I found myself mildly nodding along to this waiting for the moment of clarity where he describes more fully the elite ladder but he doesn't and so I have no idea how to contrast this middle tier with the upper tier to see distinctions. What's an example of the Elite behaviors/language? How would I know Powertalk when I see it? What would an Elite do/have to show their true status?

I definitely accept that I'm not an elite. I am "wealthy" in a strictly relative financial sense but I have no political power/connections derived from it and have never tried to gain any. This has always been my personal distinction between say myself and the true elites. Wealth doesn't inherently get you power and I don't really even know how I would leverage what wealth I have to gain power despite this being a potentially viable avenue. Is this not a much better distinction?