r/tuesday Environmentalist Nov 18 '24

The Elites Had It Coming

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/09/opinion/democrats-trump-elites-centrism.html
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u/TheDemonicEmperor Social Conservative Nov 18 '24

If academics actually had the influence many people think climate change would've been taken seriously decades ago.

You're only really proving the point here. People have the freedom to vote however they want. But they're voting against the grain by voting against the entirety of academia.

As you said yourself, this is not questioned at all at the institutional level. So your viewpoint is the viewpoint of every major institution in the US.

Trump and the GOP literally are about to take control of every branch of the federal government and have control in more state governments than the Democrats as well.

You do realize the government doesn't elect the vast majority of its people. Even considering cabinet appointments, there's civil servants all the way down that are working to do what they can to ignore Trump and his people.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/nov/18/trump-federal-worker-civil-service-protections

Again, this is clearly not the 1960s. Left-Leaning individuals have swamped the government since then. J Edgar Hoover isn't around to be a boogeyman for progressives any longer.

https://news.gallup.com/poll/146786/democrats-lead-ranks-union-state-workers.aspx

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/12/27/is-trumps-dismissal-unpaid-government-employees-democrats-accurate/

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u/wheelsnipecelly23 Left Visitor Nov 18 '24 edited Nov 18 '24

I feel like we've completely lost the thread of my original statement. What do you consider makes someone elite? To me it is wealth and influence and if we take for example the discussion about climate change oil execs are far more elite than academics or mid-level bureaucrats in the EPA. I'm just saying that by most definitions Trump, Musk, Thiel et al. are far more elite than the academics this article believes are "the elite".

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u/TheDemonicEmperor Social Conservative Nov 18 '24

What do you consider makes someone elite? To me it is wealth and influence

And having control of the institutions is somehow ... not influential to you. That's the problem.

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u/wheelsnipecelly23 Left Visitor Nov 18 '24

Government and academic institutions aren't the only institutions that exist though. Conservatives largely dominate private industry and those institutions are also hugely influential on our daily life.

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u/TheDemonicEmperor Social Conservative Nov 18 '24

Government and academic institutions

Got it, the school system which most of us spend 25% of our entire lives in aren't influential at all.

The movies we watch on a daily basis aren't influential at all.

The news we consume isn't influential.

Again, nobody is actually buying what you're selling when you try and paint yourself as the "resistance". That ship sailed in the 60s.

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u/wheelsnipecelly23 Left Visitor Nov 18 '24

Im not saying that those things aren't influential. I’m pushing back on the idea that “the elite” somehow only consists of left wingers in government and academic spaces. Why is Trump not considered the elite? Why not Elon Musk or Joe Rogan or Chris Rufo? Why aren’t the upper execs of Exxon elite? All of these people have infinitely more influence than the curator who is considered an example of the elite according to the article.

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u/TheDemonicEmperor Social Conservative Nov 18 '24

Why is Trump not considered the elite? Why not Elon Musk or Joe Rogan or Chris Rufo?

You're not getting it. Either intentionally or you refuse to understand. Again, I'm not wasting my time on this, but I've already stated why people think this way. Because they don't have power.

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u/[deleted] Nov 19 '24

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u/nemo_sum Lifelong Independent Nov 19 '24

R1 on everything past this point, both of you. You made your point, move on.