yesterday i posted about cnn's interview with the guy who wrote Stuff White People Like. i just remembered i really liked his comment about the modern day equivalent of yuppies.
"It's an update on this idea of a yuppie. In the '80s, the idea of the yuppie was really about just consumerism: I have an expensive BMW, I have these things, and it's buying, buying, buying. I think that that attitude is still there, but the materials changed into where it's "My carbon footprint's lower, my music taste is better, I visited more countries than you." The quest for status is still there."
i also liked his comment on the left wing in general.
"I consider myself a self-aware, left-wing person who's not afraid to recognize the selfishness and contradictions that come on the left. I think a lot of people who are on that side really fail to do that a lot of the time. I think the people I write about here are very, very self-righteous and believe that everything they do is right, and they are very resistant to cast a critical eye to themselves. It was really fun for me to write in a cathartic way, sort of like I am attacking my own pretentiousness and my own ridiculousness. It's just amazing because these people are so self-aware but so unaware at the same time."
in the spirit of full disclosure, i'm a moderate-leftie.