Intellectual and Liberal Snobs (My Definition)

These two types of snobs are people that believe in their idea of truth or vision of the future so strongly that they are willing to dismiss and ignore people who have different ideas and visions than them.  Often their belief is wholehearted and pure, authentic.  But the way that they treat others who have different (and often just as authentic) ideas and visions is what sabotages them.  

They may find their truth or realize their vision, but in doing so they will have alienated so many people that it is seen as useless or even oppressive.  Those others will see that future as a dystopia because their concerns, ideas and beliefs are not part of it.  Those others will see those truths as conspiracy and lies because it doesn't take into account their values, experiences and beliefs.  

I think a big part of the political establishment is made up of snobs.  The result, the counter movement, is the rise of anti-establishment and anti-intellectual movements.  The ignored move to the margins, huddle there and become even more marginal. They become a caricature of themselves as they start to simply defy everything the snobs affirm.  This is, in part, because those in the huddle are so diverse that they really don't have anything they can stand united for.  (They are not conservatives or religious or anything but 'anti-s' at that point.)

The snobs bring this upon themselves because they are unwilling to take seriously the others.  Yet, they are so snobbish (even self-righteous) that they can't see this, and they blame the others all the more and in ever more degrading ways.  They refuse to really listen, care or compromise.  

The sad thing is that they, the snobs, are usually very intelligent and very hopeful people.  The problem is that their abstract ideas of truth, humanity, etc. keep them from seeing and dealing with real people unless those people share those abstractions.

It comes down to this: Individuals don't find truth, and even if they do, without a community to affirm it, it is meaningless and hollow, ineffectual.   Individuals don't make futures, and if they somehow can, that future is merely a tyranny unless the community feels they are meaningfully participating in and benefiting from it.

It is about community, which means it has to have listening, care and compromise as part of it.  This is something snobs, however well intentioned or correct, just don't get. And so, there is just so much they can't get right.