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Clever Pseudonym's avatar

The tl/dr summary of post-Cold War America is:

Our elites hogged all the assets, then they hogged all the power, and then they hogged all the virtue.

This is why they refuse to look in the mirror and see just another grubby aristocracy like the same aristocracy societies always cough up, but have a desperate neurotic need to be seen and acknowledged as cool, hip, edgy, wise, compassionate—an intellectual, political and moral elite who have the same divine right to rule as any pharaoh ever did, except that they deserve this because of "merit", i.e. being good at school, social climbing, jargon mastery and ass kissing.

We're just about at the 10-year mark of their nonstop histrionic meltdown over the MAGA Peasants' Rebellions and it's melted almost every brain and warped every soul from Brookline to Brooklyn to Berkeley, and there's nothing that they won't say, do or burn down to get back that rosy feeling of being god's chosen ones.

It drives them absolutely mad that those of us outside their virtual Versailles don't have the same exalted opinion of them as they do. What's the point of getting all those As and mastering all those markers of social superiority if the lower classes refuse to worship and obey?

Hell hath no fury like an aristocrat scorned!

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JimInNashville's avatar

Beautiful summary. The “nothing they won’t …do” may well include inviting a nuclear exchange. The fact that most media elites (think lyin’ Brian Williams) probably underestimate the explosive power of just one modern H-bomb by a factor of 1000 is hardly cause for optimism.

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Kathleen McCook's avatar

So true and not considered enough.

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gortroe's avatar

They weren't math majors

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Nathan Woodard's avatar

they may not be math majors but they seem to have mastered "sadistics".

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Eric Mader's avatar

Clever Pseudonym, as often, nails it. Right now we see them screaming because, in their best analysis, they’re not getting the symbolic obeisance they deserve.

But that’s nothing. Wait until their chosen perches can no longer pay their inflated salaries. Which for much of this ridiculous class, especially those in media, will come soon enough.

Just too bad this particular assclown, being at NYT, has a wide moat around him. He’ll very possibly be able to huff and whine and double-deal until retirement.

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ResistWeMuch's avatar

or maybe someone like David DePape will smack him in the head with a hammer.

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Lia's avatar

The peasants are revolting!

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Rock_M's avatar

They certainly are!

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ska.one's avatar

Yeah they are; they stink on ice!

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Rock_M's avatar

It’s a Marx Brothers reference. I couldn’t resist.

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ska.one's avatar

I went with the Mel Brooks retort to Harvey Korman.

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JOAN FURLONG's avatar

Y'all. 👏

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Tom Burns's avatar

Best comment on this piece and topic, hands down @cleverpseudonym — thank you!

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Clever Pseudonym's avatar

Thanks! much appreciated

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LHuff8's avatar

Well said.

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Ann Robinson's avatar

Haha real old-fashioned aristocrats have no interest in virtue (beyond philosophy, if that), or the scorn of lesser beings. Virtue is the modern add-on, the true sign, that these people wouldn't know an aristocrat if one fell on them.

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Phillip's avatar

True. Genuine blue-bloods are fixated with the transmission of power and privilege generation after generation by whatever means necessary. The idea that aristos are exemplars of idealism and public service that is common with so many Trads is naive to the point of brain damage.

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Phillip's avatar

The elites are hyenas who mistake themselves for leopards. Instead of reading Brooks, they should have read Lampedusa. This is what poor choices in reading gets you.

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Clever Pseudonym's avatar

Everyone should read Lampedusa

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Phillip's avatar

True. But, nonetheless, I suspect that Netflix would inevitably adapt it: the Risorgimento portrayed as an Italic civil rights uprising, Tancredi played as a sexually conflicted community organiser in love with a feisty girl from the Global South, the Prince of Salinas a proto-Boomer in awe of the wisdom of the young...

Reading has become as archaic as Sicily under the Bourbons.

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Clever Pseudonym's avatar

Don't forget a racially diverse cast, Sicily is pretty close to Africa!

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Phillip's avatar

The cast would have to be inclusive. Papuans, Tamils and Filipinos all welcome. Ditto troons and furries. The casting couch must be decolonised so that it affirms everyone who identifies as an actor can reclaim their power. Every entertainment must become a struggle session. Blend the sensibility of Fellini with Brecht and the early John Waters.

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Gilgamech's avatar

Very good CP

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Cynicon Implant's avatar

In other words, "you want me to adore you because you think you're one of the cool ones but in reality you're just a c*nt"

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rob Wright's avatar

Nice!

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Andy's avatar

Most of them don't even have to ass kiss bc mommy and daddy already did it for them. You can always tell who is an "elite" by their expectations for their adult male children. Elites essentially treat them the same as they would their daughters-and it shows.

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Shelley's avatar

What if they were to find out that the Nazis with the power now spent their youth playing D and D and have no idea who they even are?

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Nathan Woodard's avatar

that's a very good take. I grew up playing D&D but I somehow escaped the mental cage. I suppose my personal reform started when I finally saw through Chomsky. Painful process but well worth the effort.

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Shelley's avatar

D&D was an escape from the construction of current society that demanded conformity. Other indicators were ball caps worn backwards, holes in jeans, and inventing new words like gnarly. Chomsky was hard to shake but eventually the real hidden USG atrocities of the 20th century came to light and the D&D players were the first to expose them.

My reference “no idea who they even are” was about having knowledge of people like Brooks. They were in a different sphere of influence then D&D players.

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Jack C's avatar

"an intellectual, political, and moral elite"

Or as I like to call it, Hermès Trismegistus.

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Nathan Woodard's avatar

beautiful. "Our elites hogged all the assets, then they hogged all the power, and then they hogged all the virtue." Can I please steal this and use it royalty free?

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Clever Pseudonym's avatar

Feel free!

Thanks

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Fred Ickenham's avatar

Wow, this is some great writing! Clever, succinct, and apt.

My reply, not so much. By saying this last sentence, or rather by typing it, I am seeking to imitate the false humility mask of the self identified elites.

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Fiery Hunt's avatar

THANK YOU.

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Juju's avatar

Great comment. Nailed it

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