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Nowadays the elites signal their status with Luxury Beliefs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luxury_belief https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luxury_belief https://ny

Nowadays the elites signal their status with Luxury Beliefs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luxury_belief https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luxury_belief https://nypost.com/2019/08/17/luxury-beliefs-are-the-latest-status-symbol-for-rich-americans/ https://nypost.com/2019/08/17/luxury-beliefs-are-the-latest-...

rsynnott 3y ago
The only concrete example that page gives is from Suella Braverman, who has just been fired for incompetence/general weirdness, and that's a difficult one in the modern Tory Party, let me tell you. I am... unconvinced this is a thing.
- quickthrower2 3y ago
  Wikipedia has it flagged: > This article may document a neologism or protologism in such a manner as to promote it. (October 2023)
  - gadders 3y ago
    That famed impartiality in action.
    - zztop44 3y ago
      Seems like everyone who disagrees with you is wrong.
      - gadders 3y ago
        I'm glad you've noticed as well. I thought it was just me.
- gadders 3y ago
  Yes, wikipedia showing it's usually disinterested reporting of events that concern current politics. Read the article if you don't like the wiki page. Braverman got fired for being right. Sunak is weak.
  - rsynnott 3y ago
    Look, if your best sources are the most disastrous recent Tory attempt at a Home Secretary (which is saying something; post-May, it has been more or less a who's who of the weirdest available Tories) and one of Murdoch's trashier tabloids, well, I think I can be forgiven for assuming that your thing is not a thing.
    - gadders 3y ago
      No, my best source is the writer Rob Henderson who first coined the term. The Tory ex-Home Secretary is entirely irrelevant.
    - exoverito 3y ago
      It should be trivial to observe luxury beliefs in today's culture. Among many examples, are those advocating for defunding the police, while living in gated communities out in the suburbs. Or the wealthy elite who support open borders, insulated from the pressures of mass migration. Post-modernism in academia acts as a form of prestige through its obfuscatory language games, yet it distracts intellectuals from focusing on real problems, as remarked by Noam Chomsky.
- 082349872349872 3y ago
  If idealism were a "luxury" it would suggest the status quo is some sort of dystopia; who wouldn't want to change such a world for the better?
  - gadders 3y ago
    The point isn't "idealism" - the point is promoting viewpoints that they have no intention of following themselves. RTFA.
    - 082349872349872 3y ago
      All four of Dr. (as he is now) Henderson's major points: handwringing over family structure, unifying social edifice of religion, role of luck in success, and white privilege, are not first world problems: they are specifically US problems. Eg: maybe the lower classes need religion in the US, but that is not a universal truth. I suspect I may be part of Dr. Henderson's "elite", but since I follow[0] these idealistic viewpoints as well as promoting them, and in order to avoid the Lie Direct and stick with the Retort Courteous[1]: having read the fine article my opinion is otherwise. [0] to the point of having voted with my feet to live in a better society than the States had, and (to judge from the news) has. [1] see As You Like It V:iv
      - gadders 3y ago
        Which of these beliefs to you practise in every day life? Are you a single parent? Are you in favour of defunding the police and live in a high crime neighbourhood? Are you in favour of mass immigration whilst working in a job that would be affected by this?
        082349872349872 3y ago
        All four: (households) I support a society where —as in the US of the last century in which I grew up— a single working parent suffices to support a household. (religion) I support a society which has its own intrinsic solidarity, without needing the sort of middlemen who "love to pray standing ... in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men." (success) I support a society where a good education —in trades as well as professions— is available even to those who have been so unwise as to pick the wrong parents. (racism) I support a society where, sure, there's always some ethnicity on the bottom rungs, but at least it changes every generation as the old bottom rungs assimilate. (Over the last half century it's been, in turn, italians, turks, former yugoslavs, former warsaw pact, and now I guess north africans?) Fortunately we don't have "high crime neighbourhoods" in the US sense — I think there are several obvious reasons why not, but implementing them in the US would require not only structural changes, but probably also constitutional amendment. (having seen what happened to the ERA in the Old Country, I'm not holding my breath)
ben_w 3y ago
Not just nowadays. Martin Luther was complaining about practices that were already old by his time: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pardoner%27s_Tale https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pardoner%27s_Tale
- sdwr 3y ago
  Thanks for the link, that piece fits very well. There's a loooooot to unpack, but to me: - the 3 men in the tale illustrate why these practices arise in the first place - to ease envy and direct competition - the pardoner is disseminating "elite" practices for personal gain, being divorced from the meaning behind them in the process, and becoming a cargo cult of himself

rsynnott 3y ago

The only concrete example that page gives is from Suella Braverman, who has just been fired for incompetence/general weirdness, and that's a difficult one in the modern Tory Party, let me tell you. I am... unconvinced this is a thing.

