French philosopher Jean-Paul Sártre mocked 20th century anti-semites for hating Jews — just for the sake of having someone to look down upon: a poor man’s snobbery. Today’s poor snobs are shameless sycophants for the billionaire class. They will never forgive God for not making them Lauren Sanchez.
Not long after the Donald Trump administration launched the DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) it endured some well-deserved flack. The faux agency’s overseer, Elon Musk, rightly received his share of the outrage.
Quick to defend the billionaire was an outspoken army of rank-and-file know-it-alls. “Elon Musk is working for free,” was the refrain of their protest, none being the wiser that he had given Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign $277 million. Granted, mere pocket change to someone like Musk, but like any asset horder, he won’t part ways with a penny unless it’s breaking a sweat for some kind of a return on investment.
What Musk sycophants can’t comprehend is that he’s “reforming” the federal government in the interest of earning a gain from his investment in Team Trump. Who could be so mentally deficient to mistake a campaign donation for charity?
Yet, here we are: surrounded by masses of rank-and-file citizens whose minds are poisoned by the conviction that aligning with the wealthy somehow improves their lot in life. They cannot fathom the act of self-betrayal this actually is.
The history of elite moneyed interests sifting the poor for financial gain goes back beyond the arrival of the Industrial Age. However, by the time mass production emerges in the middle of the 19th century, the relationship between the rich and the poor formalizes into factory owners and labor.
Before labor could organize and collectively assert their rights, cruel working conditions, penurious pay and squalor prevailed over their lives. Captains of industry viewed the labor pool as expendable as the interchangeable parts that comprised machines of production.
Even though this ruling class perspective has been around since the industrial age, far too many everyday Americans cannot muster the self-respect or class consciousness to recognize what their vital political and economic interests are. So deeply absorbed by private enterprise propaganda they easily confuse (even embrace) ruling class interests as their own.
Stockholm Syndrome (when captives identify with their captors) is a useful lens for observing how a plurality of the bottom 99% of wage earners relate to the billionaire class. In spite of warming up to a predator, their very well-beings still hang in the balance.
(This piece originally appeared in Newsbreak on 27 Feb. 2025)
Previously Published on Medium
iStock featured image
