Performative anything is trending in the mid-to-late 2020s, one of them being performative knowledge. This is in the vein of TikTok’s “so you want to be disgustingly well-read” and “how to be disgustingly educated” how-to videos.
According to Eugene Healey (@eugbrandstrat), all old status symbols^[examples needed] are becoming more accessible and democratized, and knowledge or intellect is the next/last one. This is aligned with the uptick of using AI to alleviate our status anxiety (thereby worsening it instead).
This loosely overlaps with a (slightly less interesting) NY Times opinion piece “Thinking is becoming a luxury good.”, as well as Rickie Ho’s taste as a weapon of exclusion.
Angel Martinez (@romcomsqueen) on TikTok similarly critiqued and challenged the trending buzzwords “disgustingly well-read/well-educated,” the personal curriculum (of which I was/am personally victimized), and the “aestheticization of intelligence” — an original term I adore and which I will be borrowing heavily.