Poll: Are you elite?

[Ron Green]

If so many of the people of this country have been fooled for so long about the Pernicious Agenda, and yet almost everybody on DU "gets it," does that make elites out of those who post here? Answer this poll about whether you consider yourself "a cut above" because you think and care about things that seem to have been successfully removed from the public discourse.

[evlbstrd]

1. I am the elitest elitist.

Just ask me! Oh, you did.

[frylock]

2. 07|-|3|2 - 1 4|\/| 1337

<30|\/|>

[skids]

10. 1337 2 n/t

[LiberalVoice]

12. ok what the hell are you two talking about?

lol

[skids]

20. |-|4+0|2

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leet

[Peanutcat]

3. I know I'm an Elite

I was told I was one of the intellectual elite by Reagan himself because of what I believed in.

[xchrom]

4. i'm running for Miss Elite DU.

[LiberalVoice]

8. lol

good one!

[xchrom]

13. i can count on your vote then?

[LiberalVoice]

31. You bet!

:P

[LiberalVoice]

5. You know I think its just a different way of thinking.

My way is to try and make logical decisions based on all the evidence. Its not my fault if some people are too lazy, or too hateful, or too stupid to see through the bullshit.

[maxsolomon]

6. my elitism is based on taste

not on $ or politics.

i am a snob in mulitple cultural pursuits: art, music, film, theatre, food, wine, beer (i loathe most american microbrews).

but i wasn't born to wealth & priveledge.

[newswolf56]

7. I don't believe that thinking deeply about public issues makes one elite.

What makes one "elite" is membership in the ruling class: real independent wealth, and given the inflated worthlessness of U.S. currency, wealth in the millions at least. All the rest of us are but a few paychecks -- often only one paycheck -- from abject poverty and homelessness: a state the Bush Regime is now guaranteeing will be permanent once we are flung into it -- when, not if.

[Ron Green]

15. So does that mean you are not "different" in your thinking

from the average TV-watching, Wal-Mart shopping American? What sets you apart from the millions of people who still think Saddam Hussein had something to do with attacks on our country? That essence of understanding is what I'm trying to explore.

[newswolf56]

29. Three differences:

(1)-That I am aware of the extent to which, as members of the working class, we are all capitalism's victims -- eventually if not already;

(2)-That I am a cultural worker -- specifically a writer and a journalist -- whose occupation demands I be aware of such things (just as, for example, a machinist must be aware of all new information relating to the machinists' craft, or a mariner keep current on seafaring knowledge);

(3)-That I know from bitter experience the amount of disinformation spread by corporate mass media --the "fascist corporate media" or "FCM" as another the poster radio4progressives so aptly calls it.

Being better informed than someone else does not make us better or brighter. It merely means we are more fortunate: that our circumstances have somehow given us access -- and assimilative abilities -- that others are methodically denied. Our failure to recognize this fact -- and therefore to recognize our class-kinship with the oppressed -- has shattered the solidarity of the New Deal to such an extent more than half of the electorate now regards voting as a waste of time.

Indeed, the bourgeois-elitist condemnation of the oppressed (as manifest, for example, in Clinton's genocidal "welfare reform") is precisely the reason the Democratic Party has been losing elections for so long.

[Lilith Velkor]

9. I will rule you all with an iron fist!

You...OBEY THE FIST!

[rman]

11. "elite" as in "power elites", "ruling class" etc,

has nothing to do with "thinking more clearly" about certain things.

It is about wealth and the power to affect the lives of millions of people, and using that power to further the interests of yourself and your own, usually at the expense the majority who do not have such wealth and power.

[leftstreet]

14. Yeah, Rodin would probably do a sculpture of Paris Hilton

[SmokingJacket]

16. According to me, the Elite are the Rich Ruling Class.

So no. I'm just a middle class person with a brain in my head.

[JNelson6563]

17. Enlightened doesn't equal "elite"

And there are various kinds of elitism. I think of elitist Dems as Vichy Dems.

:toast:

Julie

[Solly Mack]

18. I'm a peon. I'm Jane Q Public.

I'm no better than anyone else.

[Bellamia]

21. O.K. Jane Q...........

I like your view, maybe like me, you just think differently. Time will tell if we are "better", or correct, I was going to say "right", but that could be misunderstood, eh what?

[Solly Mack]

28. Being correct or right doesn't mean being better

My being informed politically hasn't kept Bush out of power. It doesn't make world suffering any less. People still go to bed cold, tired and hungry. We still have an illegal war/occupation and America is still the torture nation.

I don't play the who am I better than today game. A game that can be based on any criteria. (race, gender, intelligence,etc) It's the core of racism and sexism - the need to feel better about yourself at the expense of others.

[abluelady]

19. I don't think of myself as Elite, but I'm smart. :-)

[Ron Green]

22. That's what I'm trying to get at. If you're smart, and a few others are

smart, but the great majority are DUMB, what does that make you? Doesn't it put you in a special, even elite class?

[abluelady]

27. Didn't realize smart and elite were synonomous!

Yes, I'm elite.

