Had a manager who was gay, upper middle-class, prog. Railed about capitalism and the working class all the time. One day a woman he employed as a housekeeper came by the office and I listened to him talk to her in this incredibly patronizing, singsongy voice like a child.

I realized that day that this is how they see the working class and minorities or anyone else they claim to champion. As accessories to their own vanity. Their performative concern for the downtrodden is rooted in bottomless contempt.

One adopts progressive politics the way one carries a designer handbag. It's designed to signal that you're high-class. You have elite values. You may even be a poor Starbucks barista yourself, but deep down you're not really one of the THEM.