In Defence Of Pretentiousness

“Pretentiousness is always someone else’s crime. It’s never a felony in the first person. … The pretentious flaws of others affirm your own intellectual or aesthetic expertise. Simultaneously, their fakery highlights the contours of your down-to-earth character and virtuous ordinariness. … It is axiomatic that pretentiousness makes no one look good. But pretension is measured using prejudiced metrics.”