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Luxury beliefs are status symbols (2022)

robkhenderson.com

201–210 of 396 posts

Re: Luxury beliefs are status symbols (2022)

#201

> When I was growing up in foster homes, or making minimum wage as a > dishwasher, or serving in the military, I never heard words like “cultural > appropriation” or “gendered” or “heteronormative.” > > Working class people could not tell you what these terms mean. But if you > visit an elite university, you’ll find plenty of affluent people who will > eagerly explain them to you. I figured out as soon as I saw the l…

> I figured out as soon as I saw the link title that the author's examples for "luxury beliefs" would just so happen to be associated with a feminist and anti-racist outlook.

Isn't the author's point that the examples correlate very highly with affluence? The fact that it may/may not be correlated to something else might be relevant, but I'm not seeing the relevance.

Re: Luxury beliefs are status symbols (2022)

#202
post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Intelligence and knowledge are two different things. An uneducated person may be highly intelligent but have little knowledge.

ok - in that case: when I switched to a white collar job suddenly all the world's knowledge was unlocked in my brain, and I knew the meaning of all these terms that had heretofore been opaque to me.

Re: Luxury beliefs are status symbols (2022)

#203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Crime is number one concern for black adults. Police doesn't even make the list." https://x.com/PeterMoskos/status/1515170739791568899

because getting shot by the police is neither violence nor crime?

It's a matter of proportion.

In NYC for example theres 400 murders per year, and maybe 1 "bad shoot" by cops where someone ends up dead and the cop should be in jail.

Other jurisdictions the proportion can be far worse, and justifiably reform is being sought. LAPD has about 10x the cop on civilian shootings of NYPD.

In some areas it's like being worried about getting powder burns from the airbag in your car if you crash it and the airbag goes off. I'll keep the airbag, as will most people when you actually poll them.

Meanwhile some of the white liberals who were marching in summer 2020 are the first people to call the cops for trivialities like a noise complaint or car parked in their bike lane..

Re: Luxury beliefs are status symbols (2022)

#204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am in no way conservative, but I think you are missing the point. There are sets of liberal and conservative beliefs that are held by the wealthy and powerful that are detrimental to the powerless and poor. He cites the liberal set, maybe he is a conservative and that’s his bias or maybe because there is an inbuilt hypocrisy in some of them, ultimately it doesn’t matter because the point stands on its own and one s…

I think you are the one missing the point: it's not that this post has a conservative bias (every text necessarily has these kinds of bias, and that's fine). The problem with this post is that it is only here as an argument against liberal ideas that he doesn't like, and as such it's entirely driven by bad faith. Then sure there may be some elements of truth sprinkled every now and then, but every piece of propaganda…

> The problem with this post is that it is only here as an argument against liberal ideas that he doesn't like,

Where's the point of making an argument against liberal ideas you do like?

Unless you are arguing that anything painted "liberal" should never have arguments made against it? That anyone making an argument against a "liberal" position should have their motives questioned?

Re: Luxury beliefs are status symbols (2022)

#205
post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great. https://www.statista.com/statistics/288256/violent-crimes-in...

UK police didn't have guns in the early 2000s either. The rise in recorded violent crime can't be explained by something that hasn't changed. You're just trolling now. https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/trends-in-violent-crime/#... .

I'm not trolling. Violent crime necessitates armed law enforcement.

While the rise in violent crime isn't caused by unarmed police officers the fact that they are unarmed didn't prohibit the rise in violent crime.

Re: Luxury beliefs are status symbols (2022)

#206
post #132

> When I was growing up in foster homes, or making minimum wage as a > dishwasher, or serving in the military, I never heard words like “cultural > appropriation” or “gendered” or “heteronormative.” > > Working class people could not tell you what these terms mean. But if you > visit an elite university, you’ll find plenty of affluent people who will > eagerly explain them to you. I figured out as soon as I saw the l…

cultural appropriation As a european, I just can't wrap my head around this. How is it racist if I like a food of an other culture so much I cook it? Or I like a hairstyle of different culture so I also want to wear it. Or clothes. Or making music. Or.... I mean, I admire all that stuff so much that I want it to be part of my life. How is this racist?

cultural appropriation is related to colonialism and post-colonialism, its relation to racism as a concept is really a function of how racism relates to the other two fields.

