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“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.”
-Rob Henderson, Psychologist
The Crime of Noticing
Most people live in a state of general amnesia to the lies and problems surrounding them.
Rather than confront the truth, they parrot talking points from journalists. They repeat the same “-isms” learned from their teachers and professors and workplace HR training.
Luxury beliefs give them social status. A comfortable blanket of illusion under which they can comfortably ignore reality. This allows them to be seen as caring, compassionate, and good, without the examination of other perspectives. In many cases, luxury beliefs give people a moral justification for avoiding confronting real harm or violence.
It’s far easier to see oneself as on the “right side of history” than to question dominant narratives, especially if one’s “good” beliefs are what gets them invitations to dinner parties or social media points.
This is the foundation of what Psychologist Rob Henderson called a luxury belief.
By believing in something that is perceived as progressive or good, one can become a member of the intelligent and educated class without the need for self-examination.
Notice At Your Own Risk
When someone on the “outside” starts to notice the logical or factual flaws in these luxury belief systems, they are attacked and demonized.
Constructive dialogue does not happen. Because those who hold these luxury beliefs have been detached from their ability to think rationally and unemotionally about these issues. Acknowledging a different perspective would ruin their own belief in the educated, morally pure, upper-class system, with which they align.
In their eyes, to even have a dialogue about an off-limits topic is to allow EVIL to permeate. That is what they’ve been conditioned to think. When someone holds a luxury belief view, like trans children should be allowed to have gender “affirming” surgeries before the age of 18, they shut down at the very thought that this noble belief could be causing permanent harm to a child.
Simply by noticing the lies one can become a pariah to this upper class of self-identified educated and caring people. One does not need to personally hold views that the upper class sees with contempt. Simply questioning the luxury belief narrative is the only justification they need to label you as a taboo outsider.
In some cases, expressing skepticism to luxury belief views can result in loss of employment, harassment, or violence. To protect a job or social status, many simply shut up rather than reap the consequences.
For example:
“Maybe the COVID vax wasn’t as effective as we were told by the media…”
Them: “You are an ANTI-VAXXER and you don’t care for other people!”
“Maybe the narrative about racist white cops terrorizing young peaceful black men is exaggerated and statistically inaccurate.”
Them: “You are a racist white supremacist who has white privilege!”
“Maybe the media and the Democrats in Congress lied about Donald Trump being a Russian Agent as a politically motivated attack.”
Them: “You are sympathizing with a FASCIST!”
“Maybe men cannot become women and giving mentally ill children puberty-blocking drugs is causing real harm long-term.”
Them: “You are a hateful TRANSPHOBE!”
Noticing, expressing skepticism, or shining a light on the incoherence of these beliefs makes you a bigot.
One example is the woman who runs the “LibsOfTikTok” account. By simply reposting content that others are posting themselves, she has become a symbol of hate and division for the luxury belief class.
By simply noticing and curating this content to a wider audience, she has been harassed, doxxed by Washington Post journalists, and had death threats flood her inbox.
Establishing Social Control
The psychological manipulation used by those with luxury beliefs is a reflection of the mechanisms of social control used in totalitarian regimes.
In Soviet Russia, collective responsibility and peer pressure played a significant role in maintaining strict cohesion within the village. Villagers monitored each other's behavior to avoid repercussions from the authorities, and local committees and watch groups, often composed of regime loyalist community members, kept an eye on the villagers' moral and political conduct.
The regime also relied on informant networks, where ordinary villagers reported on their neighbors' activities, creating an atmosphere of fear and mistrust.
This same framework was repeated in Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Maoist China, and many more. By separating the classes based on specific good and bad belief systems, the populace did the work of rooting out contemptible opinions for the government, ensuring the government tainted a firm and authoritative grip on central power.
The conformists, whose entire reality is built for them on luxury belief systems, fear those who notice.
They fear that the moral purity and goodness that the luxury belief system has instilled in them, is morally wrong or even evil. They cannot imagine, that they; caring, compassionate, and progressive lovers of humanity, are not only misguided but perhaps on the wrong side of history. To acknowledge this, would be to acknowledge the disconnect between who they are, and who they perceive themselves to be.
When someone is unable to discuss a complex topic and immediately begins to name-call and shout popular slogans, it is proof that this fear has crippled their mind. It is proof that they’d rather be seen as a good person by those in positions of social or political standing. It is proof that there is nothing you can say or do, that will help bring them back to the world of polite disagreement and the sharing of ideas.
The only thing that shatters luxury beliefs, is getting mugged by reality.
As always, thanks for reading.
-Joe
“Any fool can make a rule. And any fool will mind it.”
-Henry David Thoreau