any of the other, more senior, skilled craftsmen there: secretary, draftsman, photographer, photo lab tech, and pilot. Compilers were relatively highly paid because it depended on being able to train yourself to see in 3D with high precision and consistency, and most people just aren't physically capable of doing so. Only the manager made more than I did. Florida is a right-to-work state.