[zippy890]

23. Yes, in fact I am far above even the most elite

of the elitist here at DU.

And that pernicious agenda, I've heard about that and it is irritating to the skin and can cause a mild rash.

;)

[jrd200x]

24. Yes I am elite. I don't care what fake "progressives" think!

I am, and here's why.

I went to elite schools - both prep school and college (Johns Hopkins and Columbia).
I'm from the upper east coast. Summers in New England.
I make more than $300k a year.
I trade stocks, own a business, and live on a lake
I pilot my own airplane
I'm also pro choice, anti-death penalty, and think the second amendment was written like crap

I could go on, but that's not the point is it?

I am, and always have been a true Democrat. I always will be. I can't stand those Republican pricks. I give my money to candidates, and I do everything I can to help (calling, phone banks, flyers).

Still, there are "progressives" on this board that give me shitt (can you hear me Mr. List). I feel sorry for them. These are the very people that will keep true progressives from acually winning an election.

I know how Repubs think and we need to beat them - but we'll never beat them while yelling about how unfair it is that they make more money and have low taxes. Doesn't everyone want that? We can have both and have a healthy nation - but first we have to have a sustainable victory.

When will the Dems stop eating their young and focus, like the Repubs, on winning?

[PWRinNY]

25. I don't know what makes someone elite

I think most people in this country agree with us here. Just because the media spins and lies about what Americans think doesn't mean that most Americans aren't in agreement with us to a large extent.

Collectively, we have the same problems. We share a lot. Many of us have similar stories. And many of us fight to the end, never losing hope, daring to tell truth to power, acquiring wisdom, and showing enormous will and strength to survive.

I was born into a poor family, had to eat government cheese and accompany my mother to the state assistance office because she couldn't afford a sitter for me and my 3 siblings, but now my neighbors are the Clintons.

I've been wronged, but I work to make things right, regardless what the issue may be.

I don't make a lot of money for where I live, but I have a job (for now), and I can support myself.

My Honda isn't a BMW or a Jaguar, like so many have around here. But it's mine. I worked hard for it, and it gets me safely to where I need to go.

I don't own a million dollar home, like so many do around here, but I have shelter, and I'm surrounded by gardens and wildlife and beauty.

I wasn't college educated, but I spend many hours of my life researching things I want to know about - health - history - physics - astronomy - culture - religion - and I have more knowledge now than I would have come away from college with.

My mother couldn't afford a sit-in nurse after she had a brain aneurysm and a stroke (brought on by mercury poisoning), but she had me, free of charge, to spend some of the best years of my life with her - and she healed, and I still have a mother.

I'm not told the truth by the media or even people who care about me, but I'm curious enough to dig for my own truth.

When I lost my faith, I searched for truth instead.

When my loved ones need me, I'm there for them.

When we're faced with a fight for our future, for our country, I answer the call and take action to make sure we don't lose our way.

The point is - what's the difference between me and anyone else? We're all human, we all bleed, we all cry, we all share common problems, and we all help each other through. Are we elite for that? Hell, I don't know. But we ARE all human, and each of us special in some way. I haven't spent a lot of time on DU until recently, but you all impress me to no end, the way you take care of each other, and I'm proud to be here with you.

[Swamp Rat]

26. I am human,

unlike some creatures of which I know.

:D

[Cats Against Frist]

30. There is more than one "elite."

In a sense, as an artist, and advanced degree holder, and a libertarian, I would definitely say that some people would consider my politics, way of living, and disdain for the constructs of the masses "elitist." However, it can't be any more elitist than the stink tank AEI, Heritage, et. al., members, with strings of letters after their names, that make my time at the academy look like one day of pre-school. These are people who are steeped in the ways of the political cannon, including that of the Catholic hard right, 20th century German philosopher kings, long-dead ancient philosopher kings, and revisionist texts about the Enlightenment. These people who believe they can "create reality," in their rootless, postmodern ennui -- and we're just all here to watch and study them.

There are also elitists who make trazillions of dollars, and, thus, don't have the same life experience as those of us who have to make a living by working, and temper our consumer desires, and be threatened with financial ruin, over a health problem, or a disaster. There are also elitists who believe their one religion and one god is the "chosen" path, and that those who do not join them are soulless monsters bound for hell. There are those elitists who believe that usurping the mechanisms of big government, to enact cultural supremacy, worldwide hegemony and resource and economic dominance, will make us all "better people." There are those elitists who look at the markets and money and big business as their "game," and are far removed from the fact that there are faces of real humans behind these numbers. There are elitists who believe they're better because of the color of their skin. There are elitists who believe they're better because of the car they drive, the way they tuck in their shirt, the look of their lawn or house, the partner they have.

I'm reminded of "Syndrome" from "The Incredibles," who says, "because, when everyone is extraordinary -- no one will be." The only thing is, most of us haven't figured out that all these constructs are bullshit, and we're all the same intelligent, frantic particles, and death will level all of us. Perhaps that's what we're so desperately trying to avoid confronting.