Vicious Virtue-Signalling

 

Brooklyn-based freelance journalist Zoe Beery

Powerline recently linked to a an extraordinary article from The Non-Partisan New York Times, entitled, “The Rich Kids Who Want to Tear Down Capitalism.” If you haven’t read it, you really should. The author of this piece, Zoe Beery, is a freelance journalist based in Brooklyn who has previously enlightened her readers with pieces like, “What Abortion Access Looks Like in Mississippi,” and “Global Quest for ‘Green’ Concrete Goes On, as Researchers Ask if it Can Be Done,” and “Climate Inaction Means Children Born Today Will Face Severe Health Risks, New Report Warns.” You know that The New York Times is really trying to shed its reputation as a leftist rag when it hires writers such as this.

Anyway, Ms. Beery’s most recent effort, “The Rich Kids Who Want to Tear Down Capitalism,” is an extraordinary article about some extraordinarily ordinary people who find themselves in extraordinary situations. Namely, young people who have inherited enormous amounts of money and seek to prove that they are true-believer Marxists. To demonstrate their virtue. Or something. For example, 25-year-old Sam Jacobs, who feels guilty about having a $30 million trust fund:

A socialist since college, Mr. Jacobs sees his family’s “extreme, plutocratic wealth” as both a moral and economic failure. He wants to put his inheritance toward ending capitalism, and by that he means using his money to undo systems that accumulate money for those at the top, and that have played a large role in widening economic and racial inequality.

I understand why Ms. Beery refers to these multi-millionaires who are in their 20’s and 30’s as “rich kids” – they sound remarkably immature. Which is, I suppose, what leading a remarkably sheltered life can do to someone. For example, the fabulously wealthy 30-year-old Rachel Gelman, who describes her politics as, “anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist, and abolitionist”:

My money is mostly stocks, which means it comes from underpaying and undervaluing working-class people, and that’s impossible to disconnect from the economic legacies of Indigenous genocide and slavery,” Ms. Gelman said. “Once I realized that, I couldn’t imagine doing anything with my wealth besides redistribute it to these communities.

Outlet mall heir Pierce Delahunt

Some of these 30-year-old ‘kids’ seem scarred by the means used by their families to earn money. Like Pierce Delahunt, a 32-year-old self-described “socialist, anarchist, Marxist, communist, or all of the above” who apparently hasn’t given a lot of thought to what words like anarchy and communism actually mean. His family made a lot of money building outlet malls, and Mr. Delahunt appears to be struggling to deal with, well, a lot of things:

“When I think about outlet malls, I think about intersectional oppression,” Mx. Delahunt said. There’s the originally Indigenous land each mall was built on, plus the low wages paid to retail and food service workers, who are disproportionately people of color, and the carbon emissions of manufacturing and transporting the goods. With that on their mind, Mx. Delahunt gives away $10,000 a month, divided between 50 small organizations, most of which have an anti-capitalist mission and in some way tackle the externalities of discount shopping.

I try to imagine myself “tackling the externalities of discount shopping” and I draw a blank. If that is one’s mission in life, what does one do when one gets out of bed in the morning? The behavior of some of these ‘kids’ seems odd, but less so when you consider their goals, which are much odder.

The article goes on and on. Please do read it. You won’t learn anything, but you’ll feel much better about yourself when you’re done. And you’ll be reminded of why you don’t read The New York Times. And why no one else does, either.

Someone who understands economics and freedom better than an Ivy League graduate

Imagine a 35-year-old single mother who works as a waitress in a truck stop on Route 66. Imagine her reading this, about her fellow 30-somethings in this article. The waitress does not have the time or the money for foolishness or empty condescension, and I suspect she would take a dim view of those who use their immense resources to promote socialism, which will raise taxes on everyone, including 35-year-old single mother waitresses. These rich kids don’t care if their income taxes go up. They’ve got theirs. This is about taxing everybody else. And then they’ll feel virtuous, while waitresses’ lives get more difficult.

More difficult than they already are.

