It happened again the other day; I had the misfortune of seeing people respond to college students protesting for Palestine with some mix of “That’s just performative” and “These comfortable kids just want to be victims” and various other nonsense they’ve been recycling for over 600 days now.
From the heart of tourism country in Montana, where we've been buried in gentrifying newcomers thanks to Covid and that stupid Yellowstone show, let me just say tourism is not an improvement over our old hardscrabble ways. We were a real community back when no one had any money in ways that have very much eroded over the past 20 years. And don't get me started on the tourists, who treat us like "quaint backdrop". Ugh.
I was one of those people who complained about the Palestinian protesters at the CUNY-College of Staten Island graduation. I fully support the right to protest. I don’t fully support people shoving me & putting flags in my face & blocking my view & screaming in my ear while I’m trying to watch my stepdaughter-to-be’s graduation ceremony. Afterwards her boyfriend found the flyer for the protest online, & later we found out there were a lot of non-CSI students there as well. Once the protesters were moved to another area it was fine. I’m involved in community organizations & I don’t see these activists doing anything else locally to help their community. What gives? I saw some of them after all the ceremonies getting into Lexus’s & other expensive cars; I got into an old Nissan. Expensive pocketbooks. I don’t travel. I’m a poor. The graduation, to me, was a family event celebration. Would I go to their wedding & disrupt that? That’s what I felt. My stepdaughter-to-be said the college has been very friendly to their community & has no investments in Israel. Apparently the college did accept some funding for STEM from the Biden admin & thanked the GOP congresswoman; I get the hate for that. I’ll fight for the right to protest. Don’t scream in my ear & cover my face with your stuff. I’ll grab your flag again & move it & don’t give me an attitude. Not sorry.
Oooo ‘money signaling’ - I was writing a bit about that in my own way just the other day; talking about how being trained to be that way as a child is an empty culture and leaves us devoid of real connection.
I’ll be contemplating this more over the weekend. Thank you.
I noticed this in college in the 70s and it’s worse now. I’m going to the upper Rheinland in Germany soon with a group to visit towns our common ancestors fled over 200 years ago because of Louis XIV. It sure ain’t just hopping on a plane. It’s funny you mentioned Peru because even when there’s severe unrest there, I read of Americans STILL going there and being miffed that buses aren’t running etc. That’s a good way to advertise your cluelessness.
very good points - but this money signalling is so pervasive, it reaches into every aspect of everyone's lives, and is very hard to resist. Travelling to admire palaces or 'stateley homes' you would never have been able to live in, works of art paid for by the wealthiest, looking at fashion magazines that feature jewellery that only the most privileged could afford. The habit - at least in my country - of magazines dressing up and photographing 'serious' politicians in expensive clothes before some purportedly 'in depth' interview.... I just had to stop watching a travelogue which morphed into documenting the excesses of a so-called charitable fundraising dinner at one of these palazzos with accompanying appalling treatment of the serving staff whose hands were inspected and who were ordered how to behave!
Thanks for saying something that so badly needed to be said, Joshua.
It's funny the phrase 'temporarily embarrassed millionaires' has been on my mind lately because of how destructive this attitude is. I appreciate that you fleshed this thought out so well.
I'm not crazy about virtue signalling (I'm in Canada, and Trudeau did so much of this while implementing policies that contradicted those very virtues), but at least it pays lip service to the values many of us hold.
love love love how you connected virtue signaling and money signaling to critique how shallow, status-obsessed people can’t conceive of actions being motivated by anything else. It got me thinking about how some people are genuinely incapable of perspective-taking—they impose their own reality onto others, and that can be especially dangerous for people who are deeply, deeply thoughtful, because they might seriously internalize that projection.
What’s funny is when one is amid those who are status-signaling and one has to try to not status signal without signaling oneself as a status-signal rebel which is its own form of signal and usually I end up discussing the weather (great piece btw!)
The book “Possessed” by Bruce Hood wove together nicely the psychology and economic dependencies we’ve created for ourselves - this post brought that to mind
It’s all true. I’ve been watching it for decades - especially in first generation immigrant communities. The arm’s length, empty stance on genocide - an unfortunate speed bump in their way to illusory status - is disappointing. Now, that’s the real embarrassment.
When I saw this I first remembered one thing- I went to Innsbruck when I was 15/16. It was an Easter Break from school. When we went Skiing! I really enjoyed this I can still remember it now- I am 72!
