True Elite

The concept of the "True Elite" refers to individuals who achieve elite status through genuine superiority of competence, training, skill, and contribution to society, rather than through unethical manipulation and rent-seeking. They have been driven out of and are now almost non-existent in our current institutions.

• True elites are those who reach the top of their fields through skill, dedication, and ability, rather than through social status, connections, or rent-seeking behavior.
• Critical Roles in Society – Weinstein highlights professions where elite performance is essential—surgeons, military special forces, pilots, scientists, and other high-stakes fields where the best are required for survival, innovation, and safety.
• Contrast with Extractive Elite – Weinstein differentiates true elites (who contribute) from extractive elites (who exploit systems for personal gain without providing value). Extractive elites rise through bureaucratic maneuvering, institutional capture, or inherited influence rather than ability.
• The Danger of Flattening Expertise – Weinstein warns against societal trends that could blur the distinction between real experts and mediocre performers by attacking all forms of elitism. If people reject elites altogether, they may demand “good enough” brain surgeons, pilots, or hostage rescue teams—a dangerous shift.
• Limits to Inclusion – While he supports recognizing outliers and talent wherever it arises, Weinstein acknowledges that not everyone can or should be in elite roles. Expertise and performance should determine access, not social pressures for inclusivity.
• The Need for a Functional Elite Class – Rather than advocating for abolishing elites, Weinstein argues for the restoration of a well-paid, public-spirited, and competent elite—especially in leadership roles. He calls for a generational reset, moving away from entrenched figures and bringing in new, capable individuals.

On X

Joe Norman

@normonics

Overcentralization, elitism, and in the case that concerns me with you and the "IDW" is replacement of elites with other elites instead of dismantling of the structure that distorts bottom-up processes.

7:27 PM · Feb 14, 2019

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

How do you feel about elite surgeons?

Elite special forces?

Elite athletes?

Elite pilots?

Elite Scientists and Researchers?

Forget the word elite. Yes, we need to recognize outliers rather than have the fake & rent-seeking elite privatize the true outliers who threaten them.

7:34 PM · Feb 14, 2019

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

Your true elite want to do a lot for the world. The rent-seeking elite find this terrifying. You don’t want me doing amateur brain surgery on your child because you want to democratize everything. I’m just not an elite musician so I let the top rise.There are limits to inclusion.

7:39 PM · Feb 14, 2019

Joe Norman

@normonics

the elite who "Want to do a lot for the world" are precisely the ones who worry me

seduced by abstractions, they pave the road to hell with their good intentions.

7:41 PM · Feb 14, 2019

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

Yeah. Hate that.

7:42 PM · Feb 14, 2019

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

But stop romanticizing the bottom up too. The bottom is a mess. The top is a mess. The best we can do is sort out what makes sense the best we can. Thanks for engaging. Hope it helps.

Last thought: think about failure modes and always about systems of selective pressures. Ciao.

7:45 PM · Feb 14, 2019

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

There’s no better way to destroy elitism than calling our unethical rich “the elite”.

Soon folks will want average relatable folks for their kid’s brain surgeon or good-enough hostage rescue units. Anyone else will remind them of a partner at Goldman conspiring at a fund raiser.

8:33 AM · Jun 15, 2021

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

Many elite PhDs are produced only to be slaughtered. They are given a brutal choice: join the consensus or perish.

Publish or Perish is downstream of the real problem:

Self-Censor to Join or Die.

The top priority of fixing our elite universities is this: ending consensus, peer review and affirmative action for elite researchers who were nevertheless too weak to stand against their fields and the artificial consensus that hangs like a miasma over academe since the late 1960s-early 1970s.

We need iconoclasts like @DrJBhattacharya, @MartinKulldorff, @matloff, @BretWeinstein, @skdh, @notevenwrong (Peter Woit), etc and many others you have never heard of who have been fringified in chaired secure positions as academics as they stood up.

I know that is brutal. I’m sorry. But we stopped housing our best people in favor of those weak enough to waste their lives on incremental or imaginary science.

THE problem devitalizing STEM is consensus. Make the elite dissenters financially, legally, reputationaly and physically secure, and you will never have another COVID, great Financial Crisis or other policy mediated mass delusion again with academic groupthink as its midwife.

🙏

9:07 PM · Nov 18, 2024

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

Let me clarify my position relative to @DOGE.

Move Fast: DOGE/Eric Yes/Yes

Break Things: DOGE/Eric Yes/Yes

Be Bold: DOGE/Eric Yes/Yes

The System has Cancer: DOGE/Eric Yes/Yes

The System is Cancer: DOGE/Eric ?/No

Extreme Caution is important: DOGE/Eric No/YES

Elon/Trump know EXACTLY what they're doing & it HAS to be done like this: DOGE/Eric Yes/I don't believe that

USG is just like Twitter: DOGE/ERIC Similar/Not at all

This will probably work: DOGE/Eric YES!!/Probably

11:39 AM · Feb 17, 2025

Teodor Zhechev

@tzhechev

How do you move fast and break things extremely cautiously?

11:44 AM · Feb 17, 2025

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

Talk to ex-Delta/Devgru guys. Or weapons physicists. Or Elite trauma surgeons. Etc.

11:49 AM · Feb 17, 2025

Teodor Zhechev

@tzhechev

I'm looking to understand. It's somewhat my job to get the balance between caution and action correct.

I would in no possible way call trauma surgery or weapons physics an example of "move fast and break things."

The SW origin of is that recovery can be cheaper than simulation.

11:53 AM · Feb 17, 2025

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

You need to control what can be controlled and you need to guess where you have to guess just as you need to simulate what you can simulate and you need to break what you need to break.

And you TRAIN and SELECT to know the difference.

And you pray you don't screw up the big stuff.

Hence, elite training and exclusive selection.

11:59 AM · Feb 17, 2025

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