Giving $50 million to a sheltered, immature 30-year-old with adolescent levels of certainty and delusions of grandeur is dangerous. Daddy would do more good for society by simply burning his money in the back yard. But he loves his kids, so he sends them to some Ivy League version of ‘Socialism U,’ gives them a pile of money, and shrugs his shoulders when they attempt to destroy the system that allowed him to earn all that money.

Eh, he got his too, so whatever, right?

With great power comes great responsibility. These ‘kids’ understand power. But they don’t understand responsibility.

Someone like that can do a lot of damage. And as Zoe Beery explains at length, they intend to do just that.

Venezuela, after the destruction of capitalism

These 30-year-old ‘kids’ think they can buy self-respect. They’re about to be disappointed. And everyone else is going to pay the price for their failed experiment.

These wealthy elitists just can’t comprehend that the waitress has learned more about the world at the truck stop then they did at Harvard. But they don’t care. Their empty souls demand the payment of tribute. No matter how many people get hurt. Whatever.

They’ve got theirs.

So for them, it’s all just a game. But for truckstop waitresses and the rest of us, this is no game. Destroying capitalism will make a lot of people very poor, and very miserable. It always does. But to the trust fund kids, it’s just a game.

They’ve got theirs.

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  1. David Foster Member
    David Foster
    @DavidFoster

    I’m currently reading Rebecca West’s ‘The New Meaning of Treason,’ which discusses, first, those Brits who aligned with the Nazis during WWII, and then, those who spied for the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

    Some of the same patterns as with some Progs today.

    • #1
  2. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    The New York Times is doing to journalism what these grease spots on the intellectual highway are trying to do to capitalism.

    What is “Mx.” an abbreviation of?

    • #2
  3. PHCheese Inactive
    PHCheese
    @PHCheese

    I was in the Army with a fellow who’s parents both had huge family wealth and each parent controlled a national company. He wasn’t ashamed of his parents but wanted nothing to do with the money or the companies. He was determined to make his own way in life. Joining the Army was his first adventure but unfortunately he developed meningitis and barely survived and received a medical discharge. It’s been over 50 years but the last I heard he was in medical school. Today’s trust fund babies would have something to learn from him. I am absolutely sure he has had a great and productive life.

    • #3
  4. Gazpacho Grande' Coolidge
    Gazpacho Grande'
    @ChrisCampion

    Percival (View Comment):

    The New York Times is doing to journalism what these grease spots on the intellectual highway are trying to do to capitalism.

    What is “Mx.” an abbreviation of?

    Missile, Experimental:

    Image result for mx missile

    • #4
  5. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    Gazpacho Grande' (View Comment):

    Percival (View Comment):

    The New York Times is doing to journalism what these grease spots on the intellectual highway are trying to do to capitalism.

    What is “Mx.” an abbreviation of?

    Missile, Experimental:

    Image result for mx missile

    That was MX, though.

    • #5
  6. Jules PA Inactive
    Jules PA
    @JulesPA

    Percival (View Comment):
    What is “Mx.” an abbreviation of?

    As I understand it, Mx. is a gender non-conforming salutation. Not Ms. not Mr. But Mx. 

    Imagine it the parallel to Latinx, which is substituted for Latina or Latino. 

    Woke or go Broke. 

    • #6
  7. JoelB Member
    JoelB
    @JoelB

    Percival (View Comment):

    The New York Times is doing to journalism what these grease spots on the intellectual highway are trying to do to capitalism.

    What is “Mx.” an abbreviation of?

    Mixed up?

     

    • #7
  8. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    JoelB (View Comment):

    Percival (View Comment):

    The New York Times is doing to journalism what these grease spots on the intellectual highway are trying to do to capitalism.

    What is “Mx.” an abbreviation of?

    Mixed up?

     

    Mentally eXtinguished.

    • #8
  9. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    If we had higher inheritance taxes on these multi-million dollar inheritances, then Daddy might be motivated to use his wealth while he is alive to promote an economic and political system in which his snot-nosed children would have a chance of working hard and becoming rich along with everyone else.  But that would only work if he would be prohibited from setting up a non-profit foundation or contributing to one. Maybe it shouldn’t be an outright prohibition, but the money donated to non-profits should be subject to the same punitive, confiscatory taxation.  Non-profit organizations can be guaranteed to subvert the intentions of their founders, so some sort of expiration date on them by which date they need to spend themselves out of existence would help, too. 

