A social phenomenon in which individuals or groups who have successfully advanced in status, wealth, or opportunity then act to block others from accessing the same path upward.
Key Features:
Motivated by fear of competition, scarcity mindset, or desire to protect hard-won status.
Can manifest in politics (e.g., immigrants opposing immigration), economics (e.g., professionals gatekeeping their fields), or class mobility (e.g., elites dismantling welfare or education programs they once benefited from).
Example (fictional): Raymond Leon in the movie "In Time" rises out of poverty to become a Timekeeper but enforces the very system that traps others where he once was.
Example (real): An immigrant who gained citizenship but campaigns to restrict immigration for others.
Key Features:
Motivated by fear of competition, scarcity mindset, or desire to protect hard-won status.
Can manifest in politics (e.g., immigrants opposing immigration), economics (e.g., professionals gatekeeping their fields), or class mobility (e.g., elites dismantling welfare or education programs they once benefited from).
Example (fictional): Raymond Leon in the movie "In Time" rises out of poverty to become a Timekeeper but enforces the very system that traps others where he once was.
Example (real): An immigrant who gained citizenship but campaigns to restrict immigration for others.
1. After becoming wealthy through public education, the politician now opposes funding for schools, effectively pulling up the ladder behind him.
2. Some immigrants, once they gain citizenship, support restrictive immigration policies — a classic case of pulling up the ladder.
2. Some immigrants, once they gain citizenship, support restrictive immigration policies — a classic case of pulling up the ladder.
by Social Climber September 16, 2025
Get the Pulling Up the Laddermug. by StumpyLegs April 20, 2022
Get the Laddermug. Noun: Multiple people stacked on top of one another in order for another person to climb them to reach a higher area
by Hugh Jannis April 17, 2022
Get the Human Laddermug. by Pseudocherry November 20, 2023
Get the Ladder castlemug. During the act of vaginal intercourse, you also slip one of your balls inside her at the same time as your penis.
by Dick Blicker January 18, 2023
Get the Hook and laddermug. by emily.dickinson April 23, 2021
Get the Ladderedmug. A ladder circuit that is infinitely long with infinite square with resistors on each side of the squares
Person 1: I've invented a new sport: Nerd Sniping.
Person 2: How do you play?
Person 1: Watch. HEY WhATS THE R EQ OF A INFINITE RESISTOR LADDER WITH ALL VALUES OF R-
Person 3 *stops walking across the street*: uh you can start by hmmmmmm--
VROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM SKRRR SKRAMMMMMMMM
Person 1: That was two points for me. Physicists are 2 points, mathematicians are 3 points.
Person 2: I will have no part in this.
Person 2: How do you play?
Person 1: Watch. HEY WhATS THE R EQ OF A INFINITE RESISTOR LADDER WITH ALL VALUES OF R-
Person 3 *stops walking across the street*: uh you can start by hmmmmmm--
VROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM SKRRR SKRAMMMMMMMM
Person 1: That was two points for me. Physicists are 2 points, mathematicians are 3 points.
Person 2: I will have no part in this.
by No Such Thing as IsaacOrz March 7, 2025
Get the Infinite Resistor Laddermug.