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Luxury beliefs are status symbols (2022)

robkhenderson.com

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Re: Luxury beliefs are status symbols (2022)

#211

Post by JanSt »

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #206
JanSt wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I have a university degree and I know all the words but I don't understand what you are trying to say. I'd say colonialism - at least from a european perspective - has a lot more to do with subjugating the identity of the colonized. That's the opposite of "cultural appropriation".

Re: Luxury beliefs are status symbols (2022)

#212

Post by fundad »

croisillon wrote: post #107
MrBuddyCasino wrote: post #104

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?

Crime is such a concern because you can’t call the police if you want to live to support your family.

Re: Luxury beliefs are status symbols (2022)

#213

Post by ceasefire »

indigo945 wrote: post #101

> 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…

Pretty sure working class people suppress "fancy words". A fella could get mistaken for a "fairy" or maybe even get a beatin'.

It's like how mothers used to chip in to enforce gender inequality their daughters suffered. It is a defeatist mindset, that is culturally enforced and learned from bitter lessons of the reality of power balance and dynamics in society.

edit:

like many here at my development stage (middleclass, degreed parents, etc) there was significant positive feedback for displaying cognitive abilities.

So it is not a luxury, it is a privilege.

And that raises the question of whether it is in fact required (as a sort of petite-bourgois-oblige) for those of us who are comfortable with "fancy words" to do the talking for the otherwise encumbered oppressed?

Re: Luxury beliefs are status symbols (2022)

#214

Post by cmcaleer »

chongli wrote: post #184
cmcaleer wrote: post #124

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…

When have zeitgeist moments like that ever led to thoughtful, sober, laser-focused and effective reforms? In my experience, reform takes years and decades to build a consensus. You can’t “catch lightning in a bottle” and call it a day.

The civil rights movement, #MeToo, the Berlin Wall, the world post-2008 crisis, there are probably more that I'm not thinking of, but each of these directly contributed to a better world for those the zeitgeist focussed on in a tangible way. I think the voice of reason did pretty well in these, though unreasonable voices from within movements that made movements look bad to reasonable people existed.

Re: Luxury beliefs are status symbols (2022)

#215

Post by lupire »

fieldcny wrote: post #143
TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The implication is clearly that "woke" is an effete privileged liberal attack on the poor and oppressed. It's ridiculously transparent libertarian/conservative PR. As others have said - far more directly abusive and entitled privileged beliefs are endemic among the very rich. If they weren't they wouldn't spend so much time strike-breaking, stealing pay, flouting laws and regulations, buying politicians, and proselyt…

The two are not mutually exclusive. The fact is worrying and getting angry about things like cultural appropriation is something one can only do if they have the time and energy to. Most laborers are too concerned about being able to pay their bills, provide for their dependents and too tired from difficult labor to get that upset about a Chinese Basketball player wearing dreads.

And yet they have energy to freak out about homosexuality.

Re: Luxury beliefs are status symbols (2022)

#216

Post by Neil44 »

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #133
surrTurr wrote: post #114

On the point of success and the rich believing it is just luck whilst the working-class beliefs it's hard work: Maybe both is true. Becoming successful in working class jobs often *does* require hard work, whilst becoming successful in upper-class jobs depends more on other factors such as luck. For example, to become a great construction worker, you need physical strength, stamina, and a strong work ethic, as the jo…

A high-paying job in finance or tech is not what rich means. Rich means ownership and rent-seeking . It means dominating some part of your culture to the extent that you can force your will and desires on significant numbers of people - often against their personal interests. One of the best examples is the health insurance industry, which bankrupts half a million Americans every year - usually people who have been p…

Rich is a subjective term but your definition of it is strangely unusual and specific.

Re: Luxury beliefs are status symbols (2022)

#217

Post by zarathustreal »

steveBK123 wrote: post #210
lelanthran wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

>Now we don't need to consider your opinion and can move on.

You can ignore anyone arguing from opinion, that's a given. "NYC left rich cohort" sounds like an absolute nightmare to try to figure out the truth with, given that they seem to think the character of a speaker has any bearing on the validity of their spoken words. Best not to engage with people like that, it's a waste of time.

Re: Luxury beliefs are status symbols (2022)

#218

Post by prvc »

indigo945 wrote: post #101

> 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…

The phenomenon of the migration of upper-middle or middle class (that is, those on the margin of luxury) holders of the beliefs mentioned in TFA from blue to red states is strong evidence of his thesis.

Re: Luxury beliefs are status symbols (2022)

#220

Post by lupire »

nyanpasu64 wrote: post #121
TerryGrampl wrote: post #119

This reminds me of an interesting piece I read last month, which looks at one particular luxury belief that is especially divisive right now, and criticizes it with regards to class: https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/09/25/trans-the-new-ideol... Like those described in the article above, this is very much a middle-class movement whose proponents have seized the opportunity to sneer at working-class people as bigoted…

Tell that to the trans people I've met who were physically beaten and mentally abused by authoritarian parents, unable to move out or find secure housing due to burnout, mental health disabilities, and a lack of aid or sustainable jobs, in both Western and third-world countries.

According to the article, I rightly choose not to believe they exist because they are inconvenient and I am too busy working to accept such an inconvenience.

The same logic refuted abolitionism.

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