Snobbery is Evil

Typical posting in one of the myriad "Italians Angry About Food" social media groups:

Meanwhile, those same Italians enjoy Chinese dumplings with their take-out dinner, unaware that dumplings are exclusively breakfast food. Or they gobble tamales for lunch, when those are also only for breakfast. Same for Middle-Eastern foul madamas.

We are all clueless slobs. You see these dishes at American breakfasts with the frequency of total solar eclipses. But that's fine, because all are terrific for lunch or dinner! And, as far as I know, no diurnal bodily process makes cappuccino less delicious or healthful past 9am. It's always terrific. So up your nose with a rubber hose, judgemental Vinnie Barbarino.

Let's reframe to the Big Picture. We live in a world where people grasp for enjoyment (it's senseless, given that we bask in ample free oxygen and live-giving sunlight and quenching water, and, for many of us, our most pressing problems include a surfeit of food and of personal possessions). Whether from deprivation (rarely) or jadedness (uh-huh), people feel that they have scant enjoyment in their lives. We can use all the enjoyment we can get. We treasure our treasured treasure.

And the purpose of a snob is to exert social pressure to curtail enjoyment. Stop enjoying that! They literally reduce human happiness. And with no valid reason!

I don't believe evil is a thing. There's just disconnection from innate qualities such as empathy and generosity. It's a spectrum of deficit, not a polarity. In quality drama, the villains, in their heads, feel like the good guys, and this holds up in real life. There's no devil pulling us the wrong way, just various ways we forget ourselves and suppress kindness, empathy, sensitivity, and, finally, humanity (we personify "The Devil" when we choose to inhibit those faculties via our framing).

War can be justified. Killing can be justified. Many horrible things can be justified. But snobbery has no possible justification. It is laser-focused to cut at the jugular of human happiness, and the snob does not profit from this. It's done purely for sport. That's why snobbery is the closest thing to pure evil. (It's worth examining one's life and actions to ensure there's no morsel of snobbery present.)

So drink cappuccino any damned time you want, and if anyone tells you not to, send them to me and, after a brief pissing contest re: who has the more impressive taste-making credentials, I can offer a custom evaluation of the many, many, many ways this person behaves idiotically. I'm standing by!


Hmm. Turns out, I made this point once before. And did it better that time.