Of course many terms mutate in meaning.

Re: Luxury beliefs are status symbols (2022)

#207
post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Defund the police was an inherently absurd idea. It especially bothers me that proponents gave no reasonable explanation for what happens next after defunding[1] and many seemed to have no appetite for reform. Portland was kind of a poster child for this. Just look at how things have changed after their budget slash. - Police staffing levels are at critical levels [2] - Violent crime has shot way up in 2021 (along wi…

Your comment is pretty incendiary so I won't go through it point by point, but I'd like to emphasize the distinction between defunding (i.e. demilitarizing) and abolishing the police. Abolishing the police altogether is more of a utopian goal and very few people think society can function today without some kind of police. That said, the typical day-to-day work for a police officer doesn't require violence or the thr…

> but I'd like to emphasize the distinction between defunding (i.e. demilitarizing)

That wasn't the popular message being broadcast into the public space.

Re: Luxury beliefs are status symbols (2022)

#208
post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Defund the police was an inherently absurd idea. It especially bothers me that proponents gave no reasonable explanation for what happens next after defunding[1] and many seemed to have no appetite for reform. Portland was kind of a poster child for this. Just look at how things have changed after their budget slash. - Police staffing levels are at critical levels [2] - Violent crime has shot way up in 2021 (along wi…

Your comment is pretty incendiary so I won't go through it point by point, but I'd like to emphasize the distinction between defunding (i.e. demilitarizing) and abolishing the police. Abolishing the police altogether is more of a utopian goal and very few people think society can function today without some kind of police. That said, the typical day-to-day work for a police officer doesn't require violence or the thr…

I really don't think I'm being too incendiary. I didn't want to just spew bile, I'm frustrated at the wasted opportunity and the fact that those who have suffered most from it are those who those with the luxury beliefs were purporting to represent, and tried to show how these beliefs have harmed those who they're purportedly protecting. People shouldn't kid themselves about the consequences if they campaigned for this; it should be a useful lesson in politics for everyone.

> defunding (i.e. demilitarizing)

I agree with this! But this is reformation, not defunding. In fact, trying to create a police force more in line with Peelian principles will cost a lot more. "Reform the police" is very broad and has a lot of room for interpretation. "Defund the police" is a very straightforward request. Words have meanings, and defund does not mean demilitarize. I would bet a large amount of money on "Defund the police" polling worse with all political groups than "Reform the police" by a huge margin.

> the police force shouldn't behave like some kind of paramilitary unit

I agree with this too! Perhaps this could be done through some kind of reform ;)

Re: Luxury beliefs are status symbols (2022)

#209
post #132

> When I was growing up in foster homes, or making minimum wage as a > dishwasher, or serving in the military, I never heard words like “cultural > appropriation” or “gendered” or “heteronormative.” > > Working class people could not tell you what these terms mean. But if you > visit an elite university, you’ll find plenty of affluent people who will > eagerly explain them to you. I figured out as soon as I saw the l…

cultural appropriation As a european, I just can't wrap my head around this. How is it racist if I like a food of an other culture so much I cook it? Or I like a hairstyle of different culture so I also want to wear it. Or clothes. Or making music. Or.... I mean, I admire all that stuff so much that I want it to be part of my life. How is this racist?

Apparently it is related to the whole Woke stuff, I also don't get it.

Re: Luxury beliefs are status symbols (2022)

#210

> When I was growing up in foster homes, or making minimum wage as a > dishwasher, or serving in the military, I never heard words like “cultural > appropriation” or “gendered” or “heteronormative.” > > Working class people could not tell you what these terms mean. But if you > visit an elite university, you’ll find plenty of affluent people who will > eagerly explain them to you. I figured out as soon as I saw the l…

> I figured out as soon as I saw the link title that the author's examples for "luxury beliefs" would just so happen to be associated with a feminist and anti-racist outlook. Isn't the author's point that the examples correlate very highly with affluence? The fact that it may/may not be correlated to something else might be relevant, but I'm not seeing the relevance.

The response proves his point too in a way, and something I've observed in my NYC left rich cohort.

Deflecting all criticism by knee jerk reaction of calling the questioner a racist. Disagreement over the magnitude of a problem, its relation to other problems, or the terms used for a problem makes you racist and therefore bad. Now we don't need to consider your opinion and can move on.

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