Spyke
lemmy.world

More in line with bourgeoisie, the class term should be "parasitaire". Hell, it even has Paris in it. 🤪

23

Close enough for me. People pronounce it all different ways anyway

4

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.

5

Yeah, predators earn their food, typically.

Wealthy people are almost always born with it... Just like many parasites.

7
lemmy.ca

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.

68
SattaRIPreply
kbin.social

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.

22
lemmy.world

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.

5

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.

4

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

62
grrgylereply
slrpnk.net

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

4

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.

2
lemmy.world

For me they are parasites, as they live off of the work of everyone else without contributing.

40

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!

4
Zacryonreply
lemmy.wtf

They contribute sometimes by creating jobs, so they can get richer and fatter while still exploiting those who are taking those new jobs.

-1
Valmondreply
lemmy.world

jOb cReAtOrS.

Everyone contributes sometimes, even the brain eating parasite from Tsikander, stop being an apologist.

4

I'm not. Idk how you missed the harsh criticism in my comment.

3

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.

2

I was thinking the same thing, predator sounds about as cool as elite

2
lemmy.world

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.

-1
AA5Breply
lemmy.world

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?

1
lemmy.world

I don't call them the elite... I will continue to not call them elite if that helps.

12

Parasite is much more applicable.

The parasites manipulate the predators to handle the suckers they trap with news nooses.

12
lemmy.today

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.

11
oce 🐆reply
jlai.lu

Incredibly unlikely, but possible.

I don't think it's incredibly unlikely working in IT in the USA.

1
grrgylereply
slrpnk.net

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.

1
oce 🐆reply
jlai.lu

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

2

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.

-2
lemm.ee

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

1
sh.itjust.works

Money is the Talisman of illusion that tricks the actual giving all real value for it"s essence of being the opposite...

-3

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."

3

I don't think I've ever seen anyone making less than six figures actually call them that

9

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

6

The issue is most of us would behave the same way if we were the ones with all the money. Not everyone of course, but a fair number of us.

2
lemm.ee

That feeling when you were randomly born wealthy and get the daily slander dose on Lemmy.

-8
lemmy.world

Just because you were born wealthy doesn't mean you have to live like it or keep the money to yourself.

3
lemm.ee

Exactly. Yet here everyone seems to connect the two and equalize together. It’s stupid really.

We should rather focus on pro-capitalists that can also be poor eg. (Trump voters).

-1
lemmy.world

I've never seen anyone here pass judgment upon someone whose parents are rich.

-1
lemm.ee

They say „eat the rich” „target practice”, „predators” and such. What do you mean you haven’t seen? This is the very post here.

Do you think it’s nice to wake up and see someone wanting you to die or get hurt? Nah it’s gross and evil.

Just because someone is wealthy, rich or well off it doesn’t mean they are automatically an outlet for all the evil and frustrations.

It’s never okay to generalize people like that.

-1
lemmy.world

Are you really so naive that you think that applies to people who happen to have rich parents?

Because they aren't talking about you, they're talking about your parents. If you become your parents, they're talking about you.

0
lemm.ee

What do you think happens with wealth? It stays in family. If my parents are rich then I am rich what are you even trying to say?

You think I wasn’t given millions already?

1

What happens with wealth? Ideally, it gets spent and/or given away rather than hoarded.

If you are hoarding wealth, as most rich people are, then yes, you are the one being discussed.

No one is forcing you to keep those millions.

1
lemm.ee

They must be absolutely devastated for all the critizism coming from social media platform nobody has ever heard of.

2

Well it’s a fun platform but it’s a little annoying the mindless witch-hunt you know. It’s not like some of us had a choice in how much money and properties we are born with.

Less replace the rich with pro-capitalists and never assume automatically.

After all there are a lot of poor people that are very aggressively pro capitalist and a lot of wealthy and well off people that advocate daily for socialism in politics and equality concepts.

1

...and once upon a time, they didn't care much what people said about them on twitter, too.

1