To think you can’t be ‘oppressed’ if you’re rich?

[ThatRedBeaker]

I’m not saying rich people don’t have problems but it feels ridiculous when millionaires and billionaires claim to be oppressed. Money buys you options, protection, power - everything that shields you from the worst effects of oppression. AIBU to think that if you’re rich, you might still face discrimination but you’re not truly “oppressed” the way working-class or poor people are?

Oppression isn't just about money... the wife of a rich man in an abusive relationship? You think 'tough shit, you have money, you're not allowed to have stress or be abused'?

To think you can make people think the way you do

Can you give an example of how a wealthy person might consider themselves oppressed?

I’m not saying rich people can’t experience personal suffering or abuse. I’m talking about systemic oppression: poverty, lack of mobility, exclusion from basic rights. Money can’t fix everything but it shields you from a lot of the structural barriers that poor people face every day.

I’ve not heard a millionaire/billionaire said they are oppressed.

Can you give an example of how a wealthy person might consider themselves oppressed?

Elon Musk. Look up his sad witterings about how everyone's mean to him because he's doing big boy government things now.

Which millionaires claim to be systemically oppressed?

You sometimes hear wealthy public figures claim they’re being ‘silenced’ or ‘cancelled’ when they face backlash for controversial views. Or politicians from privileged backgrounds talking about being ‘oppressed’ because their opinions aren’t popular. I think that’s where the line blurs - they conflate criticism or accountability with oppression, even though they still have massive platforms, influence and wealth protecting them.

Donald Trump?

It’s not always framed in those exact words but you’ll often see wealthy celebrities or public figures suggesting they’re being ‘targeted/silenced/marginalised’ especially when facing backlash over political or social opinions. Think of tech billionaires claiming the media is ‘against them’ or celebrities saying they’re being ‘cancelled’ while still maintaining fame, wealth and platforms. It’s not the same as systemic oppression but the language used often mimics it and that’s what I’m questioning.

Money doesn't aways make people happy, but it does buy a better class of misery.

So what your saying is 'if you have money you're not allowed to feel xyz'?
Are we back to the Vive le revolution!! They will pay for having more money than me!!!

Yes - and the poster made the point about patriarchal oppression. Lots of very wealthy women are still oppressed - either by men in their lives whose their wealth to oppress them or because they have become wealthy by being exploited (perhaps a choice - but a choice with a limited range of options).

Again - many women have been silenced and oppressed over voicing support for women’s rights

JK Rowling has only not been fully oppressed because she has MIND BLOWING amounts of money. Plenty of relatively wealthy women but with vastly loud less money than her have not been able to talk because of threats to their livelihood if not their actual selves

I saw a programme advertised yesterday made about the about the awful targeting of Holly Willourby by a dangerous lunatic.

Holly is rich and I am (relatively) poor. I don't think any woman in her position would feel protected by their wealth. Wealth doesn't protect women from dangerous men.

Everyone's mean to him, partly because he's a billionaire megalomaniac who thinks he can buy his way into world domination, but mostly because he's a prick.

J K Rowling IMO isn't oppressed. I think she has been treated appallingly but she still has a voice. She is hardly living under the Taliban.

It really is time we got back to using words to mean their actual meanings.

That is awful. It is, however, not oppression.

(Sorry - I realise the discussion has moved on a bit. I agree with you so your post was a bad example).

A few examples here

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/05/08/the-fugitive-princesses-of-dubai

God this is such a tedious narrative on MN and to tbf to a lot of people I know IRL. Money does not magically erase your problems. You are not immune to stress, abuse, mental health issues, relationship issues, loneliness, isolation, low self esteem etc etc etc.

You do not hit certain pay grade and cease to be a real person with actual feelings. Far too many people project their financial insecurities on to other people.

J K Rowling IMO isn't oppressed.

Which kind of proves the OP's point. JKR is too rich to cancel. But women with less money than her have been cancelled, have lost their jobs and businesses.

There are certain vectors of oppression that exist no matter how rich you are – race and sex being the most obvious. But a rich woman can leave her abusive husband, a poor woman often can't afford to.

Of course you can be well-off and oppressed. Plenty of the jews killed in the holocaust were rich. Of course the poor jews had even less chance of escaping but wealth did not protect them by any means.

If you mean more generically that wealth cushions suffering, then I'd agree that it does to an extent.

It's very possible to be rich and to be fired from jobs or uninvited from speaking or dropped by your advertisers. Whilst I wouldn't call that oppression, it's true that they are being silenced/marginalised when this happens.