What Is An Elitist?

Reminds me of one of my favorite lines from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1978), which I will place in bold below:

quote:

---

Second by second the image of the missiles on the screen became
larger. They had swung round now on to a direct homing course so
that all that could be seen of them now was the warheads, head on.

​

"As a matter of interest," said Trillian, "what are we going to do?"

​

"Just keep cool," said Zaphod.

​

"Is that all?" shouted Arthur.

​

"No, we're also going to... er... take evasive action!" said Zaphod
with a sudden access of panic. "Computer, what evasive action can
we take?"

​

"Er, none I'm afraid, guys," said the computer.

​

"... or something," said Zaphod,"... er..." he said.

​

"There seems to be something jamming my guidance system,"
explained the computer brightly, "impact minus forty-five seconds.
Please call me Eddie if it will help you to relax."

​

Zaphod tried to run in several equally decisive directions
simultaneously. "Right!" he said. "Er... we've got to get manual
control of this ship."

​

"Can you fly her?" asked Ford pleasantly.

​

"No, can you?"

​

"No."

​

"Trillian, can you?"

​

"No."

​

"Fine," said Zaphod, relaxing. "We'll do it together."

​

"I can't either," said Arthur, who felt it was time he began to assert
himself.

​

"I'd guessed that," said Zaphod. "OK computer, I want full manual
control now."

​

"You got it," said the computer.

---

Comes to mind every time I'm in a group trying to figure out how to do something.BTW, what was jamming Eddie the Shipboard Computer was that he had devoted all his computational power to trying to figure out why Arthur Dent, the apeman creature from the recently demolished Earth (ie, a British Homo sapiens sapiens), wanted to drink dried leaves boiled in water. Share and enjoy!

OK, I can get your points. But my next question is why conservative content is bad content. Isn't there any chance that they may be right?

Where did I ever say that? It isn't conservative viewpoints and perspectives that are inherently bad but rahter the crazy conspiracy theory laden stuff that you're drawn to. There is nothing equivalent to this level of crazy on the liberal side.By the way, you're perfectly free to echo legitimate and rational conservative viewpoints, you just never do. Sure, but given the crazy conspiracy theory laden nature of the stuff you like, that chance is very slim. For example, you actually believe the conservative characterization of the mainstream media as the corrupt enemy of the people, biased liars who promote misinformation and fake news, who suppress news they don't like, who ignore the views of mainstream America to promote their own elitist socialistic views, and who should be shut down. You accept the views of the crazies among conservatives who say liberals are both fascists and socialists, ignoring the contradiction.--Percy

Percy had an excellent response to this. But I want to add one thing for you to consider, Phat.This stigma of conservative equals bad grew from conservative actions. Seems they often set out to deliberately hurt people (financially, socially, politically) to gain advantage regardless of the needs of society.Look at the recent spending bill fiasco created by the conservatives which will hurt our financial systems and will cause lost employment, lost businesses and lost $$$ in world value.He doesn't want any useful, helpful, necessary agreements that move the nation forward to occur during his enemy's term (still another month to go). Despite the cost and pain this will cause the nation and the world, the good stuff, like debt ceiling and continued government operations, will have to wait for his signature, not Bidens.That is yet another example of what we are calling conservatives being bad. The label is deserved.

It is taking me a minute to unpack this accusation.Though I may believe that "mainstream media" is biased, I don't see this media as an enemy of the people. Different outlets are biased in different ways. Fox News, for example, is infotainment and is catered to a conservative audience. MSNBC (now nearly bankrupt...rumor is that Elon Musk might buy them) is at the other extreme. I tend to go more with the BBC, Al Jazeera, and independent media for my diet of information.

It's not an accusation. It's the way Trump characterizes the mainstream media, things which you largely go along with. Just in this thread alone you called the mainstream media an echo chamber (Message 8). In another thread in Message 1 you said they just tell us what we want to hear and hide the real information. You don't use the same words as Trump, but you share the same sentiments. In Message 5071 you accused them of encouraging mass murder. I have no idea why you're suddenly singing a different tune, but it doesn't ring true because your Trump-style hostility toward the mainstream media has been a constant for years.--Percy

Why can't I explore my own intuition? Why cant I reason out the world the way that I sense that it is going? I have always had reservations about Donald Trump but I have never jumped on the bandwagon of outright condemnation that so many of you were eager and willing to do. There is something deep within my spirit that questions the progressive secular bandwagon, just as there is something deep within my spirit that questions Trumps overall mental health. I have concluded nothing at this point of my investigations. The future will write the script.

If your views are evolving then just say so instead of denying that you ever believed differently. You keep saying this, but then you echo many of his views, so nobody believes you when you say this. So you're saying you're reserving judgment on the racism, the misogyny, the authoritarianism, the dishonesty, the meanness, the ignorance, the venality, etc.? You need a bigger dataset maybe? Like his opposition to the recent bill that included disaster relief and keeping the government open? Like selling political influence to Musk for $274 million in campaign funding? I don't know what you're imagining the "progressive secular bandwagon" consists of, but it is definitely opposite to Trump's qualities. Concerning Trump, how can the jury still be out for you while believing progressives not only want to ruin the country but are somehow in a position to do so, despite not controlling a single branch of government and are not even the dominant force within their own political party. Trump's mental health isn't nebulous or ambiguous. He's clearly an authoritarian narcissist with a host of grievances and an appetite for vengeance. You have the evidence of the past nine years. How much more evidence do you need? You're unbelievable. What do you think you need to investigate? You have not you been on a remote desert island for the past nine years. You witnessed Trump's first term first hand, a disaster for democracy, the rule of law, and simple humanity. His second term will be worse. I know, I know, what could be worse than two impeachments and an insurrection? Well, we're about to find out.Just to do a sort of nod toward the topic, none of this has anything to do with elitists, whoever they are. If an elitist is someone who thinks they know what's best for other people, look to the anti-abortionists, the anti-LGBTQ-ists, the racists, the anti-immigrant go-back-where-you-came-from-ists, the book-banners.--Percy

Phat’s definition of “elitist” seems to be anyone who thinks they know better than him. Which would be pretty much everyone here. Witness his claims of economic understanding while utterly failing to grasp the basics of market economics.