prole
Masses member, briefly
Prole is short for proletarian—a member of the working class.
The word carries condescension, implying someone uncultured or unsophisticated: The proles watch reality TV while we read Proust.
George Orwell's *1984* popularized the term for the masses kept ignorant and distracted by the ruling party.
Manual laborers as group
- underclassLowest socioeconomic group
- lower-classOf humble social standing
- bourgeoisieCapitalist ownership class
- aristocracyRule by hereditary elite
elite · commoner · peasant · serf · plebeian · masses · rank-and-file · caste
Dystopian surveillance state tale
- OceaniaPacific island collective
- Big BrotherTotalitarian surveillance authority
- thoughtcrimeProhibited beliefs under authoritarianism
- telescreensBidirectional surveillance monitors
dystopia · surveillance · doublethink · Winston · propaganda · totalitarianism · masses · ignorance
Manual labor workforce
- manualWritten instructions for use
- factoryIndustrial production facility
- industrialOf factories and production
- toilStrenuous, prolonged effort
drudgery · sweatshop · overtime · shift work · assembly line · manufacturing · workforce · paycheck
Capitalist ownership class
- class struggleConflict between economic groups
- means of productionTools and facilities for manufacturing
- revolutionViolent governmental overthrow
- communismCollective ownership system
socialism · Das Kapital · Marx · Engels · alienation · exploitation · collectivism · Leninism
working-class
Manual laborers as group
- underclassLowest socioeconomic group
- lower-classOf humble social standing
- bourgeoisieCapitalist ownership class
aristocracy · elite · commoner · peasant · serf · plebeian · masses · rank-and-file · caste · hierarchy
1984
Dystopian surveillance state tale
- OceaniaPacific island collective
- Big BrotherTotalitarian surveillance authority
- thoughtcrimeProhibited beliefs under authoritarianism
telescreens · dystopia · surveillance · doublethink · Winston · propaganda · totalitarianism · masses · ignorance · control
blue-collar
Manual labor workforce
- manualWritten instructions for use
- factoryIndustrial production facility
- industrialOf factories and production
toil · drudgery · sweatshop · overtime · shift work · assembly line · manufacturing · workforce · paycheck · union
bourgeoisie
Capitalist ownership class
- class struggleConflict between economic groups
- means of productionTools and facilities for manufacturing
- revolutionViolent governmental overthrow
communism · socialism · Das Kapital · Marx · Engels · alienation · exploitation · collectivism · Leninism · ideology
pleb
Ordinary person, slang
- riffraffDisreputable or undesirable people
- rabbleDisorderly, noisy crowd
- hoi polloiThe common masses
common · lowborn · uncouth · vulgar · unwashed · uneducated · coarse · crude · boorish · lout
- Dystopia1984, Nineteen Eighty-Four, dystopian fiction, totalitarianism, Brave New World
- Coined Wordschortle, galumph, nerd, robot, quark
- class labelsaristocrat, beggar, bourgeois, commoner, elite
- generationsbaby boomers, millennials, Gen Z, Gen X, baby boomer
prolesophisticate
Worldly, cultured person
intellectual · cultured · highbrow · refined · cognoscenti
proleruling class
Dominant governing stratum
Big Brother · apparatchik · commissar · cadre · overlord
- nuclear proliferationWeapons capability spreading internationally
- the proletariatWage-earning labor class
- proletarian revolutionWorkers overthrowing the ruling class
- nuclear non-proliferationRestricting atomic weapons spread
- dictatorship of the proletariatLaboring class governing authority
proliferate, proletariat, proletarian, proliferation, proles, proletarians, proletariats