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American democracy, the left believes, cannot be rejuvenated by persuading elites to deploy their excessive power somehow more benevolently. Instead, it require

American democracy, the left believes, cannot be rejuvenated by persuading elites to deploy their excessive power somehow more benevolently. Instead, it requires breaking the stranglehold that elites have on our economics and politics, and reempowering everyone else. ... says the Guido Calibresi Professor of Law at Yale Law School

AmericanChopper 7y ago
Change the time and place and you’d pretty much have a Marx quote.
lordlic 7y ago
By analogy... I'm a well-off technocrat and I think the big tech monopolies should be broken up and taxed more (and I think I should be taxed more also). That doesn't make me a hypocrite, it makes my position stronger because it eliminates resentment toward successful tech elites as a possible motive. I think it speaks well of this guy that he's not some bitter barista ranting about elites - he's talking about knocking his own class down a peg.
- throwaway17_17 7y ago
  It may speak well of him, but it is the bitter barista, ready to enforce that knocking down a peg, who ends of in control. Just because you are willing to accept a tax increase of some percentage does not align your motives and position with the hypothetical barista. I think that is the actual substance, of not the intent of the parent comment. After all, that bitter barista and his friends have no problem spray painting ‘liberals get the bullet too’ on things as they attempt to prove there point.
  - lordlic 7y ago
    I'm not just willing to accept some small tax increase, I'm willing to accept (and actively advocating/voting for) radical socialist transformation of our economy to a point that would be far beyond anything that would be in my own interest. I vehemently disagree that I'm not "really" on the same side as the barista because our interests don't align. There are some of us out there who will fight for what's right even if it's against our own selfish interests. Obviously we don't share the same struggles as, say, the struggling barista on a day-to-day basis so sometimes the appropriate urgency isn't there but in the end we are 100% on the same side. > it is the bitter barista, ready to enforce that knocking down a peg, who ends of in control This is not really the goal in my experience moving in leftist circles. There's a lot of talk about bringing the wealthy down to the same level as everyone else to eliminate various forms of inequality, but not much talk about inverting the system so that the formerly rich are now under the heel of the formerly poor. The ones "in control" would be everyone, including the former elites.
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jariel 7y ago
"American democracy, the left believes, cannot be rejuvenated by persuading elites to deploy their excessive power ..." ??? 1/2 of American elites are 'left', so there's a paradox for you.

AmericanChopper 7y ago

Change the time and place and you’d pretty much have a Marx quote.

lordlic 7y ago

By analogy... I'm a well-off technocrat and I think the big tech monopolies should be broken up and taxed more (and I think I should be taxed more also). That doesn't make me a hypocrite, it makes my position stronger because it eliminates resentment toward successful tech elites as a possible motive. I think it speaks well of this guy that he's not some bitter barista ranting about elites - he's talking about knocking his own class down a peg.

throwaway17_17 7y ago
It may speak well of him, but it is the bitter barista, ready to enforce that knocking down a peg, who ends of in control. Just because you are willing to accept a tax increase of some percentage does not align your motives and position with the hypothetical barista. I think that is the actual substance, of not the intent of the parent comment. After all, that bitter barista and his friends have no problem spray painting ‘liberals get the bullet too’ on things as they attempt to prove there point.
- lordlic 7y ago
  I'm not just willing to accept some small tax increase, I'm willing to accept (and actively advocating/voting for) radical socialist transformation of our economy to a point that would be far beyond anything that would be in my own interest. I vehemently disagree that I'm not "really" on the same side as the barista because our interests don't align. There are some of us out there who will fight for what's right even if it's against our own selfish interests. Obviously we don't share the same struggles as, say, the struggling barista on a day-to-day basis so sometimes the appropriate urgency isn't there but in the end we are 100% on the same side. > it is the bitter barista, ready to enforce that knocking down a peg, who ends of in control This is not really the goal in my experience moving in leftist circles. There's a lot of talk about bringing the wealthy down to the same level as everyone else to eliminate various forms of inequality, but not much talk about inverting the system so that the formerly rich are now under the heel of the formerly poor. The ones "in control" would be everyone, including the former elites.
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jariel 7y ago

"American democracy, the left believes, cannot be rejuvenated by persuading elites to deploy their excessive power ..." ??? 1/2 of American elites are 'left', so there's a paradox for you.