Yes, flattery... to be first amongst equals. They believe they belong to a privileged class despite the lip service to equality. That’s why their greatest fear is to be ostracized from the class or party and why the democrats march in lock step. It’s seems that the contradiction (first amongst equals) doesn’t bother them and they perhaps believe (at least leftist thinkers like Heidegger do) life is inherently contradictory at it’s deepest levels. That allows them to have their cake and eat it: to be rich and say they are morally superior because they are concerned about the poor. It’s like millionaire Bernie Sanders or Michael Moore say they are socialists. In the end, I just find it that they are very greedy to want your cake and eat it. The word hypocrisy has no meaning for them... or, at least, no bad meaning.
Yep. They want to be Upper Class, and believe in egalitarianism only so far in that it allows non-aristocrats to “get an education” and enter into the fringes of the champagne socialist club. From there they can look back and sneer down, and it satisfies them.