California billionaire Tom Steyer thinks very highly of himself. He actively seeks the friendship of the rich and powerful to benefit his own monetary interests and, after making billions off coal and oil, he actually thinks himself a philanthropist… battling coal and oil. Steyer is a ranking member of the liberal elite, and he wants everyone to recognize him as such. His ego (and hypocrisy) is well known—and documented. What is less known is just how little he thinks of, well, everyone else.
Speaking at a conference held by the American Renewable Energy Institute in Aspen, Colorado last week, Steyer made his distaste for the plebeians among the American population very clear. By Steyer’s estimations, only .5% of Americans are bright enough to comprehend the impending doom of global warming. Indeed, only the “super-sophisticated” among Americans, “who think about politics and policy more than five minutes a month,” understand the danger of man-made climate change.
The rest of Americans, the 99.5%, simply cannot balance the stresses of daily lives with comprehending the most pressing political issue of their time. Apparently, the 99.5% do not have the capacity for complicated, independent thought and thus must rely on the elite to teach and inform them, to “make them understand.” Steyer,
“And the question in the United States of America is how are we doing with everybody else, which is the 99.5 percent of the people whose lives are very busy and complicated and pressing and they don’t have a lot of time to think about the things that don’t immediately impact themselves and their family… If we’re going to make a difference, we can’t just hit the people who are focused on policy in the United States. We have to understand how we can reach a much broader audience and make them understand why this is important to them and their families.”
Oh, to be among the elite .5% of Americans who understand the complicated issues of life (i.e. agree with everything that comes out of the mouth of Tom Steyer). It must be tough to always be the smartest person in the room.
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