"Pretentious" is an extremely damaging word and a post about the phenomenon you reference would be more astute than the OP is. People now denigrate nearly any r

"Pretentious" is an extremely damaging word and a post about the phenomenon you reference would be more astute than the OP is. People now denigrate nearly any reference to artistic ethos, sublimity, and idealism. It's as though they have become unable to feel those things at all. The word "pretentious" doesn't even make sense in most usages. What does the person have pretentions of? How do you know they do, and aren't being genuine? This isn't even what the word means anymore; it just means either intellectual and/or philosophically idealist.