Off Topic — HabitableZone

Off Topic » in reply to It is a conservative talking point. They put a lot of effort into maintaining it.

What about the Western elitist establishment?
ER — (archived)

Hard core leftists try to paint all to their right as either robber-baron capitalists, complete down to the top hats and frock coats; or knuckle-dragging hard-hat, inbred, banjo-strumming rednecks. The effete, elitist, liberal (usually eastern, for some unfathomable reason) intellectual is just the conservative mirror image stereotype of this.

What I want to know is what's so bad about being elitist? Elitism is fine if you've earned it, through personal accomplishment, either professional or academic, or through some innate talent. Supposedly it means you are a cut above the rest, either because of what you've done or what you know. It is only shameful if you inherited it from your family and did nothing to earn it.

We live in a society which is supposedly a meritocracy, where competitiveness, self-improvement, influence and excellence are constantly being given lip service. Those who lack this superiority are considered losers at worst, or under-achievers at best. This is certainly the guiding ethos of the commercial class, which offers an objective measure of this virtue: financial success. Why these natural elitists would consider this a term of opprobium baffles me.

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