Elitism

[dunn]

To me Elitism is rather simply about looking down on those who do not belong to one's own group. It is usually associated with people who are rich and/or highly educated. I have encountered a great deal of it...

We can distinguish between academic elitism (which I see every day, every minute, at work) and social elitism (which I rarely witness).  In my experience academic elitists are more likely to be democrats while social elitists (the few really wealthy people I've met who look down on the impoverished) have generally been republican.  

Statesrights pointed out another form of elitism which I hadn't initially considered, and which seems to cross party lines.  (geopolitical elitism, I think I'd call it.  Europeans look down on third world folks, or Easterners look down on West Coast for sure, or within the east, the two northern regions north of mason and dixon's line, look down on those who hail from south of that line, etc.)  There may also be religion based elitism:  zoroastrians, Mainstream protestants, Jews, Catholics, Mormons, evangelical protestants, Sunni muslim, Shia muslim (Monotheistic groups listed in order of how elitist I perceive them to be.  Anyone know where druze fit in here?  anyone ever met a druze?)

I met a lot of Druze, they are 1% of the population here..

and how did you decided to rate the Monotheistic groups like that?  

[dunn]

To me Elitism is rather simply about looking down on those who do not belong to one's own group. It is usually associated with people who are rich and/or highly educated. I have encountered a great deal of it...

We can distinguish between academic elitism (which I see every day, every minute, at work) and social elitism (which I rarely witness).  In my experience academic elitists are more likely to be democrats while social elitists (the few really wealthy people I've met who look down on the impoverished) have generally been republican.  

Statesrights pointed out another form of elitism which I hadn't initially considered, and which seems to cross party lines.  (geopolitical elitism, I think I'd call it.  Europeans look down on third world folks, or Easterners look down on West Coast for sure, or within the east, the two northern regions north of mason and dixon's line, look down on those who hail from south of that line, etc.)  There may also be religion based elitism:  zoroastrians, Mainstream protestants, Jews, Catholics, Mormons, evangelical protestants, Sunni muslim, Shia muslim (Monotheistic groups listed in order of how elitist I perceive them to be.  Anyone know where druze fit in here?  anyone ever met a druze?)

I met a lot of Druze, they are 1% of the population here..

and how did you decided to rate the Monotheistic groups like that?  

With my tongue in my cheek, of course.  

but zoroastrians, the progenitors of all later hebrew and greek and latin and arabic monotheism, know they were the first to stumble on the idea of a noncompetitive god to whom worship was obligatory.  And they know it.  RWN points out that they are one of the few religious groups which will not accept converts.   The rest are fairly self-explanatory, I imagine, given stereotypes in this country.  Consider GWB, born Episcopalian.  How many presidents have been episcopalian (US version of anglican)?  Well, almost all of them.  You know his family looks down on Kerry (a catholic), and Reagan (a 'born again' evangelical prot), and Clinton/Gore (Southern Baptists), etc...

As you probably know, Harvard did not admit Jews or Catholics till the early 1900s.  For the first three-hundred years of its existence, it allowed only WASPs.  Hell, even the Klan didn't take that long to start admitting catholics and jews.  (of course, they're pretty hard up, so they'll take anyone who's white.  I think the rationale behind harvard's controversial decision to start admitting non-WASP types about a hundred years ago was a bit different.)

Kerry is 1/4 or maybe 1/2 jewish (though according to jewish law you either a jew or not and he isn't) but I read he is closer to the english crown (so does Bush but Kerry is closer)

[dunn]

To me Elitism is rather simply about looking down on those who do not belong to one's own group. It is usually associated with people who are rich and/or highly educated. I have encountered a great deal of it...

We can distinguish between academic elitism (which I see every day, every minute, at work) and social elitism (which I rarely witness).  In my experience academic elitists are more likely to be democrats while social elitists (the few really wealthy people I've met who look down on the impoverished) have generally been republican.  

Statesrights pointed out another form of elitism which I hadn't initially considered, and which seems to cross party lines.  (geopolitical elitism, I think I'd call it.  Europeans look down on third world folks, or Easterners look down on West Coast for sure, or within the east, the two northern regions north of mason and dixon's line, look down on those who hail from south of that line, etc.)  There may also be religion based elitism:  zoroastrians, Mainstream protestants, Jews, Catholics, Mormons, evangelical protestants, Sunni muslim, Shia muslim (Monotheistic groups listed in order of how elitist I perceive them to be.  Anyone know where druze fit in here?  anyone ever met a druze?)

I met a lot of Druze, they are 1% of the population here..

and how did you decided to rate the Monotheistic groups like that?  

With my tongue in my cheek, of course.  

but zoroastrians, the progenitors of all later hebrew and greek and latin and arabic monotheism, know they were the first to stumble on the idea of a noncompetitive god to whom worship was obligatory.  And they know it.  RWN points out that they are one of the few religious groups which will not accept converts.   The rest are fairly self-explanatory, I imagine, given stereotypes in this country.  Consider GWB, born Episcopalian.  How many presidents have been episcopalian (US version of anglican)?  Well, almost all of them.  You know his family looks down on Kerry (a catholic), and Reagan (a 'born again' evangelical prot), and Clinton/Gore (Southern Baptists), etc...

As you probably know, Harvard did not admit Jews or Catholics till the early 1900s.  For the first three-hundred years of its existence, it allowed only WASPs.  Hell, even the Klan didn't take that long to start admitting catholics and jews.  (of course, they're pretty hard up, so they'll take anyone who's white.  I think the rationale behind harvard's controversial decision to start admitting non-WASP types about a hundred years ago was a bit different.)

Kerry is 1/4 or maybe 1/2 jewish (though according to jewish law you either a jew or not and he isn't) but I read he is closer to the english crown (so does Bush but Kerry is closer)

Kerry's catholocism puts him light years away from the English crown.

"Kerry has many royal connections" said Harold Brooks-Baker, publishing director of Burke's Peerage, a guide to the aristocracy.

Kerry can trace his roots back to the first Massachusetts governor, John Winthrop, to every great family in Boston and to a host of royals in Europe.

"Kerry can almost certainly be traced back to King James I and to the bloodlines straight through the Windsor and Hanover families," Brooks-Baker said

[dunn]

Amen beef