I say it with humor, because it sounds like an oxymoron. But it does describe a certain wealthy, anti-capitalist clade here in Portland. (And I'll happily point that out to my friends, whether or not we agree on things).
I was just thinking of the last time I was waiting in my car at the McDonald's drive-thru with the rest of the proles, and a friend called. When I told him where I was, he had let out an involuntary "ugh" sound, and expressed that he can't believe I eat that garbage, let alone support that corporation. This particular friend owns a business that serves billion-dollar corporations, lives in a $1.2M house, drops $200 on bottles of wine at fine restaurants (where he's known for showing up in Transformers pajama bottoms) and grows almost all his own vegetables. Bernie stickers all over his (multiple) Subarus.
I guess "privileged commie" was a bit of wry shorthand, but it's not that much of a stretch.
It’s funny since pricing is set based upon social behavior (do we spend that or not and/or should we charge that or not?) capitalism is socialism with obligation to carry around a mind virus that preserves the figurative identity of Bezos and the like; they’re “better” capitalists.
I mean, socialism is capitalism with a mind virus that encourages displays of self-sacrifice, without really eradicating greed. Personally I think hypocrisy is more corrosive than ambition, and bitterness is more corrosive than misplaced hopefulness. (I also don't compare my worth to others based on money, and I don't envy the likes of Bezos. I do enjoy being paid and occasionally buying things that make my life more enjoyable, but certainly not because other people can't afford them; holding a grudge upward or holding a superiority complex downward would be the kind of "mind virus" you describe, but it's totally unnecessary if all you want is to have an enjoyable and productive life in a capitalist society full of fun shit and chances to build things that people in communist societies couldn't have dreamed of).
The thing I love most about Portland is that you can have these intellectual debates almost everywhere you go, really get to hear other people's thought processes based on their personal situations, and understand where they're coming from. I'm by no means a hard-liner; but I spend half my time out in Newberg which has an entirely different set of baked-in assumptions and priorities. I'm as likely to get into deep debates with people there as I am here, but far less likely to get into interesting theoretical territory. At least this place still has the ferment, the ideological exploration and experimentation of one of the 1920s capitals of Europe, as opposed to the stochastic but rigid normie-core preference structure of everywhere else in America. I appreciate that.