    • #9
  10. Henry Castaigne Member
    Henry Castaigne
    @HenryCastaigne

    Dr. Bastiat: But he loves his kids, so he sends them to some Ivy League version of ‘Socialism U,’ gives them a pile of money, and shrugs his shoulders when they attempt to destroy the system that allowed him to earn all that money.

    Do you think maybe he is alienated to his kids?

    • #10
  11. JennaStocker Member
    JennaStocker
    @JennaStocker

    How quaint when these perpetual children did something to try and piss off their parents that had the potential to help people, like join the Peace Corps.

    • #11
  12. The Scarecrow Thatcher
    The Scarecrow
    @TheScarecrow

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    If we had higher inheritance taxes on these multi-million dollar inheritances, then Daddy might be motivated to use his wealth while he is alive to promote an economic and political system in which his snot-nosed children would have a chance of working hard and becoming rich along with everyone else. But that would only work if he would be prohibited from setting up a non-profit foundation or contributing to one. Maybe it shouldn’t be an outright prohibition, but the money donated to non-profits should be subject to the same punitive, confiscatory taxation. Non-profit organizations can be guaranteed to subvert the intentions of their founders, so some sort of expiration date on them by which date they need to spend themselves out of existence would help, too.

    My God no! Don’t give it to the government. There is no “we”, these days if it involves the government it’s “they”.

    These kids are idiots, and will obviously believe anything that makes them feel important and caring and better than you. So craft an approach that convinces them that all their daddy issues can be satisfied as long as they begin handing it all over to you for some wonderful soul-colonic reason. A Green New Deal scam is probably going to work great for a while.

    In the end they will be happy, you will be happy, and you can ship some of it to me for this suggestion and I will be happy – win/win/win! 

    Actually, you wouldn’t have to ship me any. I am a bad person, so the satisfaction I would get from knowing that any one of these little messes would get their egalitarian wish, and have nothing, and be a humble prole, to be faced with no choice but to get an actual job, would be better than the cash.

    (Not really. Send the cash.)

    • #12
  13. Mim526 Inactive
    Mim526
    @Mim526

    So very thankful for generations of family who taught by example work is a blessing…and a direct link to food, clothing, and shelter.

    • #13
  14. James Lileks Contributor
    James Lileks
    @jameslileks

    “When I think about outlet malls, I think about intersectional oppression,” Mx. Delahunt said, sipping a cold-press coffee whose beans he grinds by hand with two stones taken from a river in Cambodia. “It was a very spiritual river, Delahunt said, adding that he took the stones on a trip as a youth, and has felt a sense of guilt over his colonialist appropriation. “I tried to make up for it by seeding an investment in a micro-loan NGO that would help Cambodian villagers sell their rocks to the West for coffee-grinding purposes, because the intentionality of the effort would absolve the rocks of any negative connotations. I realize that some people still have a problem with this – I have a rock from another country, the British Museum has the Elgin Marbles, what at the end of the day is the difference – and I see those arguments. I hear them. But it’s not like I’m going an Amy Covid Barrett thing and adopting the rocks, forcing them into a Western mindset of servitude. One of the things we stress when we send rocks from Cambodia to the West is how the recipients should begin each pot by asking the rock’s permission. There’s an almost holy silence that follows, timeless and serene. And then you say ‘well I’ll take that as a yes!’ and make the pot of coffee.

    His beans, he stresses, only come from Central American co-ops that have at least 65% LBGTQ+ representation, which he admits can be difficult. “The culture down there is not as accepting as it is in the West, so . . . it’s, a challenge, and -” his words trail off, and his eyes cross for a moment as he attempts to reconcile the idea that the culture in which he lives is, by his own definitions, superior to another. But then he snaps into focus again, and notes how progress comes in fits and starts, and shows me a photograph of the truck drivers for the Guatemalan company. All the drivers are male, but half are wearing vibrant peasant dresses, and appear to be laughing at some joke the camera could not capture.

