“Eat the Rich” memes spread, but is it a political movement?

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nycfan

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This has come up several times in the CEO shooter thread and in the Musk thread, but there seems to be a populist left (and to a more muddled extent populist right) embrace of an “Eat the Rich” anti-billionaire/super-wealthy class … feeling? It doesn’t have the contours of a political movement yet but seems to be dancing around and frequently crossing the line into embracing violence against the wealthy.

The resentment against the super-wealthy class is hardly new, but it is coming into greater focus as the wealth gap continues to expand and the super-wealthy are much more openly and brazenly exerting direct influence over media and government in this country over the last several months especially (with the full support of a 6-vote majority of SCOTUS).

The vast overreaction in terms of manpower and equipment in NYC to take into custody the CEO shooter has been more fuel on the fire — the sense that the oligarchs are afraid and want to bend the entire police/military apparatus to protect them against the teaming rabble, with officials like NYC Mayor Eric Adams thrilled to step in and comply.

Anyway, there are a lot of legitimate reasons for resentment and political resistance to an emboldened billionaire plutocrat class, but the embrace of violent rhetoric and imagery is very disturbing…
 
nycfan said:
This has come up several times in the CEO shooter thread and in the Musk thread, but there seems to be a populist left (and to a more muddled extent populist right) embrace of an “Eat the Rich” anti-billionaire/super-wealthy class … feeling? It doesn’t have the contours of a political movement yet but seems to be dancing around and frequently crossing the line into embracing violence against the wealthy.

The resentment against the super-wealthy class is hardly new, but it is coming into greater focus as the wealth gap continues to expand and the super-wealthy are much more openly and brazenly exerting direct influence over media and government in this country over the last several months especially (with the full support of a 6-vote majority of SCOTUS).

The vast overreaction in terms of manpower and equipment in NYC to take into custody the CEO shooter has been more fuel on the fire — the sense that the oligarchs are afraid and want to bend the entire police/military apparatus to protect them against the teaming rabble, with officials like NYC Mayor Eric Adams thrilled to step in and comply.

Anyway, there are a lot of legitimate reasons for resentment and political resistance to an emboldened billionaire plutocrat class, but the embrace of violent rhetoric and imagery is very disturbing…
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The embrace of violent rhetoric became inevitable when the ultra rich took away every peaceful means to address the question of their outsized power and influence.

Democracy and unions were the compromises that their predecessors agreed upon to keep the mob from roasting them in the ashes of their mansions. They have abandoned the peace.
 
StrangePackage said:
The embrace of violent rhetoric became inevitable when the ultra rich took away every peaceful means to address the question of their outsized power and influence.

Democracy and unions were the compromises that their predecessors agreed upon to keep the mob from roasting them in the ashes of their mansions. They have abandoned the peace.
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The ultra rich have inflicted countless injuries upon working people and the poor for decades and decades. Apparently it’s only class war when the lower class starts to fight back.
 
In re: The Rich just keep getting richer. You have to wonder that if the rich had know how easy it was going to be to manipulate and co-op the tax system so that the burden of running the country would fall disproportionately on the poor and middle classes, would they have enthusiastically supported ratification of the 16th Amendment?
 
nycfan said:




Bluesky

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Very skeptical of that $600M wedding number. What can you possibly spend that on?

There are about 5000 short term rooms in Aspen. Even renting out every single one at $2000 a night which is probably double rack rate is $10M/night. You have to come up with wilder and wilder scenarios like a 10,000 person guest list or buying 1000 friends a Ferrari and you still can't get there.
 
Hating the successful/rich is the underpinning of MAGA. We're already a decade in as a political movement. I know it sound surprising given who is the figurehead of MAGA, but the vitriol from many supporters of MAGA begins with their insufficient resources to live the American dream. They want to go back to the 50's/60's because a single income of even a factory worker was sufficient to own a home, raise kids and have a stay at home spouse, when CEO salaries were 20x of the average worker rather than the current 275x. In the strive to improve their bottom line, American businesses have economically strangled their customer base.

