memes

To be fair that isn't entirely wrong. I would in no way say I was raised in the "elites", but my parents got into the one percent from the middle class. Even among the .1 %, there's a significant minority of people who are more or less outsiders to their social class.

I think you got the "anyone can become elite" aspect down, but the fear aspect incorrect. Once you reach a certain level of wealth it's incredibly hard to squander without extreme incompetence. The average rich person isn't afraid of being replaced. At the same time there is a lot of elitism with the underlying premise of "I did this, why can't you".

Sidenote a ton of talk about social justice 100 percent comes from people who grew up in families where money worries were minimal. The reason there's a disproportionate focus on identity politics is because that's the only struggle a lot of these people have ever known. The reason why the minority outreach ends up falling flat is because most people involved in these initiatives are white people taking cues off the one minority they know, and that minority often is a decently odd duck themselves. The reason why so much of economic discussion devolves into "capitalism bad" is because these people don't have so little firsthand knowledge that they can't really describe nuance.

Of course there's also Old Money in the US too. My parents went to Ivy leagues so they are friends with a few. They largely tend to project elitism via strict social standards that go beyond wealth. The problem is that an almost comical amount of them seem to burn themselves out in three generations. It kinda kills the mystique when the mark of a "true elite" is hiding your fuckup son at a summer home on cape cod that looks super regal, but lacks a lot of modern amenities and is sort of falling apart.