I am on the precipice of one and don’t want that to turn me into a disengaged normies, lib, or chud. I know that a local DSA chapter was financially backed by a person of incredible means, so I wonder what keeps such people left wing or at least SocDem.
I was in tech for two years recently. It gave me enough money to purchase a vehicle to live in and to coast for the next little bit, but among the many reasons I quit (it was bad for my brain, it took up way too much of my time) was feeling the distinction in class interests. The biggest expression of this was that my coworkers had such bubbled views of social relations and had strange expectations of what the world owes them simply on account of how much money they have.
I think if you’re committed to your principles you’ll be fine. I just found I didn’t like being around people of that class for such extended periods of time.
Can you elaborate on this?
I found very few of them had any close contact with “outsider” groups - the big two that come to mind are queer people and neurodivergent people (at least those who would have trouble masking all day so as to conform to the culture, dress, etc.) Some of them were certainly a bit socially isolated, but they could count on being able to pay for not just basic needs but treats, comforts, and brand identity markers to paper over that. With an above-median personal income, the main next steps are to secure house ownership and then start a family, which can serve as your main purpose in life and also your main social unit that isn’t governed by economic transactions. I found very little interest in community building or intersectional solidarity.
When you’re on that level there’s no reason to question eating out or ordering food several times a week, flying across the world and staying in hotels several times a year, or ridesharing into work every day. There’s no need to think about the massive amounts of service labour that go into making those comforts accessible at the push of a button, nor anything that would lead them to realize that very few of those labourers can afford any of that themselves. For them, service labour is something you do in high school for some extra spending cash and a way to teach diligence to the youth.