The Guardian is indeed more to the left than any American mainstream newspaper (though not some smaller publications). Still center-right (for example they overtly support the LibDems and New Labour whilst detesting traditional - leftwing, pro-Worker, pro-Union - Labour, and are big fans of privatisation), but relative to the mainstream US Press, they’re indeed to the left of it. This is because the Overtoon Window is so far to the Right in the US and UK compared to the rest of the World.
I also entirely agree on your points about the “merit” of those billionaires.
The point I was trying to make above is twofold:
Judge people on their actions, not their “style”. Judging people on style is in my world the kind of thing teenagers and superficial intellectually lightweight adults would do. Sadly an excessive concern with keeping up appearances and presenting the right image (whilst empathy or ethics are second plan) is a very English upper class thing and The Guardian is very much a bubble of people who were born in that world and close to it, so they’ll tend to resent those who don’t share such “values”. In my eyes, not maintaining appearances like wealthy English people would is the lesser of Musk’s and Zuckerberg’s sins, if at all sins - it’s what they do that damns them not their style.
They are being “two weights two measures” about it, or in other words, hypocrites. They do not apply the same standard to their very own ultra-rich as they do to foreign ultra rich (and, believe me, having lived in the UK I’ve observed that there is a very large fraction of extreme sociopaths amongst their own ultra rich, though they do indeed tend to present a posh gentleman façade all the while destroying the lives of tens of thousands and subverting what little real Democracy there is in Britain). Criticising foreigners is a far lower barrier than criticizing locals in the UK, because a large fraction is not most of the English commonly have the idea that they’re superior to other people merely for being English.
So a center-right English newspaper which is basically the voice of the English upper and upper middle class criticizing rich foreigners for essentially not presenting themselves the same as rich English, is totally the wrong vehicle and angle of criticism of people who definitely deserve being criticized, but for their actions not for their lack of proper presentation whilst they do them.
The Guardian is indeed more to the left than any American mainstream newspaper (though not some smaller publications). Still center-right (for example they overtly support the LibDems and New Labour whilst detesting traditional - leftwing, pro-Worker, pro-Union - Labour, and are big fans of privatisation), but relative to the mainstream US Press, they’re indeed to the left of it. This is because the Overtoon Window is so far to the Right in the US and UK compared to the rest of the World.
I also entirely agree on your points about the “merit” of those billionaires.
The point I was trying to make above is twofold:
So a center-right English newspaper which is basically the voice of the English upper and upper middle class criticizing rich foreigners for essentially not presenting themselves the same as rich English, is totally the wrong vehicle and angle of criticism of people who definitely deserve being criticized, but for their actions not for their lack of proper presentation whilst they do them.