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The Worst and the Stupidest?
American Greatness ^ | 21 Aug, 2022 | Victor Davis Hanson

Posted on 08/22/2022 4:44:45 AM PDT by MtnClimber

Our elites are now viewed with the disdain they have earned on their own merits. And they are none too happy about it.

Elites have always been ambiguous about the muscular classes who replace their tires, paint their homes, and cook their food. And the masses who tend to them likewise have been ambivalent about those who hire them: appreciative of the work and pay, but also either a bit envious of those with seemingly unlimited resources or turned off by perceived superciliousness arising from their status and affluence.

Yet the divide has grown far wider in the 21st century. Globalization fueled the separation in a number of ways.

One, outsourcing and offshoring eroded the rust-belt interior, while enriching the two coasts. The former lost good-paying jobs, while the latter found new markets in investment, tech, insurance, law, media, academia, entertainment, sports, and the arts making them billions rather than mere millions.

So, the problem was one of both geography and class. Half the country looked to Asia and Europe for profits and indeed cultural “diversity,” while the other half stuck with tradition, values, and custom—as they became poorer.

The elite found in the truly poor—neglecting their old union-member, blue-collar Democratic base—an outlet for their guilt, noblesse oblige, condescension at a safe distance, call it what you will. The poor if kept distant were fetishized, while the middle class was demonized for lacking the taste of the professional classes, and romance of the far distant underclass.

Second, race became increasingly divorced from class—a phenomenon largely birthed by guilty, wealthy, white elites and privileged, diverse professionals. For the white bicoastal elite, it became a mark of their progressive fides to champion woke racialism that empowered the non-white of their own affluent class, while projecting their own discomfort with and fears

(Excerpt) Read more at amgreatness.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Education; Society
KEYWORDS: communism; vdh; victordavishanson
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To: Alouette; BatGuano; beaversmom; Brian Griffin; Cathi; cgk; Coffee... Black... No Sugar; ...
American Greatness: Victor Davis Hanson on American Greatness

His website: Victor Davis Hanson

The Naked Emperors’ Furious Search for Fig Leaves

The war between blue and red and mass versus elite is really grounded in the reality that those who feel they were the deserved winners of globalization and who are the sole enlightened on matters of social, economic, political, and military policy have no record of recent success, but a long litany of utter failure.

They have become furious that the rest of the country sees through these naked emperors. Note Merrick Garland’s sanctimonious defense of the supposed professionalism of the Justice Department and FBI hierarchies—while even as he pontificated, they were in the very process of leaking and planting sensational “nuclear secrets” narratives to an obsequious media to justify the indefensible political fishing expedition at a former president’s home and current electoral rival to Merrick Garland’s boss.

The masses increasingly view the elites’ money, their ZIP codes, their degrees and certificates, and their titles not just with indifference, but with the disdain they now have earned on their own merits.

And that push back has made millions of our worst and stupidest quite mad.

Please let me know if you want on or off this new VDH ping list.

As a reminder, Professor Hanson has asked that we do not post the full article of his writings.

21 posted on 08/22/2022 6:20:47 AM PDT by texas booster (Join FreeRepublic's Folding@Home team (Team # 36120) Cure Alzheimer's!)
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To: MtnClimber

“Can they manage your life better than you can?”

And that’s the sad part. They can’t but they are continuing to be placed in that privileged position by the majority of those that turn the wrenches. And as wrong as they are in most cases when they are either treating themselves or protecting their golden goose, and they are doing it on the sweating backs of the voters they don’t care about, they have learned how to dupe the public both before they need to, “pre-duping,” by teaching them how to be duped in schools, courts, and moral less, and how to tell them it is done and for the better to keep them coming like pigs to the trough.

So don’t blame the elites for this transaction. They are just acting on an attitude they are better because they are allowed to. And believing there is no evil in the world and only good because they are better than evil and can fix it, is more self defeating than being evil. The working class hasn’t learned that or forgotten it until they get hungry again. That is unless they have to eat themselves and in comes the next graduating class of piglets.

wy69


22 posted on 08/22/2022 6:27:22 AM PDT by whitney69
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To: MtnClimber

“The masses increasingly view the elites’ money, their ZIP codes, their degrees and certificates, and their titles not just with indifference, but with the disdain they now have earned on their own merits.”


23 posted on 08/22/2022 6:29:09 AM PDT by Dr. Scarpetta ( )
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To: MtnClimber
My guess is that in a cave, once upon a time, a couple of sharpies noticed how popular it was to to live off the sweat of others. And so they dreamed up government to secure their power by catering to the ancestors of those who would eventually be pushovers for the "I feel your pain" crap.

What a tender trap leftist elitism is. You can "Pelosi" a fortune using every scheme available to the quick, whilst tossing bread and circuses paid for by worker bees to the ever growing class of lazy, entitled slackers.

Hanson is a treasure.

24 posted on 08/22/2022 6:30:38 AM PDT by PerConPat (A politician is an animal which can sit on a fence and yet keep both ears to the ground. - Mencken)
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To: MtnClimber

I had the opportunity to spend Sunday with my daughter and her husband for my grandsons baptism. Both of them are Yale Phds and are ignorant of what is going on in the world. Both are also college professors and therefor the problem.

They voted for Biden and are anti-trumpers all the way which makes discussing what’s going on in DC more fun. By the time I’m done with them, they have realized that the democrats are destroying this country. Hopefully, their view of the world will change when my grandson goes to kindergarten. I keep pointing out the FR as a good source of information and use it to defeat debates with flaming liberals.


