Luxury beliefs are status symbols

Speaking as a white, working-class kid who got a good education, worked hard, had some amazing luck, and is now an affluent, heteronormative, relatively high-status parent:

What a load of horseshit.

Yes, my wife and I teach our kids about the value of hard work, even as we recognize that there was a big element of luck and privilege involved in our success. It takes nothing away from our self-esteems to say that, even though, yes, we worked hard and continue to work hard. But we had some lucky breaks. And to be frank, I've screwed up a lot in my life and my career, and I've always been given another chance. Nobody ever said about me, "well, what did you expect? He's just a white heterosexual christian male, after all."

So is it a contradiction that we acknowledge our privilege and our good fortune, while teaching our children to work hard? Of course it isn't. Life is far more complicated than that, which this author, in his quest for a simple either/or framework and a pithy line, seems to forget.

There is also literally no one in our social circle, or anyone that I know of in our larger social media set, who advocates "defund the police." I would like to see police de-emphasize military-style equipment and training. I would like to see police trained to treat members of the public as citizens, rather than as enemy combatants. I would like to see fewer of them armed. I would like to see police officers who kill held accountable. I would like to see police cultivate better relationships with people of color. Are these "luxury beliefs"? I don't think so, but my beliefs are far too nuanced to be caricatured as "defund the police." Once again, though, the author needs something short and snappy, so that's what he's going with.

> You're just not supposed to attribute all your successes to yourself.

Because it's very rarely true. Yes perhaps the individual performance of an actor is their own, but how much of the overall performance could be attributed them realistically?

People pick up on conceit and sanctimony pretty easily.

In my country, this is mostly a class issue.

Ten years ago, i was basically a social worker, and had a friend who happened to be a native peruvian (not a latino at all, so black-skinned, but clearly south american chin and overall face), adopted by upper middle-class parents.

When he was young, he had no accent, had a curb chain and a small cross, a weird (but tame) haircut, and old/tight clothes (you know, christian private school type).

He then started to listen to rock and rap music, wore hoodies and jeans, and shaved his head. Basic adolescent stuff. His encounters with the police increased tremendously at that time, and also weirdly never managed to hitchhike (he lived in a relatively small city, but still a city. Maybe he never tried). At least according to him. Three years later, he understood, and started to dress himself better: tight T-shirts, non-baggy jeans, nice, professionnal haircut, and put his curb chain back (that's when i met him). He had not been interrogated or asked an ID for several years after.

I still think the skin color matters for law enforcment btw, but i'm pretty sure this is a class issue.

Oh no, this isn't the "virtue signaling" argument again, is it? I like to call this the Joker Argument: "Underneath you're no different than me, Batman!". It's a great argument because you can use it in any situation against any opponent, because it is contentless. And the effect is to attack your opponent's character and claim that they don't really mean what they are saying, which justifies your own selfish motivations while trying to paint the other person as a hypocrite. But it's just another ad hominem attack. And it's obviously false too: you can't know what another person's motivations are, and to say that you do is putting words in someone else's mouth. In that sense it's a form of straw man attack too as you are setting up an imaginary version of the other person to knock down. If you are using an argument like this, it's a clear sign that you don't have any real argument left to make. It's an act of desperation. Let's not do this, folks.

A lot of people have been trying to misdefine and mischaracterize it from the very start.

Largely people who get angry at the idea that black lives might matter.