the rich =/= someone who has something I can’t afford :(
the rich = the fucking rich
At this point “eat the rich” has become less about the inherent immorality of being a billionaire and has turned into “they have money and I don’t like them”.
Damn guys. I thought we were mad about worker exploitation and tax evasion, not guys who can now afford Teslas.
growing up, my dad made a point to distinguish between “the rich” and “the wealthy” and a mildly confusing thing to me is that “eat the rich” has always really meant “eat the wealthy.”
rich people have lots of money. they have a mcmansion, they send their kids to college without debt, they vacation somewhere overseas every year, but they work. these are your brain surgeons. lawyers who own their own practice and are absolutely rolling in it, A-list actors and other celebrity entertainers. but because they work and are reliant on income, unforeseen things can absolutely ruin their lives. in america, particularly, a sudden need for expensive healthcare can be life-changing. rich people are millionaires on the high end, and making six figs on the low end.
wealthy people have lots of money because they own things. they do not work. they can get away with absolutely anything under the sun. wealthy people are billionaires.
if you can’t distinguish between these two groups, you will continue to fall for going after the rich.
This is the problem with thinking in binaries, in black-and-white. You have only two categories to sort people into.
You’re either poor or rich
You’re either young or old
You’re either a woman or a man
You’re either white or a person of color
(I could make the list much longer, but you get my point)
And then you decide that one of those categories is good, and the other is bad. So depending on which group you’re sorted into, you’re now also assigned a value:
You’re either an oppressor or oppressed
You’re either a victim or an offender
You’re either deserving or undeserving
You’re either a legitimate target or untouchable
People yelling “eat the rich” at anyone who isn’t teetering on the brink of poverty, is just one of the many manifestations of this thinking.
Its been so weird to me understanding class dynamics here in the UK because people say “middle class” to mean, like, Ivo Graham level posh with family money and the rich are who the middle class mocks for being crazy wealthy.
In the states middle class often meant you weren’t on reduced price lunch.
“eat the rich” is meant to be the people who make hundreds of dollars every second by just sitting there, it’s so skewed because in the US having emergency healthcare and food is something you only get if you have family money or double income no kids so it gets perceived as some sort of privilege. Babes, it’s not a privilege to get your life saved and it’s not a privilege to be able to afford meals and it’s not a privilege to take 2 weeks holiday off work… It’s a human right you’re being denied.
In the states middle
class often meant you weren’t
on reduced price lunch.
Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.
