The Difference Between the 'Elite' & 'Elitists' and Why It Matters

Since the 2008 housing bubble crash, there has been a noticeable uptick in hatred for the supposed ‘elite’. The progressive left wants us to metaphorically ‘eat the rich’ by taxing them excessively in an attempt to redistribute wealth to the rest of the population, which sounds good in theory. It’s the Robin Hood theory of taking from the rich to give to the poor, but I question if this would accomplish what they believe it would.

By focusing simply on the amount of money someone acquires, we are lumping in the most successful and beneficial people within our society as being one and the same. We even lie to people by saying if someone is wealthy, it’s due to them somehow ‘stealing’ from the rest of America. We are lacking the clarification between the ‘elite’ and ‘elitists’ and an understanding of the variations of elites that exist.

Elitists aren’t necessarily part of the economic elite class, and not every member of the economic elite class is an elitist. Generally, the economic elite is people who are in the top percentile of earners within America and among the most economically successful people to ever exist. However, the elite isn’t necessarily the problem; elitists are.

Elitists can be financially wealthy or middle-class income earners. Elitists are people who tend to carry a level of egotism around with them while simultaneously worshipping powerful people and the positions they dwell. They tend to refuse to question people in positions of authority and institutions because they view them as errorless entities. Whether it be a media network, government institution, or a random billionaire, they place them on a pedestal and have no problem with their dominance over the peasantry.

Elitists have little empathy for the common American and only reference them when they help to accomplish a greater political objective that benefits them. For example, they may advocate for policies that allegedly help everyone, but when you look into it further, it primarily benefits those elitist figures. I’ve seen it a number of times when they use a particular identity group to push for policies that benefit their cause and not the group they claim it’s for.

The economic elite isn’t the only ‘elite’ who matters in this equation. The elite of any influential position is similarly important as the extremely wealthy. The media elite, the political elite, and the institutional elite are people we should be wary of as well. Hyper focusing on the economic elite has us overlooking influential people who sway discourse and manufacture narratives on a daily basis on behalf of elitists.

This distinction between the types of elite figures is important because it helps to widen our perspective on the people we need to be skeptical about. While money is a signifier of how much power you may be able to leverage, it is not an indicator of whether you will use it for malicious purposes, and it is not the only weapon used to gain social & political power.

For the record, I don’t have an issue with wealthy people. By all means, enjoy the fruits of your labor. I know the majority have ended up with their wealth due to contributing something beneficial to society, so I have no problem if they are compensated handsomely for their contributions.

However, I do take issue with wealthy elitists who utilize the government to change the rules which benefit them and habitually pump money through the veins of an increasingly corrupt political system to benefit their class. I take issue with their encouragement for our public servants to act as private servants to the extremely wealthy.

The issue isn’t necessarily income inequality that we should be worried about; it’s wealth obstruction.

By allowing elitists to use the government for their own personal greed, they’re obstructing the potential prosperity many of us could obtain. When large corporations like Wal-Mart & Amazon are able to operate during the COVID-19 pandemic but your small business is forced to close, we know that the elite has made sure their profits aren’t interrupted and their smaller competitors are left limping due to the government’s obstruction.

I also have a problem with elitists who work within large media corporations that routinely gaslight the American public and minimize their legitimate concerns. If there are large swaths of Americans who are genuinely concerned about a particular matter but it interferes with a narrative driven by an elite institution or the political establishment, they have no issue smearing the character of average Americans in favor of their elite overlords.

One of the biggest problems with the political discourse happening in America is that influential elitists dictate what we should be discussing, and it’s used as a distraction from the greater challenges that most Americans are facing. For example, we spent the majority of 2020 talking about racism and very little discussing the indiscriminate printing of U.S. currency, the slow destruction of small businesses, and coming economic challenges due to government overreach, overspending & interference.

What we discuss and how frequently we discuss a particular topic matters, so why are we allowing people who are unable to relate to the average American’s woes to tell us what our concerns should be?

Why are we blindly trusting pharmaceutical companies when, a couple of years ago, we were blaming them for their complicity in an opioid epidemic? For many Americans, their opinions are now sponsored by Pfizer, just like their favorite news network and politician. Because of this, we now have well-intentioned people who have been fear mongered into elitist compliance and falsely promised safety for their loyalty.

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