My dear friend Paul in San Francisco made the following comment in a recent discussion, and the response I composed became far too unwieldy to post as a comment, so…
Republican memes
When the Republicans talk about liberal “elitism,” it’s certainly shorthand for New York intellectuals, and often codespeak for Jews.
While I respect Paul greatly and believe him one of the more good-natured participants in a seemingly endless series of liberal blogs’ I/P Wars, I’ll have to disagree on this point (though the titular “Stupid” is not aimed at him).
(I hereby stipulate that the labels “conservative,” “liberal,” Republican” and “Democratic” are virtually worthless nowadays, since no consensus can be achieved in defining ANY of them. But for our purposes here, let us assume that Republicans are “conservative” and Democrats are “liberal” and that we all have at least a desultory idea of what those words mean — or should mean, at any rate.)
— (often used with a plural verb) the choice or best of anything considered collectively, as of a group or class of persons.
— (used with a plural verb) persons of the highest class: “Only the elite were there.”
— a group of persons exercising the major share of authority or influence within a larger group: the power elite of a major political party.
elitist:
— practice of or belief in rule by an elite.— consciousness of or pride in belonging to a select or favored group.
— The belief that certain persons or members of certain classes or groups deserve favored treatment by virtue of their perceived superiority, as in intellect, social status, or financial resources.
— The sense of entitlement enjoyed by such a group or class.
— Control, rule, or domination by such a group or class.
When Republicans talk about “liberal elitists” they’re talking about EDUCATED PEOPLE, though they would never acknowledge it, for fear of undermining their propaganda with truth. The Republican propaganda machine actively and consciously attempts (with a disappointing albeit unsurprisingly high degree of success) to conflate the definitions of “educated,” “liberal” and “elitist” — the latter’s actual definition being that which they, ironically, are far more guilty of embodying than those they wish to smear with it.
Republican propagandists conflate “Elitism” with the kind of people who intimidate and infuriate the shit out of STUPID people — educated, most often liberal people. The kind of Republican propaganda that confirms their stupid fears and stupid ideas all too easily persuades stupid people.
One of stupid people’s stupidest ideas: the notion that educated people think they’re better than uneducated people.
One of stupid people’s stupidest fears: the notion that educated people ARE better than uneducated people — namely, themselves.
(There does exist a subset of Stupid People who are “educated,” but manage to remain stupid despite it. They mostly work for Fox News or in conservative think tanks — but never mind them now.)
The massive irony is that stupid people BUY this propaganda… from ACTUAL elitists who DO believe they’re better than them.
STUPID people have a huge emotional revulsion toward “elitists.” Merely ignorant or uneducated people may find educated people intimidating, but many of them aren’t stupid and therefore aren’t as likely to reflexively respond with revulsion to propaganda equating “elitists” with “educated people.” STUPID people do that. And STUPID is what you have to be to despise someone solely because she is educated, rich or both.
And, as I continue to declare, with ever increasing empirical evidence to support me, MOST PEOPLE ARE STUPID.
But, returning to the original topic… believe it or not, MOST people (Americans, that is) don’t think one way or the other about Jews, let alone Jews as the Intellectual Elitists Who Run the World.
If they do think about Jews, it’s almost a sure bet that the first thing that comes to most people’s minds is the Holocaust and how horrified they are by it. Why? Because the Intellectual Elite (comprised, contrary to some asserions, by mostly non-Jews) — that is to say, EDUCATED people — systematically, judiciously, wisely and properly made SURE that the Holocaust would become a historical touchstone; not only because of its roots in anti-Semitism, but because the virulent roots in political and cultural ignorance made it possible.
But you know WHY most people don’t even think about Jews? Because MOST people don’t KNOW any Jews. And MOST people live in present day America, where anti-Semitism is universally recognised as a Bad Thing — thanks in great part to how the “Intellectual Elites made damned certain to control the manner in which the Holocaust was accurately and irrevocably enshrined in our modern culture.
Those same “Intellectual Elites” are the ones who have also tried, often unsuccessfulyy (more’s the pity) to educate our culture about OTHER horrors brought about by (or allowed to occur because of) cultural ignorance.
Said horrors include everything from the environmental problems created or enabled by corporations unfettered by regulations; to ludicrously unfair wage practices by the real Elitists who fought so hard against the creation of workers’ unions in the past and continue today to fight to dissolve them or render them ineffectual; to maintaining the elements of America’s political system that ensure the Real Elite’s continued stranglehold on it and on the vast majority of America’s citizens who exist, in the Elite’s mindset, merely to serve them.
Which is why the Republicans use “Elitism” as a bludgeon over the heads of the masses: when your entire ideological existence hinges on keeping the mass of men in ignorant desperation, Education is your fucking ENEMY.
