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Chasing Ennui's avatar

Just commenting to say how much I like your writing. It's like a "unicorn chaser" to the political and culture war stuff I normally read.

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The 21st Century Salonnière's avatar

That girl with the fish and drunk cat is one of my all-time favorite memes!

For conversation starters I’m not too creative. At potlucks I lavishly praise the food (and it’s easy to find things to praise, because people bring their “greatest hits” to potlucks) and often get into talking recipes with the cooks.

The thing about “asking what someone does is classist” BEING classist is so true. I’m glad to hear someone say it!!!

There are few things more irksome than the snobbery of someone assuming that you’re ashamed of your job (or car or anything else) because theirs is fancier.

Just this week I was talking to a mom whose kid goes to a “fancier name” college than my kid -- and she was almost ... consoling me? Assuming my daughter had been rejected there? What I felt like saying, but didn’t, was that my kid wanted to go to one of two universities for their very specific programs, and she’s now attending one of them and couldn’t be happier. She didn’t apply or have any interest in the school this woman’s daughter attends, even if it’s a fancier name.

But... to have said that would have been to play along with the snobbery -- responding to snobbery with my own snobbish anti-snobbery -- so I kept that to myself. I just said she’s really happy at her school, which is the only thing that should matter to anyone anyway.

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