The other day I spent some on facebook. This is after I've stayed off it for 4-5 years or so.

I'll be honest. The last few years have been rough. It's only recently that I've been able to turn things around re: career, fitness.

And, uh, how they've turned around! I have a body to be proud of again, and business-wise, things are going very well.

So, while browsing facebook, here was my thought process:

  1. Old flame whose extra pounds I couldn't get past. Married a fat dude who makes less money than her.
  2. Guy I didn't like in high school: got fat, married an ugly girl.
  3. Red-haired girl. Still unmarried.
  4. Holy shit, I'm an asshole.

For the record: the old flame is whip-smart, funny, and nice. The guy I didn't like is working as an EMT, and has a son, to whom he's presumably a good father. The red-haired girl is still pretty cute, and is getting her master's in math.

As I think about it "objectively," I am on better track for life than any of these people. I'll almost certainly make more money than them, I'm in better shape than any of them, and my age isn't as much of a barrier to having kids.

But man, am I insecure about it, apparently.

Scott Alexander of Slate Star Codex wrote an excellent post entitled Right is the New Left, in which he posits that some part of the rise of right-wing politics (nrx, the alt-right, Trump, in order of ascending popularity) is due to fashion---that it owes something to the desire of people to differentiate themselves.

He also points out a truism of classes: You might be mistaken for being a class higher or lower than your own, but you are unlikely to be mistaken for a class two levels away. This is why ultra-rich people can wear unbranded clothing---no one will mistake them as poor, and they can differentiate themselves from the merely upper class by scorning the crutch of branding.

In the same way, my own urge to disassociate myself from "lower" class people is itself a sign of class insecurity.

Now, TRP is full of guys who, sexually, are attempting to move up a class or five. This is a good thing. But they should be aware that the criteria for moving up keep changing. And somewhere in there, is being secure enough to be nice to people you don't have to be nice to.

Food for thought, is all.