    “They sign the invoices ‘From Guatelamx,’ so I think we’re making real progress.”

    Having fully explained his coffee, Mx. Delahunt moves on to his real passion, which is pressuring The New Yorker magazine to use staples that come from ethnically-sourced metals, citing a 2006 UN report that uncovered gender imbalances in the workforce of Peruvian tin mines. 

    • #14
  15. The Cloaked Gaijin Member
    The Cloaked Gaijin
    @TheCloakedGaijin

    Dr. Bastiat:Brooklyn-based freelance journalist Zoe Beery

    I find it very difficult to take seriously young woman with large tattoos. 

    I suppose I might make an exception for women in manual labor job, but I think some of those women are just signaling non-friendliness to the opposite sex.  Perhaps Zoe Beery is signaling non-friendliness about other things.  The women who have tattoos on their backs and elsewhere can at least keep that stuff hidden.  I guess there are a few men who like or don’t mind women with large tattoos, but I think a lot of girls and young women take a wrong turn in life by going down the Lydia The Tattooed Lady route.

    • #15
  16. Dr. Bastiat Member
    Dr. Bastiat
    @drbastiat

    The Cloaked Gaijin (View Comment):

    Dr. Bastiat:Brooklyn-based freelance journalist Zoe Beery

    I find it very difficult to take seriously young woman with large tattoos.

    I suppose I might make an exception for women in manual labor job, but I think some of those women are just signaling non-friendliness to the opposite sex. Perhaps Zoe Beery is signaling non-friendliness about other things. The women who have tattoos on their backs and elsewhere can at least keep that stuff hidden. I guess there are a few men who like or don’t mind women with large tattoos, but I think a lot of girls and young women take a wrong turn in life by going down the Lydia The Tattooed Lady route.

    I wonder what her intended message is?

    • #16
  17. Addiction Is A Choice Member
    Addiction Is A Choice
    @AddictionIsAChoice

    Bravo, @jameslileks, comment #14 was brilliant!

    • #17
  18. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    Dr. Bastiat: With great power comes great responsibility. These ‘kids’ understand power. But they don’t understand responsibility.

    Good line.

    I’m always filled with disgust whenever a wealthy person says, “We rich don’t pay our fair share.  We need to tax the rich.”  The result is usually an increase in taxes that affects primarily the middle class, and the wealthy simply shift their assets and incomes around to avoid the tax.

    Likewise, these rich kids who want to be Marists have the perfect opportunity to display the vigor of their convictions by donating their wealth to real charities, not left-leaning organizations.  Of course, they don’t because keeping the money allows them to continue their unending virtue signaling . . .

    • #18
  19. The Cloaked Gaijin Member
    The Cloaked Gaijin
    @TheCloakedGaijin

    Dr. Bastiat (View Comment):

    The Cloaked Gaijin (View Comment):

    Dr. Bastiat:Brooklyn-based freelance journalist Zoe Beery

    I find it very difficult to take seriously young woman with large tattoos.

    I suppose I might make an exception for women in manual labor job, but I think some of those women are just signaling non-friendliness to the opposite sex. Perhaps Zoe Beery is signaling non-friendliness about other things. The women who have tattoos on their backs and elsewhere can at least keep that stuff hidden. I guess there are a few men who like or don’t mind women with large tattoos, but I think a lot of girls and young women take a wrong turn in life by going down the Lydia The Tattooed Lady route.

    I wonder what her intended message is?

    Probably something…

    1. Look at me.

    2. Help me.

    3. But don’t help me — not in that way.

    4. I want to feel more powerful, but I want to do that in a completely ridiculous way.

    5. I’m lonely.

    6. Someone, perhaps a family member, hurt me emotionally.

    7. I want to blend in with my friends.

    8. I was drunk or forgot to take my medication.

    9. And now I really don’t want people to look at me all the time.

    • #19
  20. Full Size Tabby Member
    Full Size Tabby
    @FullSizeTabby

    Haven’t most of the movers and shakers of Marxism always been rich people? I have generally chalked that up to either poor education or the desire to use Marxism as a system to control other people. For the merely ignorant, such as most of the people interviewed in the article appear to be, it does look like a game – playtime for the spoiled and idle.

