It's just pretension. No. Or maybe yes, but not in the condescending way you imply. The article is about "class", and stylistically, it's speaking to a parti

It's just pretension. No. Or maybe yes, but not in the condescending way you imply. The article is about "class", and stylistically, it's speaking to a particular class. If you are in that target class (or familiar with it), it reads very well. If you are not, well, that's the self-referential topic of the article.