“The class includes men and women of genuine achievement. But it also includes more than a few mediocrities whose snobbery is, to put it charitably, unearned.”

A striking aspect of the whole debate over white privilege, #BLM, you don’t pay enough taxes, if you don’t support Obamacare and other expansions of the welfare state, you hate poor people, the elderly and the sick is the idea that we have a social and political elite who know what is good for the rest of us. By virtue of their positions in life, they assume the moral authority to set the standards by which the great unwashed must live.

It is even more maddening when you realize that they believe they became the elite by hard work and their own brilliance and somehow you achieved your success through being a racist, a bigot and and/or a homophobe – their positions were earned, yours was not, so I have the moral authority to protect your victims by telling you what to do.

That’s why we have “stars” like America Ferrera, Madonna, Ashley Judd, Cher, Leo DiCaprio and the nutball Shia LaBeouf, who all came to their positions because people enjoyed watching them act or sing and they looked nice while doing it, not because they produced a life-saving drug, a space age fabric or ran a multi-national conglomerate with tens of thousands of employees that churns out products that make the lives of others possible, easier, safer or more convenient every day. They did stuff we liked.

Sit down, shut up and let the smart people talk, little children. You belong at the kid’s table – maybe one day you can sit with the adults. When you believe that you earned your position and others did not earn theirs, it gives you a sense of superiority over those “others”. Perhaps the best avatar for this elitism, “You have to pass the bill to see what is in it.”

Politicians in general and progressive politicians in specific are some of the least self-aware people on the face of the earth. Politics is the one industry where people can fail up, win a job by lying (or at least allowing people to believe things that aren’t true), grow rich through trading influence and lose touch with reality by being surrounded by lobbyists throwing money at you and having others tell you how great you are so they can get what they want.

I can remember in 2009 when then Brig. Gen. Michael Walsh of the Army Corps of Engineers addressed male senators as “sir” during a Congressional hearing and when it came time came to speak with Senator Barbara Boxer, he called her “ma’am.” Boxer blew a gasket and quickly snidely interrupted him, saying, “Do me a favor, can you say ‘senator’ instead of ‘ma’am’? It’s just a thing. I worked so hard to get that title, so I’d appreciate it. Thank you.”

This was Senator Boxer, who has earned a distinction as one of the dumbest members of the Senate, who got her title through convincing enough idiots to vote for her, speaking to a man who retired in 2013 as a Major General with 36 years of military service. I have a high degree of confidence that General Walsh (Ret.) knows a thing or two about working hard to earn his rank.

Shut up, you H8r. I earned my success, you stole yours. I own your ass.

More or less how both the French and the American revolution started.