The Elite (1 Viewer)

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    Optimus Prime

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    The elite are ruining the country

    The elite are completely out of touch

    The elite don’t understand what life is like for regular Americans

    But who are the elite?

    I can’t remember if I saw or read it but basically said “the Elite” are favorite boogeymen for both parties

    When the left talks about the elite they are talking about rich people

    When the right talk about the elite they are talking about educated or ‘cultured’ people

    I thought it was an interesting point

    And for both the elite is a small group of people who not only don’t understand your life they are about to come up with a bunch of laws that favor people like them

    What does “The Elite” mean to you?

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    Louisiana Republican Sen John Kennedy made a memorable contribution to a Trump rally in his state on November 14, casting himself as a “proud deplorable” in contrast to the “goat’s milk latte-drinking, avocado toast-eating insider’s elite.”........

    =====================
    .........While Ross, who was worth $2.9 billion in 2016, might have a hard time understanding the economic plight of working Americans, the reality is that 40 percent of Americans can’t cover a $400 emergency expense and 25 percent have no retirement savings whatsoever.......

     
    I’ve always viewed the elite in this context as people who thought they were better than the rest of society. Which could encompass highly educated people, rich people as well as otherwise normal people who drink tea with their pinkies extended.

    But just because people are educated or have material wealth doesn’t necessarily make them elite to me. It’s just a mindset. Many times I’ve considered people who use the phrase “pull yourself up from the bootstraps” as elitist, depending on the context in which the phrase is used.

    To me, it’s less about not being able to understand where others are coming from, but rather, not trying to understand where are others are coming from.
     
    I would consider an Oxford University grad like John Kennedy elite but what do I know he also was a dem a few years ago.


    I tend to look at the elite as the stupid rich not the super educated.
     
    I know that the super rich elite has been a thing forever

    C06249A3-36C1-4D58-ADA5-3A1A9EDA6207.jpeg


    But when did the educated elite start?

    It feels like it’s not nearly as long
     
    The elite are an imaginary cabal who are running everything.

    It is more comforting to imagine someone is running the show (even if they are evil) than accepting the fact that no one is in charge and the world is just groups of people trying to take advantage of other groups of people.

    People need the elite the same way they need god.
     
    I know that the super rich elite has been a thing forever

    C06249A3-36C1-4D58-ADA5-3A1A9EDA6207.jpeg


    But when did the educated elite start?

    It feels like it’s not nearly as long
    I’ve heard this in a few conversations- while othering it teachers has always been around (that’s what got Socrates killed); the particular American strain comes from ‘manifest destiny’
    As western settlements developed, itinerant evangelical preachers were a mainstay; and really the main source of infotainment
    Most of these preachers #1 Target was the east coast educated elite (even more so than railing against ‘savages’)
    As much as anything, this was blowback against “The Enlightenment”
    Evangelicals would obviously see reasoning and science and logic and humanism as anathema to their message

    And just pushing the idea a bit further- with the post-WW2 prosperity and rapid technological advances (notably the democratization of TV), Enlightenment seemed to finally take hold in most of the country
    But then Nixon, 70s recession, sporadic terrorism, nuclear fear, et al, all paved the way for Reagan and moral majority to exploit anxiety and let distrust of non-monied elites to creep back in to our discourse
     



    All of that is just beautiful.

    It is beautiful because blackberries are free in my world I only buy out of season.

    You did not have to be elite to walk down the train tracks and pick them when I was growing up. If you don't eat them all mom would make a cobbler. Those were the days.

    Ok that is it gonna make an elite blackberry cobbler for tomorrow
     
    Mr. Burns from The Simpsons comes to mind as a good caricature.

    "Old money" people who use that money to push things in their favor, regardless of consequence to anyone else.
     

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