| Yes, I agree. Mostly mood affiliation, and so eager to condescend that it often condescends to the wrong people. > I rang the bell; an Asian man in khakis and a sweater answered. I snapped into guest mode, introducing myself enthusiastically. He responded with an odd coldness. Then I realized he was not a fellow guest but, I guess you’d say, the butler. A hundred years ago, he might have been referred to as “houseboy” and greeted me in a tux. A butler has always been a person of authority, expertise, and responsibility. Why "houseboy"? Because he's Asian? > I reflected, perhaps unfairly, that marrying off their daughters to young men of talent and fortune is often how such families institutionalize their power. The couple were in their late 30s when they married, and it is unclear why she would have no agency (or other value) here. And many other snide remarks designed to show how blasé the author finds any rich person. He himself has brains and a soul, and they don't. I do give small towns and communities far more credit than Andreessen does, let alone his guest's dreadful comment. |
It's hard to miss the racist overtones of the article.