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Yanis, wasn’t an aristocrat. However, these were all from upper-class or elite backgrounds too: Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, Ho Chi Minh, Pol Pot, Mao Zedong, Jos

• nephihaha 10mo ago
  There are tonnes of people like that in Marxism. The irony is that they claim to want to liberate the working class when they were never part of it. Guevara especially came from a wealthy background. YV was born into a monied family and married into one. He also went to private school as a child. As far as I know he has spent most of his life in an ivory tower.
  • saubeidl 10mo ago
    How dare people use their privilege for good instead of for self-enrichment!
    • nephihaha 10mo ago
      He is a World Economic Forum stooge, mate. There are only two ways into that. You either pay hundreds of thousands to attend each day, or you get invited from the inside as he did. The WEF includes the top 100 companies in the world, along with the leaders and opposition leaders of every country. He's part of it. https://www.weforum.org/stories/authors/yanis-varoufakis/ https://www.weforum.org/stories/authors/yanis-varoufakis/
      • saubeidl 10mo ago
        You seem to be on some sort of vendetta against the messenger instead of addressing the message at all.
        • nephihaha 10mo ago
          We have heard plenty from this particular messenger. He is/was never off the BBC at some stage. I always ask why someone is pushed on the public so hard, whether it is him or even someone like Jordan Peterson. I have the same basic issue with him as I do with the Guardian... He is completely out of touch with what is happening at ground level because of his current life and his origins.
      • danaris 10mo ago
        I'm with saubeidl—while I, too, am deeply suspicious of anyone who comes from that level of privilege, and I've heard some shady stuff about Varoufakis in the past, you are refusing to present a) any meaningful criticism of his actual arguments, or b) any specific causal link between aspects of his background and reasons to doubt his work. You just keep pounding on the fact that he is from privilege, but that alone is not enough to be suspicious. At the very best, you are arguing guilt by association.
        • nephihaha 10mo ago
          Guilt by association? Yes, he's associated with the WEF, a group of elite politicians and wealthy tycoons who meet away from the prying eyes of the public to discuss policies, and then tells us he's on our side. They say you can know someone by the company they keep. The company he keeps are the Cambridge University students (who come disproportionately from private schools), mainstream media pundits and the billionaires of the WEF. He doesn't just come from privilege... He never really left it.
          • danaris 10mo ago
            But one can come from privilege, and choose to use that privilege to, effectively, infiltrate the ranks of the moneyed elite, seeking to make things better for the average person. Some people have claimed that this is what he is doing. You have provided zero evidence that it is not. You merely keep repeating the same statements about his origins and his affiliation with the WEF. I am not saying you are wrong. I am saying you have not supported your position in any meaningful way. What are his words? What are his actions? Where is the harm? Where is the evidence?
  • master-lincoln 10mo ago
    irony: the expression of one's meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite > they claim to want to liberate the working class when they were never part of it that is not irony. Do you believe only working class people can improve the situation for working class people? That seems counter-intuitive to me, as people outside the working class usually have more time and education to think about changes and advocate for them.
    • nephihaha 10mo ago
      Oh it's irony alright. I've encountered many such folk. They claim to mean well but barely know what to deal with a real live proletarian when they encounter one. What was it the Who once sang, "meet the new boss, same as the old boss"? I don't think he has ever been much out of privileged circles. The way ordinary people's lives can improve is self-advocacy and self-determination. You're not going to find that from Cambridge University where he teaches (one of the snobbiest and class ridden institutions in the UK which often resembles Hogwarts more than a modern university), the World Economic Forum (which prefers closed meetings to public ones and is furtive about its aims), or anything like that. In this article he is right to voice concern about Big Tech oligarchy. But his analysis is off and he is not aware of what it really means to millions of people.