"On the same note, factories and working-class neighborhood bars are more racially diverse than board rooms, Whole Foods markets, and trendy hipster bars."

Hear, hear!

If you're talking acceptable pejoratives, don't forget fat and crazy.

The reason O' Hehir said working class white men are "the most detested minority in America" is because of the "angry white men" dynamic of the last few years in which that demographic felt they were being vilified and blamed for everything.

The author was not being mean, but making a tongue-in-cheek reference to their real feeling of being everybodies scapegoat, valid or not.

"Wow. I'm so sorry to hear that. Guess what, brightstar? It's even harder to be a woman"

We all face unique challenges in life. Everyone has hardships. Some women's lives are harder than some men's...some men's more difficult than some women's. There is no prize given for "Social Group with the Most Hardships" so I really don't know why this immature debate continues to thrive in the letters section of this site. Grow up people. You are all living in societies that allow you to freely log onto the web and post your opinions to the world. None of you have it that bad, so please drop the martyr act. Oh no, you're a woman who has to deal with men checking you out?! Oh no, you're a man who has to deal with critical women?! The horror! You people are better off than the vast majority of living things on this planet, so please spare us the immature, "my life is harder than your life" BS. Thanks.

It's the threat of rape that it implies. If you'd ever been to prison, you'd understand. So shut your own damn hole.

<<Guess what, brightstar? It's even harder to be a woman, to have to be tough and successful, but still dumb it down enough so you don't turn off the average guy.>>

I am a brainy geek and I find myself having to dumb it down all the time for women so women do not consider me JUST a status object and look at me more as a sexual person.

<<Straight women are expected to do everything for themselves AND everything for the guy in their lives AND everything for any children they have.>>

Is it my fault you are picking loser men to breed with?

<<At least a role as a "status object" (a role women also have, by the way) gives you more of an advantage than a role as a sex object, in which your value can only decline the longer you're alive.>>

Men are also judged by youth and looks in addition to needing to have bling. And what woman truly loves a man because of his money anyway?

<<You're complaining about being called on your "non PC" i.e. misogynist bullshit by women? Try "taking hits" from men who like to remind women that they can always easily be physically and sexually victimized.>>

Again, what sort of scum are you dating? You are probably one of those that would never give an average guy like me a chance, even though I would never harm or threaten a woman, but you go for the hot irresponsible douchebags who could have any girl in the room. You, like many women, probably do not even consider a guy like me MAN ENOUGH precisely BECAUSE I do not act threatening to women- hence you are a hypocrite.

<<Try being stared at by people who can easily overpower you and want you to know that. Try remembering to be aware of every situation you're in at night and protecting yourself from the obvious threats of rape and assault. And that's just the physical dangers!>>

Men on men crime occurs even more often than man on woman crime. If you want to live in a plastic bubble utopia rather than in the real world, good luck. Man or woman, the rest of us have to deal with reality and expecting that things are not perfect. I am sick of whining immature feminists acting like they expect the world to be a big playpen where no bad or harm ever happens to anyone. IT DOES NOT EXIST! GET OVER IT. Men die more often and younger as a result of crime, poverty and war. But you do not hear men acting like pampered spoiled children with massive egos and inflated expectations. You want safety? Go live in a convent.

I bet you are thinking, "boy this guy sure hates women". It is not about you as a woman, but as a spoiled brat. I would say the exact same things to a guy. Welcome to equality baby.

are you joking? you must be joking. we live in a world where women STILL make considerably less than men, where women can't walk alone at night in their own neighborhoods, where we can't even have a female anchor woman on the evening news because people won't take her seriously! I mean, come on, really. that's an absurd notion.

<<are you joking? you must be joking. we live in a world where women STILL make considerably less than men, where women can't walk alone at night in their own neighborhoods, where we can't even have a female anchor woman on the evening news because people won't take her seriously! I mean, come on, really. that's an absurd notion.>>

Your existence is an absurd notion.

1. Women earn 98 cents to a dollar as men. Women work less hours, choose cushy low paying jobs like 4th grade teacher, and avoid dangerous jobs like coal miner that pay more.

2. Men get raped, robbed, and murdered on streets too, in equal numbers.

3. Female Anchor? The free market decides this. Do you have a problem with free markets? What percent of women want men to be capable of carrying babies to term? 10%? 20%? Like it or not, our government is PROHIBITED from developing the medical technology to free men from coercion by women by giving men reproductive rights. So women are guilty of holding men down too.

I bet you want women to have everything men have, as easy as men have it PLUS all the advantages women have over men. You liberal women are like that. and THAT IS ABSURD.

"Again, what sort of scum are you dating? You are probably one of those that would never give an average guy like me a chance, even though I would never harm or threaten a woman, but you go for the hot irresponsible douchebags who could have any girl in the room. You, like many women, probably do not even consider a guy like me MAN ENOUGH precisely BECAUSE I do not act threatening to women- hence you are a hypocrite."

Hey, idiot, it's not just the men who women date (I don't date guys like this and never would) -- it's ALL MEN, EVERYWHERE. You can be victimized by a guy who acts like your friend but is just looking for a chance to rape you (a familiar scenario to some in here, I think). You can be victimized by a total stranger. You can be victimized by a guy you work with. Every man poses a possible danger to every woman, and the statistics are most definitely not in our favor.

God, your hatred of women and your non-stop self-pity really do come through in every post, don't they? You need to believe that women insist on dating guys who threaten them because you can't possibly realize that women can smell your hatred for them a mile away and don't want to wind up in a dump site somewhere.