quickthrower2 3y ago
Wikipedia has it flagged: > This article may document a neologism or protologism in such a manner as to promote it. (October 2023)
- gadders 3y ago
  That famed impartiality in action.
  - zztop44 3y ago
    Seems like everyone who disagrees with you is wrong.
    - gadders 3y ago
      I'm glad you've noticed as well. I thought it was just me.
gadders 3y ago
Yes, wikipedia showing it's usually disinterested reporting of events that concern current politics. Read the article if you don't like the wiki page. Braverman got fired for being right. Sunak is weak.
- rsynnott 3y ago
  Look, if your best sources are the most disastrous recent Tory attempt at a Home Secretary (which is saying something; post-May, it has been more or less a who's who of the weirdest available Tories) and one of Murdoch's trashier tabloids, well, I think I can be forgiven for assuming that your thing is not a thing.
  - gadders 3y ago
    No, my best source is the writer Rob Henderson who first coined the term. The Tory ex-Home Secretary is entirely irrelevant.
  - exoverito 3y ago
    It should be trivial to observe luxury beliefs in today's culture. Among many examples, are those advocating for defunding the police, while living in gated communities out in the suburbs. Or the wealthy elite who support open borders, insulated from the pressures of mass migration. Post-modernism in academia acts as a form of prestige through its obfuscatory language games, yet it distracts intellectuals from focusing on real problems, as remarked by Noam Chomsky.
082349872349872 3y ago
If idealism were a "luxury" it would suggest the status quo is some sort of dystopia; who wouldn't want to change such a world for the better?
- gadders 3y ago
  The point isn't "idealism" - the point is promoting viewpoints that they have no intention of following themselves. RTFA.
  - 082349872349872 3y ago
    All four of Dr. (as he is now) Henderson's major points: handwringing over family structure, unifying social edifice of religion, role of luck in success, and white privilege, are not first world problems: they are specifically US problems. Eg: maybe the lower classes need religion in the US, but that is not a universal truth. I suspect I may be part of Dr. Henderson's "elite", but since I follow[0] these idealistic viewpoints as well as promoting them, and in order to avoid the Lie Direct and stick with the Retort Courteous[1]: having read the fine article my opinion is otherwise. [0] to the point of having voted with my feet to live in a better society than the States had, and (to judge from the news) has. [1] see As You Like It V:iv
    - gadders 3y ago
      Which of these beliefs to you practise in every day life? Are you a single parent? Are you in favour of defunding the police and live in a high crime neighbourhood? Are you in favour of mass immigration whilst working in a job that would be affected by this?
      - 082349872349872 3y ago
        All four: (households) I support a society where —as in the US of the last century in which I grew up— a single working parent suffices to support a household. (religion) I support a society which has its own intrinsic solidarity, without needing the sort of middlemen who "love to pray standing ... in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men." (success) I support a society where a good education —in trades as well as professions— is available even to those who have been so unwise as to pick the wrong parents. (racism) I support a society where, sure, there's always some ethnicity on the bottom rungs, but at least it changes every generation as the old bottom rungs assimilate. (Over the last half century it's been, in turn, italians, turks, former yugoslavs, former warsaw pact, and now I guess north africans?) Fortunately we don't have "high crime neighbourhoods" in the US sense — I think there are several obvious reasons why not, but implementing them in the US would require not only structural changes, but probably also constitutional amendment. (having seen what happened to the ERA in the Old Country, I'm not holding my breath)

ben_w 3y ago

Not just nowadays. Martin Luther was complaining about practices that were already old by his time: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pardoner%27s_Tale https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pardoner%27s_Tale

sdwr 3y ago
Thanks for the link, that piece fits very well. There's a loooooot to unpack, but to me: - the 3 men in the tale illustrate why these practices arise in the first place - to ease envy and direct competition - the pardoner is disseminating "elite" practices for personal gain, being divorced from the meaning behind them in the process, and becoming a cargo cult of himself