Is this really true? On stuff like this I'm kinda torn on whether this is our modern interpretation on stuff like this or genuinely their intention. These kind

Is this really true? On stuff like this I'm kinda torn on whether this is our modern interpretation on stuff like this or genuinely their intention. These kind of traditions and laws were often implemented even in place where nobles / the upper class had little presence. Why? Is it because the peasants had internalized oppression? Or could it alternatively be because working together as a community was important to their very survival then, and so punishing subversive members creating discord was a matter of community survival? Which seems more reasonable: that the peasants had so much time and mindspace to focus on trivialities like making sure poor people didn't dress like rich people, or that they dedicated time to it because a raging narcissist actually posed a real threat? I guess I'm trying to say: maybe the people of the past weren't just all assholes preoccupied with making sure poor people knew their place and were instead much like us in that they focused on getting through the day (and their intentions aligned with that). That they spent inordinate amounts of time making fancy garbs just to humiliate random people in their village because "they're too poor to dress that way" just sounds like a fantasy we place on them because to take them seriously would run against a lot of cultural vogues (like that shame could have any possible value in society).