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Notes -
There’s something instinctual about hating people who make lots of money off of not highly visible or hard work things. We love NFL players and moviestars, we hate investment bankers.
In the historical record, we see merchants being hated and nobles being loved. Granted, this is partly because nobles are writing things down. But noblemen seem to also have been genuinely more popular among the commoners than merchants. Every society replicates the distinction in rich people between nobles, who are wealthy for visible, high status reasons, guild masters who are wealthy for visibly working hard(even if the hard work is mostly someone else’s- think titans of industry that build companies), and merchants, who are wealthy for moving value around. As a general rule the commoners love the nobles, admire the guild masters, and hate the merchants. And, obviously, stewards code as a subset of merchants; making a living off of managing somebody else’s money or property is- well, it’s not yours, it’s gotta be at least mildly dishonest.
Today we see that Elon and Trump had popular fanbases before their political turn; Wall Street types never do. There are villain professional athletes, but in equal measure there are those beloved by the public. I think this explains a lot of todays political divides that confuse the PMC(is there any definition for that word?). But it’s a deeper thing. The peasants think, and always have, that the stewards and merchants are there to screw them for personal gain and if the nobles and guild masters knew they’d stop it.
Like yes, cultural affinity explains some of the Republican gains with the working class, but can you imagine Trump driving a pickup truck? Democrats used to get this- they had union reps that worked their way up from the shop floor campaigning for them, not professional managers. No amount of hunting photo shoots can get around the issue there.
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