From the heart of tourism country in Montana, where we've been buried in gentrifying newcomers thanks to Covid and that stupid Yellowstone show, let me just say tourism is not an improvement over our old hardscrabble ways. We were a real community back when no one had any money in ways that have very much eroded over the past 20 years. And don't get me started on the tourists, who treat us like "quaint backdrop". Ugh.
I was one of those people who complained about the Palestinian protesters at the CUNY-College of Staten Island graduation. I fully support the right to protest. I don’t fully support people shoving me & putting flags in my face & blocking my view & screaming in my ear while I’m trying to watch my stepdaughter-to-be’s graduation ceremony. Afterwards her boyfriend found the flyer for the protest online, & later we found out there were a lot of non-CSI students there as well. Once the protesters were moved to another area it was fine. I’m involved in community organizations & I don’t see these activists doing anything else locally to help their community. What gives? I saw some of them after all the ceremonies getting into Lexus’s & other expensive cars; I got into an old Nissan. Expensive pocketbooks. I don’t travel. I’m a poor. The graduation, to me, was a family event celebration. Would I go to their wedding & disrupt that? That’s what I felt. My stepdaughter-to-be said the college has been very friendly to their community & has no investments in Israel. Apparently the college did accept some funding for STEM from the Biden admin & thanked the GOP congresswoman; I get the hate for that. I’ll fight for the right to protest. Don’t scream in my ear & cover my face with your stuff. I’ll grab your flag again & move it & don’t give me an attitude. Not sorry.
Oooo ‘money signaling’ - I was writing a bit about that in my own way just the other day; talking about how being trained to be that way as a child is an empty culture and leaves us devoid of real connection.
I’ll be contemplating this more over the weekend. Thank you.
I noticed this in college in the 70s and it’s worse now. I’m going to the upper Rheinland in Germany soon with a group to visit towns our common ancestors fled over 200 years ago because of Louis XIV. It sure ain’t just hopping on a plane. It’s funny you mentioned Peru because even when there’s severe unrest there, I read of Americans STILL going there and being miffed that buses aren’t running etc. That’s a good way to advertise your cluelessness.
very good points - but this money signalling is so pervasive, it reaches into every aspect of everyone's lives, and is very hard to resist. Travelling to admire palaces or 'stateley homes' you would never have been able to live in, works of art paid for by the wealthiest, looking at fashion magazines that feature jewellery that only the most privileged could afford. The habit - at least in my country - of magazines dressing up and photographing 'serious' politicians in expensive clothes before some purportedly 'in depth' interview.... I just had to stop watching a travelogue which morphed into documenting the excesses of a so-called charitable fundraising dinner at one of these palazzos with accompanying appalling treatment of the serving staff whose hands were inspected and who were ordered how to behave!
Great article! Thank you
Thanks for saying something that so badly needed to be said, Joshua.
It's funny the phrase 'temporarily embarrassed millionaires' has been on my mind lately because of how destructive this attitude is. I appreciate that you fleshed this thought out so well.
I'm not crazy about virtue signalling (I'm in Canada, and Trudeau did so much of this while implementing policies that contradicted those very virtues), but at least it pays lip service to the values many of us hold.
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love love love how you connected virtue signaling and money signaling to critique how shallow, status-obsessed people can’t conceive of actions being motivated by anything else. It got me thinking about how some people are genuinely incapable of perspective-taking—they impose their own reality onto others, and that can be especially dangerous for people who are deeply, deeply thoughtful, because they might seriously internalize that projection.
What’s funny is when one is amid those who are status-signaling and one has to try to not status signal without signaling oneself as a status-signal rebel which is its own form of signal and usually I end up discussing the weather (great piece btw!)
The book “Possessed” by Bruce Hood wove together nicely the psychology and economic dependencies we’ve created for ourselves - this post brought that to mind
It’s all true. I’ve been watching it for decades - especially in first generation immigrant communities. The arm’s length, empty stance on genocide - an unfortunate speed bump in their way to illusory status - is disappointing. Now, that’s the real embarrassment.
When I saw this I first remembered one thing- I went to Innsbruck when I was 15/16. It was an Easter Break from school. When we went Skiing! I really enjoyed this I can still remember it now- I am 72!
So I hope all those people today do the same!
🥰