I know it is easy to lay the MAGA movement at the feet of racism, misogyny & ignorance, and there is some of that, but IMO the driving force behind MAGA is income inequality.
 
dcphx said:
Hating the successful/rich is the underpinning of MAGA. We're already a decade in as a political movement. I know it sound surprising given who is the figurehead of MAGA, but the vitriol from many supporters of MAGA begins with their insufficient resources to live the American dream. They want to go back to the 50's/60's because a single income of even a factory worker was sufficient to own a home, raise kids and have a stay at home spouse, when CEO salaries were 20x of the average worker rather than the current 275x. In the strive to improve their bottom line, American businesses have economically strangled their customer base.

I know it is easy to lay the MAGA movement at the feet of racism, misogyny & ignorance, and there is some of that, but IMO the driving force behind MAGA is income inequality.
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I agree MAGA is much more of an economic phenomenon than a racist or misogynistic phenomenon. I’d suggest one correction, though. MAGA supports billionaire fraudsters like Trump not only because of economic anger, but also because of economic ignorance. Right wing media and politicians have been extremely effective over the last few decades at making people economically ignorant, and we’re now seeing the full results of that in working class America’s massively self-defeating voting patterns.
 
lawtig02 said:
I agree MAGA is much more of an economic phenomenon than a racist or misogynistic phenomenon. I’d suggest one correction, though. MAGA supports billionaire fraudsters like Trump not only because of economic anger, but also because of economic ignorance. Right wing media and politicians have been extremely effective over the last few decades at making people economically ignorant, and we’re now seeing the full results of that in working class America’s massively self-defeating voting patterns.
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I agree. The reaction of the working class to income inequality is to hate their peers who are making good money (ie in the hundreds of thousands) while lionizing billionaires who are draining money from the economy simply to keep score. That simply makes no sense.
 
While you're not wrong, you are greatly ignoring how the rich play on the bigotries of race, religion and sexual orientation to divide and distract the lower classes from focusing on the real issues of class and wealth. It's an old strategy but still a very effective one.
 
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I think there is a nascent movement here, but it remains to be seen what it may or may not develop into.

We're seemingly well into an age of populism as Trumpism has subsumed the right in America and taken over the Republican Party. And as one would expect from a right-wing populist movement, it is authoritarian and fascist.

And as Trump/Republicans have faced no repercussions for their actions and have instead been seemingly rewarded for them, it's not surprising that an analogous populism would start to rise on the left. These folks and this potential movement is emboldened by the successes of the populist right even if they largely disagree with what that movement stands for. And, of course, a left-wing populist movement will largely not be an authoritarian one that supports a centralized hub of control over the country, it will instead push for revolution to upend the existing social and economic order for the supposed benefit of the masses.

If a populist left truly forms in the US, it will be as much a response to Trumpism and right-wing populism as something that stands alone, but it will make sustaining our society without significant upheaval much, much harder.
 
SnoopRob said:
I think there is a nascent movement here, but it remains to be seen what it may or may not develop into.

We're seemingly well into an age of populism as Trumpism has subsumed the right in America and taken over the Republican Party. And as one would expect from a right-wing populist movement, it is authoritarian and fascist.

And as Trump/Republicans have faced no repercussions for their actions and have instead been seemingly rewarded for them, it's not surprising that an analogous populism would start to rise on the left. These folks and this potential movement is emboldened by the successes of the populist right even if they largely disagree with what that movement stands for. And, of course, a left-wing populist movement will largely not be an authoritarian one that supports a centralized hub of control over the country, it will instead push for revolution to upend the existing social and economic order for the supposed benefit of the masses.

If a populist left truly forms in the US, it will be as much a response to Trumpism and right-wing populism as something that stands alone, but it will make sustaining our society without significant upheaval much, much harder.
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This may be an unpopular opinion here, but I see resisting the rise of a populist left counter-movement to be just about as important for the Dems over the next 4-8 years as resisting the immensely dangerous populists on the right.
 
lawtig02 said:
This may be an unpopular opinion here, but I see resisting the rise of a populist left counter-movement to be just about as important for the Dems over the next 4-8 years as resisting the immensely dangerous populists on the right.
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It's not unpopular with me. I'm just as scared of ultra left devotees as I am those who are ultra right...and im utterly terrified of the ultra right.
 
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