    • #20
  21. thelonious Member
    thelonious
    @thelonious

    Stad (View Comment):

    Dr. Bastiat: With great power comes great responsibility. These ‘kids’ understand power. But they don’t understand responsibility.

    Good line.

    I’m always filled with disgust whenever a wealthy person says, “We rich don’t pay our fair share. We need to tax the rich.” The result is usually an increase in taxes that affects primarily the middle class, and the wealthy simply shift their assets and incomes around to avoid the tax.

    Likewise, these rich kids who want to be Marists have the perfect opportunity to display the vigor of their convictions by donating their wealth to real charities, not left-leaning organizations. Of course, the don’t because keeping the money allows them to continue their unending virtue signaling . . .

    I wonder why there isn’t a billionaire who does a virtue signals tax return where he shows he took no deductions, didn’t take advantage of any tax breaks and decides to throw a 25% tip to the government that shows he paid 70% of his income in taxes. I could respect that.

    • #21
  22. colleenb Member
    colleenb
    @colleenb

    JennaStocker (View Comment):

    How quaint when these perpetual children did something to try and piss off their parents that had the potential to help people, like join the Peace Corps.

    Or the US Marine Corps – if it would have them.

    • #22
  23. colleenb Member
    colleenb
    @colleenb

    Dr. Bastiat (View Comment):

    The Cloaked Gaijin (View Comment):

    Dr. Bastiat:Brooklyn-based freelance journalist Zoe Beery

    I find it very difficult to take seriously young woman with large tattoos.

    I suppose I might make an exception for women in manual labor job, but I think some of those women are just signaling non-friendliness to the opposite sex. Perhaps Zoe Beery is signaling non-friendliness about other things. The women who have tattoos on their backs and elsewhere can at least keep that stuff hidden. I guess there are a few men who like or don’t mind women with large tattoos, but I think a lot of girls and young women take a wrong turn in life by going down the Lydia The Tattooed Lady route.

    I wonder what her intended message is?

    Is it Wonder Woman or Betty Boop or ? 

    • #23
  24. colleenb Member
    colleenb
    @colleenb

    James Lileks (View Comment):

    “When I think about outlet malls, I think about intersectional oppression,” Mx. Delahunt said, sipping a cold-press coffee whose beans he grinds by hand with two stones taken from a river in Cambodia. “It was a very spiritual river, Delahunt said, adding that he took the stones on a trip as a youth, and has felt a sense of guilt over his colonialist appropriation. “I tried to make up for it by seeding an investment in a micro-loan NGO that would help Cambodian villagers sell their rocks to the West for coffee-grinding purposes, because the intentionality of the effort would absolve the rocks of any negative connotations. I realize that some people still have a problem with this – I have a rock from another country, the British Museum has the Elgin Marbles, what at the end of the day is the difference – and I see those arguments. I hear them. But it’s not like I’m going an Amy Covid Barrett thing and adopting the rocks, forcing them into a Western mindset of servitude. One of the things we stress when we send rocks from Cambodia to the West is how the recipients should begin each pot by asking the rock’s permission. There’s an almost holy silence that follows, timeless and serene. And then you say ‘well I’ll take that as a yes!’ and make the pot of coffee.

    His beans, he stresses, only come from Central American co-ops that have at least 65% LBGTQ+ representation, which he admits can be difficult. “The culture down there is not as accepting as it is in the West, so . . . it’s, a challenge, and -” his words trail off, and his eyes cross for a moment as he attempts to reconcile the idea that the culture in which he lives is, by his own definitions, superior to another. But then he snaps into focus again, and notes how progress comes in fits and starts, and shows me a photograph of the truck drivers for the Guatemalan company. All the drivers are male, but half are wearing vibrant peasant dresses, and appear to be laughing at some joke the camera could not capture.

