Luxury beliefs

An article on ‘luxury beliefs’ as being the class/status marker in this age:

White privilege is the luxury belief that took me the longest to understand, because I grew up around poor whites. Often members of the upper-class claim that racial disparities stem from inherent advantages held by whites. Yet Asian Americans are more educated, have higher earnings and live longer than whites. Affluent whites are the most enthusiastic about the idea of white privilege, yet they are the least likely to incur any costs for promoting that belief. Rather, they raise their social standing by talking about their privilege.

[..] Because, like with diamond rings or designer clothes of old, upper-class people don a luxury belief to separate themselves from the lower class. These beliefs, in turn, produce real, tangible consequences for disadvantaged people, further widening the divide. Just as fashionable clothing will soon be outdated, so will today’s fashionable beliefs. In the future, expect the upper class to defame even more values — including ones they hold dear — in their quest to gain top-dog status.

It is not merely about ‘white privilege’ but as well the concept applies more generally to such a class of beliefs. From Arjun,

having a stance on certain social issues can absolutely be a status-seeking measure.

[..] While I was in college, I was introduced to this idea that having a particular opinion on a social issue can be a means to confer status or signal something about yourself. This piece by Rob Henderson fits into that mental model.

While, in reality, it tends to be mix of status-signalling and actual concern over issues, woke stances generally are of the mix wherein the former is predominant (hence the term “virtue signalling”).

See also

Links to this page
  • Woke Hypocrisy

    [..] in both America and Britain, anti-immigration whites are only marginally more likely to move to whiter neighborhoods than pro-immigration whites. This is important because it suggests that attitudes toward diversity, which predict mobility *intentions*, do not explain whites’ ethnocentric mobility *behavior*.

  • Undoing Woke Invasion

    For the actually caring (ie. not pseudo-caring) readers who are looking to do good in the world without the artifice of woke ideology, the author recommends looking into becoming harmless.

    The first step to resist or undo Woke Invasion in your organization (or your psyche) is to thoroughly understand its creed Critical Race Theory, so as to uncover the fact that generally speaking woke disciples care less about the problems in the world than assuaging their self-centered ideological feelings.* The next step, obviously, is then to effectuate an elimination of the wannabe woke invaders from your organization by instituting a culture based on common sense values stripped of identity politics.

  • Rust Community

    In 2020, the forum post titled Rust says tech will* always be political - discussed the Rust core team publicly promulgating their Luxury beliefs around American culture wars as if to speak on behalf of the members of the wider Community.

  • Psychology behind wokeism

    Despite being irrational, wokeism is nevertheless an intelligent worldview. It’s intelligent but not rational because its goal is not objective truth but social signaling, and in pursuing this goal it’s a powerful strategy. People who engage in woke rituals, such as proclaiming their pronouns during introductions, or capitalizing the word “black” but not the word “white,” signal to others that they’re clued-up, cosmopolitan, and compassionate toward society’s designated downtrodden. This makes them seem trustworthy and likable, and explains why wokeism is most prevalent in industries where status games and image are most important: politics, media, academia, entertainment, and advertising.

  • Polite but malicious
    Luxury beliefs (inasmuch they are a modern status marker)