25 posted on 08/22/2022 6:42:07 AM PDT by DownInFlames (P)
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To: MtnClimber

If we could take away all the waste fraud and abuse within government.
And get the federal government out of 80% of our lives.
Where they do not belong anyhow.
And if we had a fair tax system.
And the government officials got out of the corrupt money scheme via spending.

Taxes would . should..be around 10% across the board.


26 posted on 08/22/2022 6:50:16 AM PDT by Leep (Hillary will NEVER be president! 😁)
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To: alloysteel

Deviancy soon follows? Um…


27 posted on 08/22/2022 6:57:55 AM PDT by JusPasenThru (I’m standing behind Alec Baldwin.)
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To: MtnClimber

I love Hanson’s work as a history professor. But as a commentator on current affairs he tends to simply be Cassandra. A wise and knowledgeable Cassandra, but with no constructive suggestions. And certainly, no destructive suggestions.

I guess, if we are being pulled along towards a cliff by an inescapable mass of lemmings, it’s better to know where we are than to suddenly realize there is no ground beneath us.

But I do wish he would at least tell us whether he thinks we are headed for 1776 or 1789.


28 posted on 08/22/2022 7:14:14 AM PDT by Cincinnatus.45-70 (What do DemocRats enjoy more than a truckload of dead babies? Unloading them with a pitchfork!)
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To: MtnClimber
It worked out really well for Great Britain.


29 posted on 08/22/2022 7:36:16 AM PDT by mikey_hates_everything
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To: MtnClimber
The leftist elites seem to base all of their actions on narcissistic belief systems. Can they manage your life better than you can?

"And he can't even run his own life, I'll be damned if he'll run mine."

30 posted on 08/22/2022 7:37:26 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: MtnClimber

Globalization fueled the separation

No borders for a reason globalization calls for one ruling body of world law.


31 posted on 08/22/2022 7:40:12 AM PDT by Vaduz ( )
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To: MtnClimber

What a great piece!!!!

Bump!


32 posted on 08/22/2022 7:42:23 AM PDT by Basket_of_Deplorables (Putin is behaving rationally.The war is on Biden and Obama. )
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To: MtnClimber

We’ve handed our precious children over to these cultural over educated with degrees elites for decades.

If you want data, just look at the return on investment in our K-12 schools, more money never ever equaled better outcomes. Our data clearly indicate a failed system, no improvements as reflected by stagnant test scores.

The problem isn’t just with a failed school system, it’s that nobody has done anything about it. WHY? The system is corrupt, money to Dems for union protection.

If you buzzed in from out space you would be appalled that this is left to continue.

Parents are waking up, but too few and too late. I have little confidence things will change in the next few decades.


33 posted on 08/22/2022 7:45:19 AM PDT by 1Old Pro
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To: ClearCase_guy

I worked at a place that didn’t want to take credit cards because the bank wanted 3% or whatever and I looked at the owners one day and I said you know 97% of something is better than 100% of nothing.

The University of Texas Law School graduate that was the majority Stockholder looked at the High School dropout (Me) and said “Well that’s a very good point.”

The following week we had a credit card roller and the 800# to get approvals. Sales went up like 15-18% the next month.


34 posted on 08/22/2022 7:51:02 AM PDT by mabarker1 ( (Congress- the opposite of PROGRESS!!! A fraud, a hypocrite, a liar. I'm a member of Congress !7)
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To: ClearCase_guy

Managers that cannot do or manage... the MBA.


35 posted on 08/22/2022 7:58:07 AM PDT by D Rider ( )
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To: ClearCase_guy
People cannot manage, they cannot administer, they cannot lead. All they really know is how to bully the peons beneath them.

You just explained why I've probably been fired as much, if not more, than Benjamin Franklin.

It's the Army's fault...lol. Being a leader was drilled into me soon after I was a Chaparral Platoon leader in Germany. "A leader is responsible for everything is unit does, or FAILS TO DO."

To accomplish the mission, we had to have each others' backs. That meant looking out for my soldiers, especially from ill advised orders from superiors. No, they weren't unlawful orders, but there were ways to work around them.

There are plenty of "bullies" in civilian life, too. I recall one job where our top sales person was the worst bully I've ever seen. The owner wasn't going to say anything, of course.

About six months into the job, she came storming into my office, demanding something that I can't recall, it was just another day.

Turned out to be "not another day". I jumped up out of my chair and got nose to nose with her, letting her know that her BS was over with me. I was gone within the month...lol.

My two jobs as a small company CFO lasted about 18 months, just in time for me to clean up the financial records. I was expendable after that, as ownership grew tired of me telling them no, and the reasons why, a particular course of action should not be taken.

Yup, there are skills picked up when one has been a Platoon Leader, XO, and Battery Commander in the Army. Having the spine to deal with bullies is just another aspect to the job.

36 posted on 08/22/2022 8:19:39 AM PDT by Night Hides Not (Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad! Remember Gonzales! Come and Take It!)
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To: MtnClimber
A students work for B students and C students work for government.

Governments, especially federal government, have been growing exponentially for decades. What else are these mentally defective people going to do?

Our Founding Fathers knew exactly why government had to be restricted.

37 posted on 08/22/2022 9:17:20 AM PDT by T.B. Yoits
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