When Republicans say "Elitist" they really mean "Smart".

[Soph0571]

I am terribly elite don't you know... So if elite equals smart, then the opposite supposes that the faux 'non elite' are stupid as fuck. You don't say?!?!

[DetlefK]

1. When Republicans say "smart", they really mean "rich".

If you're rich, that means you are smart. If you're so smart, how come you're not rich?

[OldBaldy1701E]

7. I agree with you but...

ever since I was a little kid, I have seen that our society wants to indicate that people with money are the paragons of our society. They are seen as the best our country can produce, as they are living the dream. I am sorry, but it was not just rethugs that acted this way. Our entire society has been programmed to see the rich as the top of the crop. Of course, anyone who pays attention can see the predatory nature of these animals and that you cannot make that kind of money without giving up some or all of your humanity. (You cannot claim to be a human being and then constantly act as if money is worth more than your fellow humans).

[DetlefK]

8. That's a meme that began in the Middle-Ages.

Most people in the Middle-Ages were illiterate, so the catholic church used visual aids (what we would call memes nowadays) to express messages and concepts.

A big theological topic was how to behave to avoid hell. The seven virtues and the seven cardinal sins were the pillars of the morality-system. In these visual aids, the church linked "good" to "pretty" and "bad" to "ugly".

Can you name a book or movie (of any other category than tragedy) where the good people are ugly and the bad people are good-looking?



It's basically the same meme. "Rich" has replaced "pretty".

[TheRickles]

10. Great idea for a screenplay

Seriously, that suggestion about good/ugly vs bad/beautiful as a plotline could lead to a really provocative movie. Know anybody in Tinseltown?

[OldBaldy1701E]

15. It would probably never sell

the idea that our programming is wrong is a good one but as always it will be whitewashed by Hollywood to remove the real message. Plus, it isn't a sequel, so they would not be interested. (Spent 40 years in the industry, and after about 1983, never once saw much mainstream release outside of the Hollywood formula with a few exceptions. They don't care about art or relevance, they only want a 2000% return on their 2 mil investment. These days, anything that strikes a chord with people or is seen as a relevant piece of work is an accident.)

[StarfishSaver]

21. It's always been a thing, but it seems to have ramped up to nuclear levels in the 80s

Proliferation of such pablum as "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous," "Dynasty," "Wall Street," etc. forced a "the rich are better than everyone else" diet down our throats and too many people swallowed it ...

And here we are with ignorant poor people's (just the ignorant ones, mind you) ideal of rich people (gold toilet seats, tacky "couture," spray tans, plastic noses, chins, lips, and boobs) as America's new "royalty."

[Wounded Bear]

23. Calvinism...basically the rich are rich precisely because God favors them.

The poor are poor because God has determined that is what their station in life should be.

[bdamomma]

30. they have a poor interpretation

of entitlement don't they?

[NCLefty]

2. "President Obama once said he wants everybody in America to go to college. What a snob!"

-Dicky Fuckface

[rickyhall]

14. Santorum...

Keep 'em ignorant so they'll vote GOP.

[Iggo]

17. Frothy.

[no_hypocrisy]

3. Dan Quayle started that nonsense of Democrats being elites.

[JHB]

5. Conservatives worked that line long before Quayle

...but, just to make the DQ part perfect, do you know who "Dan Quayle's brain" was?

Bill Kristol

[no_hypocrisy]

24. Do you mean Adlai Stevenson or FDR?

[gab13by13]

4. It doesn't even have to mean smart,

I think elitist means having common sense and the ability to use critical thinking.

[BlueMTexpat]

12. Not to GOPers!

But definitely to people who are sane!

[Iggo]

18. That's a very good definition of smart.

[whathehell]

6. Smart, or at least "educated".

For most of the 20th century in America, the "elites" were identified as
the Super Wealthy, not the educated middle class. The "change" is one Republicans and their Doner Class are understandably happier with.

.

[ehrnst]

9. Yep.

[Shanti Mama]

11. The point is good, but Obama's mother was hardly working class

If we're going to spread memes I'd like them to be accurate. She wasn't educated at the Ivies or anything like that, but she didn't work at Walmart or drive a truck. She had a PhD from U of Hawaii I think and worked abroad for development organizations.

[BlueMTexpat]

13. Do you know anything about the salaries

that workers in development organizations receive?

I'm talking about those who work in the field, as Ann Dunham did, not those in more comfy HQ offices.

Not so much. One does such work mostly out of principle. Hardly for the money.

The U of Hawaii is a state university. In Ann Dunham's days, tuition at state universities was VERY affordable, especially when one lived at home, as Ann Dunham mostly did.

Yes, she had an excellent education and primarily worked in what are deemed to be more "white collar" jobs. But, development jobs with hands-on experience in the field are much closer to "blue collar" jobs and especially in those days.

I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in the 1960s and a USAID development contractor in the 1980s. Where I worked (in North Africa) was literally a developed country compared to where she worked in Indonesia and Pakistan.

Just sayin'

[Shanti Mama]

25. I get it. Lived in Asia for 20 years

My point is that she was not working class, not that she made a lot of money. Though, many who work in development are socking it away for nice retirements.

[BlueMTexpat]

28. If you are referring to those in the cushier HQ jobs, perhaps.

As for myself, I chose to leave development for law (had already left teaching for development), in part because I knew that I could not put my sons through university and still survive during my retirement on my development salary & benefits.

While I remained in public service for the most part, it was my earnings as a senior legal official that helped me with my retirement, etc. Definitely NOT the development work.

You must know people other than those I do and their experiences must be different from those I know about, or things must have changed since those days (1960s & 1980s). I still have quite a wide sphere of former associates from development careers, however.

************
Where did you live in Asia and what did you do there? It is a part of the world that I still have not personally experienced and find fascinating. It's also because two of my grandsons are Asian-American.

[Iggo]

16. Duh. (n/t)

[bronxiteforever]

19. Agree and Let's ask Trump what he thinks.

“I love the poorly educated”, announced Trump in a jubilant speech as he swept to victory in the Nevada caucus in 2016.

They tell what they believe and some people choose not believe the actual words. The GOP hates the educated because they can use reason. Bile is their main weapon of the GOP and it becomes fully weaponized in the ignorant. Also ignorant people are more likely to embrace the chain that the GOP wants them to wear so they will be compliant.

Missouri wants to imprison librarians, Florida wants to put LGBTQ people in conversion therapy and the Ohio legislature wants to require doctors to “reimplant an ectopic pregnancy” into a woman’s uterus – a procedure that does not exist in medical science – or face charges of “abortion murder”.

Betsy Devos has weaponized the Dep of Education against kids who desire education. In all authoritarian regimes, the educated get killed off first.

[StarfishSaver]

20. Not just "smart," but capable of and interested in continuing to learn new things

[Gothmog]

22. The GOP is full of idiots

You have to be very stupid to vote for trump

[ElementaryPenguin]

26. Exactly!

[samnsara]

27. ...and 'elitist' wear deodorant..

[bdamomma]

29. they are not smart

they are cunning, vile, evil and they steal from us. That's how they became rich.

[dlk]

31. I would add, too smart/intelligent for someone born into modest means

They are projecting their own elitist snobbery.