In an interestingly modern display of gatekeeping, elites and the wealthy are using taste and taste signals as a “weapon of exclusion” to exclude everybody else.
According to Eugene Healey, All old status symbols are becoming more accessible and democratized, which in turn introduces the clamor for even more exclusive and inaccessible taste signals and status symbols.
In the specific video that inspired this note, Rickie Ho used intellect as the latest example of taste signals as weapons of exclusion.