Parasite, not predator.
Or the exploiter class
I like this one because when I was really into MMOs it was interesting to see the birth of exploiter philosophy within the game. Then the positions that the exploiters would always take when it was suggested we crack down on cheating was that they were being unfairly persecuted and their mere presence benefits everyone.
Even after the exploit was patched they usually got to keep their ill-gotten gains because they would turn what ever it was into intangibles or launder everything.
It was just a complete microcosm of capitalism. Which can all be summed up by their creedo, “exploit early and exploit often.”
Even funnier, Steve Bannon had ties with WoW gold farmers.
Yeah, predators earn their food, typically.
Wealthy people are almost always born with it… Just like many parasites.
I prefer the term “Parasite Class”.
Many think the poor to be parasites, but they are actually the opposite.
After all, what is the mark of a parasite? It makes the host think that it is benign, of no harm whatsoever, and in some cases it even convinces its host that it provides a benefit. All the while it visits the most harmful deprivations upon the host, right up to sucking the lifeblood from it until it dies a horrible death.
No other tranche of human society matches those attributes more effectively than the wealthy.
I agree, but I’d take it a step further and say the ultra rich are even worse than parasites. Parasites serve a purpose to the stability of their ecosystems. Billionaires just consume.
Even then, viruses are a crucial part of pretty much any ecosystem on the planet. If viruses all disappeared it would be the end of pretty much all complex life on the planet for a while. Maybe forever depending on exactly how crucial they are to evolution as a whole.
Well if I learned one thing about biology it is that it eludes simplistic notions as the one presented in the meme, so I get where you are coming from here. However I very much doubt the sudden disappearance of viruses would end complex life or evolution, since there are other avenues of intra-species mutation and inter-species gene transfer. It would doubtlessly upset the balance of pretty much every existing ecosystem of course.
That said, don’t overthink it, it’s just a meme about the (slightly modified) Agent Smith reference so neatly lying around in the parent comment.
I hear this in Andrew Ryan’s voice.
It’s not the “predator” class - it’s the parasite class.
Calling them “predators” will - apart from the fact that it’s inaccurate - simply flatter their egos
The hoarding class
They do hoard wealth, but in another sense they’re constantly making money moves: shifting their capital here and there, to extract more value from various local economies.
Hoarding would actually be an improvement. Like a dragon sitting on a pile of gold. But they’re more like rampaging dragon that is never satisfied with its booty
They extract value from things until there is no more wealth, like mining an ore vein dry or bottling all the water from an aquafer. They hoard that value for themselves and leave nothing of value for others.
The one description in this entire post that is pretty accurate.
Leeches, because that’s what they are.
For me they are parasites, as they live off of the work of everyone else without contributing.
Those who subsist off the philanthropy of the workers who build their houses, produce and prepare their food, and subscribe to their pointless rents.
And these good Samaritan workers do this for a fraction of the value produced, all so that these poor wealthy elites don’t have to engage in real, productive labour.
Have a heart. It’s a certainty that they would starve without our charity!
They contribute sometimes by creating jobs, so they can get richer and fatter while still exploiting those who are taking those new jobs.
jOb cReAtOrS.
Everyone contributes sometimes, even the brain eating parasite from Tsikander, stop being an apologist.
I’m not. Idk how you missed the harsh criticism in my comment.
So they are contributing?
Who calls them elite? Only they themselves.
And the media conglomerates they own.
Exactly. They use those to build this lie that they are this grand untouchable class of super beings, but if the OceanGate 2 scandal showed us anything, they are not invincible. They are mortal just like us.
I was just going to say that!
The only time I hear it is in tv shows.
Anime and manga. Classroom of the Elite 🤢
Predator sounds too cool, also. Makes me think of those hunter aliens from the scifi franchise of the same name.
Why not dickbags?
Freeloader class
The handouts class.
I was thinking the parasite class.
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I was thinking the same thing, predator sounds about as cool as elite
I always thought the elite were the highly educated, not the rich.
You misspelled narcissist.
Very few highly educated folks are poor, in fact, majority come from money.
“More than three-quarters of medical students came from families in the top two quintiles of family income”
https://www.aamc.org/media/9596/download
I am from a family in the 3rd quartile, nobody ever said I could grow up to be a Doctor. Most told me to ‘go to state school and get a shitty office job and be happy with it’. In my college all the kids studying to be med students were driving used BMWs/Mercedes and paying several grand extra a year for parking, new dorms, and the like.
Maybe it’s more of a US issue.
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A better example is any flavor of engineer. Usually well educated, earn well over median wage, yet are not wealthy. Are they elite?
Or what about teachers. Very well educated, are building our future, yet don’t get paid nearly enough. Elite? Or non-lite?
depends on how wealthy their parents were.
I don’t call them the elite… I will continue to not call them elite if that helps.
Parasite is much more applicable.
The parasites manipulate the predators to handle the suckers they trap with news nooses.
Although, just a little asterisk and footnote moment, it is technically possible to gain some level of wealth, like really really upper middle class, through means that are not directly predatory. Incredibly unlikely, but possible.
Incredibly unlikely, but possible.
I don’t think it’s incredibly unlikely working in IT in the USA.
There are some professions that are very well compensated because they’re still so hard to hire and retain for, but I’d argue they’re still undervalued on the whole for what they return for investors.
Also all of us in the global North are supported by a chain of exploitation of labour and nature that wraps around the entire globe, which isn’t our individual fault, but is part of the reason for our relative prosperity.
Also all of us in the global North are supported by a chain of exploitation of labour and nature that wraps around the entire globe, which isn’t our individual fault, but is part of the reason for our relative prosperity.
Good point
Thanks I’m pretty proud of that sentence
You used to be correct. Now, the IT have been traded for dice of errors. There is no correct result for anyone, though a few of the result will appear to be correct long enough to sucker the viral tricking the trade of humans for AI.
I’d argue that even very wealthy people who actually do something, like pro athletes, are getting paid correctly. If you’re one of the best in the world at what you do, then you should get paid a lot. It’s just that the exploiter class is still taking the lions share of the value they create… And “entertainment value” is dubious at best imo. But the exploiter class pays well for people to keep us distracted… I guess: don’t hate the players, hate the game-owners
Money is the Talisman of illusion that tricks the actual giving all real value for it"s essence of being the opposite…
I’m not sure what you mean, could you explain please?
Nobody calls them that except journalists who are on their payroll.
Or “journalists” trying to smear people they don’t like. FOX likes to call anyone that’s rich and left of “fascist” the “liberal elite.”
I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone making less than six figures actually call them that
Wait, elite are wealthy? I thought I was a “Coastal Elite Libtard” because I live in a coastal state, am educated, sit at a desk, and earn more than median wage even after adjusting for high cost of living. I worked hard for that college education (many years ago before inflation took it out of reach), now i have to be wealthy too?
Dammit, MAGAts have much simpler criteria and cheaper land, maybe I need to swerve hard right and land in a flyover state
Real-life vampires.