A Chardonnay socialist is the middle-class equivalent of a
champagne socialist or limousine liberal. The distinction is significant - they are
comfortable rather than rich, more likely to watch TV than be on it, and are much, much more numerous.
Chardonnay socialists are characterised by having wonderfully admirable left-wing ideals...which they never act on. It's about
feeling good, not doing good. Causes are often comfortably remote - it's easier to sit around with a glass of Church Road talking about how awful the oppression is in East Timor than it is to help your own underprivileged ten minutes
down the road.
Despite being about as useful as
tits on a bull, at first look they seem basically harmless. But like anyone who chooses a credo for their own self-interest and
entertainment, a chardonnay socialist's true value system may well be anything but what it appears. They are quite likely to have a case of the not-in-my-backyards: "Oh, isn't it wonderful we've accepted all those poor refugees into the country! (Just as long as they don't move into our neighbourhood)". If you're the sort of person who cares about actually getting something useful done, the idea of these people starts to look quite sinister.
An accusation of Chardonnay socialism is often a cheap shot fired by right-wingers at anyone they disagree with whose views are remotely to the left of their own. This can be moronic knee-jerk-reactionism or a more calculated move designed to play on the belief of a surprisingly large proportion of the population that anyone with an apparent concern for other people's well-being must have something in it for themselves somewhere. Either
way such accusations often have no substance, although if there weren't so many Chardonnay socialists about, the people genuinely interested in doing something good would be far less likely to be tarred with the same brush of hypocrisy.
The term is widespread in New Zealand as well as Australia, but a quick Google search for chardonnay socialism seems to indicate the term is restricted to these two countries. The British would probably say trendy leftie.
There is a
particularly high concentration of Chardonnay socialists in the suburb of Grey Lynn in Auckland, New Zealand.
-An example of a Chardonnay socialist is former
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser. Fraser advocated for the Lebanese concession however directed the new Lebanese arrivals to Sydney rather than his residential affluent native town of Toorak and other areas in Southern Melbourne. Areas which are 1000km away of Australia's biggest Lebanese community in South-western Sydney.
-During the 2005 Cronulla riots, the actress, Cate Blanchett with no history of living in the Sutherland Shire and South/South-western Sydney wore 'Think' T-shirts during a brief
attention seeking moment on Coogee beach with other Chardonnay Socialists.
When Lebanese youths were harassing innocent people during their weekly cruises to the Sutherland Shire for the last few years, Blanchett who at the time was much more likely to be overseas shooting several films such as Elizabeth, The Gift, The Aviator and
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Blanchett like Fraser before her, grew up more than 1000 kilometres away in the affluent suburb of Ivanhoe, Victoria, which qualifies her for a Chardonnay Socialist.
