What's Behind The Internet's Desire To 'Eat The Rich'?

In the last few years, shows like ‘The White Lotus’ and ‘Succession’ have managed to perfectly capture the inflated egos of the wealthy by putting the microscope on what they might consider problems. For most of us plebs though, getting to work everyday to be able to use air conditioning in the summers is where it’s right now lingering at. While most of us are busy figuring out which bus will have the lowest chances of witnessing a stampede on our way to work, the rich just happen to own the bus and the road. 

So it’s a no-brainer that when it comes to the suffering of the rich broadcasted in a very public manner, the common person’s sympathy is a bit skewed. “I think this is stemming from the growing and irreconcilable inequality between the rich and the poor and the persecution of communities everywhere for the crime of belonging to an oppressed class,” said Apeksha Priyadarshini, an activist and councillor at JNUSU.

If we look at it from an objective perspective, there’s always been disdain for the rich throughout history. For example, the phrase “Let them eat cake,” is famously attributed to the French queen, Marie Antoinette, who apparently said the words when asked what her starving populace should eat. The truth is, these words didn’t come to be attached to Antoinette until fifty years after her public execution, and was mostly started as a rumour to diminish her already dwindled public image. In what is a very modern retelling of the same, Elon Musk and his takeover of Twitter forced people to start making fun of the new CEO on the very site he happened to own. 

When it comes down to it, the poor would rather eat the rich than the cake. Since we aren’t in the middle ages anymore, literally eating the rich would be difficult for a lot of far-left vegans. Thankfully, there’s the internet. Twitter and Reddit have been the platforms where the new movement of hating on the rich and enjoying their pain has been growing, and somehow, orcas have become the posterfish for this movement. 

If you aren’t already in the know, orcas off the Strait of Gibraltar are acting erratically (albeit systematically) attacking boats and yachts, tearing off their rudders and rendering them helpless in deep seas. While normally one would empathise with the boat owners, people on the internet don’t seem to agree. In what seems like a scene from the movie ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’, these killer whales are now “orcanising” and scientists are confused as well as worried.

It’s almost routine now. Something terrible happens in the news cycle, and based on where they fall on the societal ladder, they receive condolences or memes on the internet. We are at a point in history where people from all over the world gather on the internet like a campfire to laugh at the misery of the rich — their pain and suffering becoming popcorn entertainment for most of the young masses. More recently, the Titanic submersible incident brought to the fore the fact that nothing is beyond being made fun of when it comes to the elite. 

Five people have now been confirmed dead and lost to the sea in a submersible. While the panic set in for a lot of people over the wellbeing of these five individuals, users on Twitter again resorted to jokes and memes to highlight the fact that these are rich folks who should have left the Titanic alone. But such is the folly of the rich and famous, that all that money perhaps has to go somewhere for them to feel something. Anything. 

Another favourite way for a lot of rich folks to kill time is trophy hunting. It is horrible, inhumane, and if you take away the guns, these hunters would barely last 15 minutes in the wilderness. So when a trophy hunter, who killed a lion for thrills, was hunted down and eaten by the dead lion’s brother, the internet of course rallied behind the lion. The lines of morality are blurry on this one, but it affirms one thing — all your shit will come to light on the internet if you’re financially well-endowed. 

Like in the case of the Shein-hired influencers. Shein, the fast fashion company that sells clothing for much cheaper than its competitors, hired American influencers and creators to tour their base in China. The backlash was swift and brutal, since Shein is infamous for its terrible impact on the environment and alleged human rights abuse. It’s really difficult empathising with the ones in power when all they use their money is for furthering their own causes. 

Back home in India, Youtuber and podcaster Ranveer Alahabadia (aka BeerBiceps) who garners millions of views by acting like a modern-day guru regurgitating the same BS you’ve known since Eat, Pray, Love, has been called out for selling out by inviting ministers of the ruling party onto his video podcast. While he claims that there was no exchange of money, social media users claim that platforming the people who are in power already and not asking them the pressing questions affecting the nation is absolutely tone deaf in this day and age. Indians are also seemingly wising up now — like when the richest man in the country asked Indians to support him after he was called out for fraud and money laundering.

Maybe making memes about the bad things that happen to the uber rich is a way of dealing with the fact that most of us will die in this endless cycle of shit, and for a few moments, laughing at those who have it all, makes the pain feel easier to deal with. As Priyadarshini points out, “The important question to ask is not just about where this disdain is stemming from but whether the attention these incidents have received also reflects the attention taken away from other such incidents (like a boat full of refugees capsizing off the coast of Greece). The question we should be asking is about our own humanity, and how and when did some lives become more dispensable than others.”

Follow Navin Noronha on Instagram and Twitter.