    “They sign the invoices ‘From Guatelamx,’ so I think we’re making real progress.”

    Having fully explained his coffee, Mx. Delahunt moves on to his real passion, which is pressuring The New Yorker magazine to use staples that come from ethnically-sourced metals, citing a 2006 UN report that uncovered gender imbalances in the workforce of Peruvian tin mines.

    Funnier and more succinct than the original article I’m sure. A great pleasure to read. I’m using Guatelmx from now on.

    • #24
  25. Old Bathos Member
    Old Bathos
    @OldBathos

    At least in the good old days when the only way to be rich was to be a duke or an earl or something like that, there was some sense of duty.  One needed to tool up and protect the peasants when vikings/moors/wandering germanic tribes arrived.  And the castle had to stock up to feed everybody.  And one needed to support the local abbey or monastery. But being rich with no concomitant duties imposed by one’s station is an invitation to mischief.  Then to put such people in the hands of tenured world-class grifters….

    What is truly amazing is that there is not a drop of irony in the piece.  Not even the scriptwriters for Portlandia could have come up with the Cambodian rocks for coffee-grinding thing.  It proves once again that the NYT is truly the finest undergraduate newspaper in America.

    • #25
  26. Headedwest Coolidge
    Headedwest
    @Headedwest

    Stad (View Comment):

    Likewise, these rich kids who want to be Marists have the perfect opportunity to display the vigor of their convictions by donating their wealth to real charities, not left-leaning organizations. Of course, the don’t because keeping the money allows them to continue their unending virtue signaling . . .

    The other thing you don’t see is the lefty rich giving all their money away and joining the working class.

     

    • #26
  27. Vance Richards Inactive
    Vance Richards
    @VanceRichards

    Dr. Bastiat: Please do read it. You won’t learn anything, but you’ll feel much better about yourself when you’re done.

    OK, I read it and I am not sure if I feel better about myself or not but I feel worse about the future of this country.

    One woman in the article said:

    she donates to anti-racist groups and will soon begin making low-interest loans to Black-owned businesses

    Does she realize that those Black owned businesses are participating in  . . . Capitalism?

    • #27
  28. Dr. Bastiat Member
    Dr. Bastiat
    @drbastiat

    Headedwest (View Comment):

    Stad (View Comment):

    Likewise, these rich kids who want to be Marists have the perfect opportunity to display the vigor of their convictions by donating their wealth to real charities, not left-leaning organizations. Of course, the don’t because keeping the money allows them to continue their unending virtue signaling . . .

    The other thing you don’t see is the lefty rich giving all their money away and joining the working class.

     

    True.  I very strongly suspect that these goofballs will keep enough of their money to continue to live the lifestyle to which they’ve become accustomed, without the inconvenience of work.  I mean, they may be dumb, but they’re not stupid…

    • #28
  29. Vance Richards Inactive
    Vance Richards
    @VanceRichards

    Headedwest (View Comment):

    Stad (View Comment):

    Likewise, these rich kids who want to be Marists have the perfect opportunity to display the vigor of their convictions by donating their wealth to real charities, not left-leaning organizations. Of course, the don’t because keeping the money allows them to continue their unending virtue signaling . . .

    The other thing you don’t see is the lefty rich giving all their money away and joining the working class.

    Yeah, one quote from the article says:

    She plans to keep enough of her inheritance to buy an apartment and raise a family, enjoying the sort of pleasant middle-class existence

    No mention of like, a job or anything.

    • #29
  30. Headedwest Coolidge
    Headedwest
    @Headedwest

    thelonious (View Comment):

    I wonder why there isn’t a billionaire who does a virtue signals tax return where he shows he took no deductions, didn’t take advantage of any tax breaks and decides to throw a 25% tip to the government that shows he paid 70% of his income in taxes. I could respect that.

    Some years ago, Massachusetts (somehow) passed a cut in the state income tax rates. But they left a provision where you can voluntarily pay the older higher rate when you file. Almost nobody, including all the left-leaning virtue signalers, paid the higher rate.

     

    • #30
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