On leftism as status signalling:
The attempt to cultivate pretentious guilt and pretentious indignation, and to balance grief and umbrage on a very tiny thing, the tinier the better, is of course a Guardian staple. It gives the left’s national organ its distinctive tone – that tinny, unconvincing high-pitched whine. Affecting woe, especially improbable woe, is how many leftwing columnists signal their position in their own moral hierarchy, relative to you, the heathen rabble.
And this is why, for instance, a tearful Theo Hobson tells us that, “There is no excuse for failing to feel liberal guilt about race and class.” Because until “this problematic world” has been purged of all vice and inequity, however unrelated to your own behaviour, a heavy, heavy heart must be worn on the sleeve. How else will people know how superior you are? According to Mr Hobson, if you aren’t ostentatiously fretting about the eating of meat and “affluent lifestyles endangering the planet,” and if you aren’t “anxious about your status as a comfy bourgeoisie” and possibly earning more than some other random person, then there must be something wrong with you.
And so you should feel guilty for not feeling guilty about things you shouldn’t feel guilty about. It’s the Guardian way.
“According to Mr Hobson, if you aren’t ostentatiously fretting about the eating of meat and ‘affluent lifestyles endangering the planet,’ and if you aren’t ‘anxious about your status as a comfy bourgeoisie’ and possibly earning more than some other random person, then there must be something wrong with you.”
Or – much more likely – you are a member of that greatest global majority of all: normal everyday people just trying to get on with their lives and do the best they can for their families with the means at their disposal.
“…that tinny, unconvincing high-pitched whine.”
Yup. Rising to strident screeching during political debates.
Pre baby boomer, folks controlled their emotions. Post baby boomer, folks enjoy wallowing in their emotions. The former was probably not very healthy; what’s going on now is pathetic.
If we’re really lucky all of these lefty wack-jobs will feel so much guilt that depression will drive them to suicide. Ahhh…probably not, their job is to make us regular folk feel quilty. Sorry, ain’t gonna happen…now which of my cars should I drive today and I’ve just got to remember to take out the T-bones from the freezer for supper tonight.
I once had the misfortune of working with someone who was perpetually offended.
She was an ardent feminist and she thought she had the right to “cleanse” our workplace of anything that she considered insulting to women. She even took umbrage at my having a calendar of Diana, Princess of Wales, which was shortly after she married Prince Charles.
She became so obnoxious not only with her demands but her outbursts that nobody in our department wanted to work with her. It came as no surprise that she was eventually fired, though I heard rumours that she sued the company for wrongful dismissal.
When she left, everybody breathed a sigh of relief.
How hypocritical that the “Liberal’ Left don’t feel guilt towards the wealth disparity of self professed leftists like Michael Moore, the Clintons and a whole host of Elite Political/ celebrity’s around the world.
Their ostentatious wealth is somehow acceptable, providing they self characterize as Leftist.
The most serious question is why have we let the mentally ill class rule our society?
Every generation has supplied their share of fools. It just seems that there are more now than in the past.
I guess my signals got crossed while trying to navigate all the signaling I was supposed to “signal”. Now, I just sit here blinking like an elderly drivers left turn lamp while traveling down the interstate.
Well,if they want to be gullible and feel guilty about it, let us help them.
Rip them off right,left and centre.
Then insist it is their own fault….
Wait……that is how the Libtards work on normal citizens.
Time to make self immolation fashionable.
“How else will people know how superior you are?” I personally have an extended family member, a BC Liberal, who has taken this concept about as far as anyone can take it. At 60 years old he looks and walks like he’s 80, shakes his melancholy head at every wasted drop of rain water and worships at the alter of David Suzuki. I think he does it so women will hug and fawn over him. I just openly laugh at him and tell him to get his head out of his ass.
I am beginning to appreciate how special I just may be …. while not being a sociopath, I feel no guilt whatsoever about team names, offended Indian lovers, bashing of feminism, global warming skepticism, calling a spade a spade and anything that insults political correctness … etc. It’s called ‘Live & Let Live” It is the only way to have a cohesive society. Another word is tolerance and I do not mean of the intolerable.
The perpetually aggrieved can kill my old septegenarian butt.
this internet thing.
I’ve never, how can I put this, I’ve never seen such stark, unfathomable, bizarre expressions and manifestations of leftism. 60something is my moniker for a reason. yup. I’se a latter date baby boomer, spoiled? narcissistic? belly button gazing? you could have told me that when I was in my formative, hard scrabble years wearing hand-me-downs. (I, *I* pioneered ‘bell bottoms’; my trousers were seriously baggy all the way up seeing as they didn’t have that sought after personalized ‘fit’).
migod where are we headed. I’m going to have to suspend my ‘watch the passing parade’ phase and get back into the foray at least enough to help rescue/salvage the country long enough for while I’m here.
never seen it this bad.