OnlySubs: Entitlement and the Performative Elite

In a recent episode of the New Discourses Podcast, I took on the topic of “elite overproduction,” which I summarized as creating a more specific problem of bourgeois overproduction. In that episode, I tried to stay focused on the phenomenon of overproduction rather than getting into all of my thoughts about the problems associated with the bourgeois class that is currently being overfilled. In this episode of my subscribers-only podcast, James Lindsay OnlySubs, I take aim at some of the cultural phenomena that arise within the bourgeoisie. First, though, I try to make clear that I think Marx had the bourgeoisie wrong because he, being very bourgeois himself, conflated them with the capitalists (and true elites). Here, I characterize the bourgeoisie as the performative elite or fake elite and discuss a straightforward point about the distortion of their values: they wish they could live as elites but don’t have what it takes to do it. This generates resentment and the rationalization of their bourgeois (often hedonistic, materialistic, entitled, and self-serving) values to the dramatic detriment of society. Join me in this one for one of my more controversial discussions and opinions!