There Is No Single Elite In Canada Or The U.S.

The election of Donald Trump as the next U.S. President is said to be a backlash by Americans, many of whom live in the “flyover country” of the central states, against an elite that lives in the coastal states. This elite, who supported Hillary Clinton, supposedly sees Americans in flyover country as stupid and bigoted, and doesn’t care about their problems. Voting for Trump was flyover country’s retaliation against the elite.

In Canada, political voices like Kellie Leitch and Ezra Levant have also portrayed themselves as striking back against an elite, often based in places like Toronto and Vancouver, that supposedly looks down on Canadians who live in other communities the same way the American elite does to flyover country.

On the other hand, progressive social movements such as Black Lives Matter and Idle No More also portray themselves as defending oppressed people, such as black, Indigenous or transgendered people, against another elite. The elite they are protesting against is said to be patriarchal, racist and only caring about profit.

Both the conservative and progressive movements portray themselves as standing up for ordinary and oppressed people against an elite that is determined to forcibly repress them. Depending on who you ask, this elite is either progressive and determined to impose social change on people who don’t want it, or conservative and determined to keep wealthy, often white, people in power and keep other groups oppressed.

How can the elite be all these things at once? How can it be racist and patriarchal one day, and determined to impose climate change policies and support for transgendered people the next?

One reason is likely because there is no single “elite” either in Canada or the U.S. Different people have different kinds of power, that they wield in different ways. That is why you can have progressive activists who can convince governments and parts of society to make social changes they want to see, while conservative activists also convince other governments and parts of society to make the changes they want to see as well.

One could argue that these kinds of divisions have always existed in Canada and the U.S. However, I can’t recall things being as polarized as they are now, with people on different sides of a debate not being other citizens you disagree with, but enemies who need to be crushed. People who disagree can be tarred as “elites” without having to respond to what they say.

The real danger here is that people forget that people in flyover country and Indigenous peoples might both have good points to make, and that they deserve to be listened to. Have we even stopped to think about whether we could act on both the concerns of people who support Trump and Leitch, and the people who support Idle No More or Black Lives Matter?

Red Green is a comic character, but he makes an important point when he says that “we’re all in this together.”

But will we act on that?

The problem with movements like Black Lives Matter, Green Peace, Idle No More, Occupy Wall Street etc is these movements get hijacked by anarchists with their own agendas where the original message is lost causing the movements to lose credibility.

The idea that elites are progressives who rule the established order but also want to force change on the established order doesn't make sense. If they already control the status quo and draw all their strength and power from it, why would they want to change it?

As for those on the the right like Levant, their complaints about elites are insincere. Calling someone an elite is just their way of pretending their own pet issues and beliefs are "normal" beliefs od the average citizen meanwhile the elite is some deviant outsider. It's the same old carp as when bible-thumpers would pretend to speak for a silent majority.

It's also their new way of spreading their lies and propaganda - by denouncing experts ss elites and calling all news media biased, they're trying to eliminate any non-partisan sources that can fact check them. "The moon is made of green cheese - who you going to believe: me, or some elitist astronaut who probably drinks imported beer (Unlike us regular guys)?"

The elites want to keep people quiet with their progressive pc agenda, It's a plot by the globalists to ensnare the world in strife.If they can stop you saying nigger, they've got you by the balls. Levant is the ultimate irony generator.He seems to have brains and education. wonder if he arrives at his media events in a limousine? People like him are talking to people who suspect there's people a lot smarter than they are out there that don't understand what's going on, that reacting with your hindbrain won't get you anywhere.

The thread makes a good point that there is no single elite, but there ARE elites on both sides that serve as the boogyman for the other side. The elites in Hollywood that think that someone actually cares about their political beliefs. The political elites of both sides living in a bubble in Washington D.C. The wealthy elites on both sides like the Koch brothers and George Sorrows who use thier massive wealth to curry favor with the political elites. They fund their hand picked candidates political campaigns, thus basically putting said politician on their payroll. The talking head elites telling us what to think on our televisions, radios, newspapers, and internet. The artistic elites flying on a private jet to lecture an out of work oil patch worker on the evils of hydrocarbons. The artistic elites performing at a Clinton fund raiser, or playing the Star Spangled Banner at a Trump rally. The elite filmmakers on both sides like Mike Moore and Dinesh D"Souza. There are plenty of elite boogymen out there. Thats the way its always been. Bread and circuses, well circuses for sure. Its always been like the WWE. Heels and baby faces depending on what side you are on. They put on a good show for the public. They talk a good game for the cameras in the capitol, and then they all go out for a beer together. Hey they had a good run.

Something different happened this time. An outsider that didn't have his company script showed up on the scene. He didn't know his lines. Nobody from corporate cleared this guy. "Whats he doing here?". He wasn't polished. He wasn't PC. He said whatever the hell he felt like saying. Neither side could fire him because he did not work for them. Elites from both sides took him on. They all failed, miserably. Now the right that was throwing him under the bus from day one is kissing his ass. The left that arrogantly thought that they had the election in the bag are shitting their pants. The people that voted him in are laughing at the elites on both sides.

People obviously care what Hollywood thinks about politics- look at all the steam that generates,

When the restaurant adds the e-coli special, people tend to get concerned. But I know, sanitation is so elitist.