It’s pretty extraordinary how you can turn the entire government over to billionaires and get called “populist” just because you resent scientists and integrated schools.
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In our current politics "elite" does not refer to an economic class. It refers to a cultural class.
The great achievement of rightwing propaganda has been to reframe resentment of capitalism into resentment of symbolic capitalism. "The professors are the enemy," as JD Vance puts it.
I had this discussion with a family member. They'll hate Gates and Bezos for having so much influence and turn around saying Musk is better. The issue is all of them having too much influence, not just what direction it's pointed at. This country is cooked if it's picking your favorite oligarch.
Musk is better at what? What has he actually done except fcuk random women create kids he doesn't see or raise , buy ans take over other people's businesses and get billions of dollars from the US govt ie tax payers?
I’ve been trying to figure out how to say this… it seems that the more American dreamy someone’s life story is, if they’ve “pulled themselves up by their bootstraps,” achieved incredible success through grit + talent, despite coming from difficult & modest circumstances, the more maga hates them?
The populace at large isn't terribly bright. I know how misanthropic that sounds, but it's a glaring truth that needs to be acknowledged. The person who can dumb down their message and sell it, convincingly, wins. Pure American politics.
It's America. Every downscale white guy thinks tomorrow they will be the next Elon Musk. Populism is entertaining that mass delusion by hurting the people blamed for its failure.
It appears the USA's most successful 'populists' have been wealthy guys like Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, and to an extent JFK... while Lincoln and LBJ were exceptions. These men were actual populists working to extend the bounty of the country to the least among us.
I feel like the obsession with that word is an intentional attempt to obscure our blatant shift into an oligarchy/kleptocracy that barely scrapes by on like 1/4 of the country supporting them
People on the right were never mad at the elite. They were mad at academics and experts who told them about reality. And every time we act like we live in an age of "populism" is giving cover to what this actually is.
Yup. And making this happen is why Republicans got rid of the fairness doctrine, it's why Fox News exists, it's why they've spend the first 25 years of this century building a media-bubble to trap people in. And THAT is why all these thinkpieces abt the REST of us "living in a bubble" are pernicious
Academics are very unlikely to be rich. Some ~70% (higher now, probably) of professors in the US are adjunct, meaning they are essentially contract workers who can be fired at any time for any reason. Very similar to most workers in the US. The vast majority live on poverty wages, and many work two
or three jobs to be able to get by. Are many still out of touch with people? Absolutely, many never work any job other than something in academia. However, most academics aren’t rich, most are part of the same working class most of us all are.
This! “Elites” are whatever the listener imagines them to be, and inherently some “other” that’s not you and me and looks down on you and me. Somehow those Ivy educated billionaires living in gated comms and flying private are on our side if they say what we want to hear?
A big part of populism is the idea that if more people want to reject reality than to accept it, we should reject it. Just throw it out because it's been outvoted.
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Hating the "elite", teachers, professors and nurses is just a bonus.
The great achievement of rightwing propaganda has been to reframe resentment of capitalism into resentment of symbolic capitalism. "The professors are the enemy," as JD Vance puts it.
Liberals always make a huge mistake when they underestimate the appeal of blood and soil patriotism
Either that or they’ll screech about movies and TV shows being “woke” because they hate being reminded that women and marginalized groups exist.
The problem with flattening language is it makes you very easy to trick. Very easy to manipulate. Very easy to utilize towards someone else's cause.