The ability to reject imperfect resources is itself a class privilege.

Evidence

For me this is an experience that corresponds very much to the way individuals of privilege respond to the use of water in the First World context. When you are privileged, living in one of the richest countries in the world, you can waste resources. And you can especially justify your disposal of something that you consider impure. Look at what most people do with water in this country. Many people purchase special water because they consider tap water unclean—and of course this purchasing is a luxury. Even our ability to see the water that come through the tap as unclean is itself informed by an imperialist consumer perspective. It is an expression of luxury and not just simply a response to the condition of water. — bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress, 104

Categorization

• XREF: Inverts the luxury of critique that also runs through the Frankfurt School’s position — capacity to reject a compromised source is a function of privilege, not just discernment. — connects to: Class norms can render poverty invisible by forbidding both asking and offering help — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 444; The ‘be yourself’ mandate disadvantages those outside privileged attributes — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 287; Group privilege operates as an undetected benefit until inequity is made salient — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt: International…, 432 (+2 more)
• CANDY: The tap-water-as-luxury inversion is a compact, shareable reframe: bottled water’s assumed purity is itself imperialist consumerism.

Broader Connections

• Quitting social media reads as class signaling and requires privilege. #exemplifies (0.87) — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 328
• Class norms can render poverty invisible by forbidding both asking and offering help #expands (0.78) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 444
• Group privilege operates as an undetected benefit until inequity is made salient #expands (0.74) — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt, 432
• The ‘be yourself’ mandate disadvantages those outside privileged attributes #expands (0.73) — W. David Marx, Status and Culture, 287
• Advantaged groups avoid guilt by denying inequality or dodging responsibility #qualifies (0.71) — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt, 1844