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I feel attacked This feels a bit like arguing the illiterate and innumerate are that way to piss off the literate and numerate by not participating in the positive externalities of those things
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Yeah i can see that analogy with literacy/numeracy - one could maybe also argue that those also have externalities that tech platforms exploit in various ways. Clothing interested me here because it's physical/visual/tactile + more literally projected onto shared public space
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The counter argument is that fashion is just sumptuary laws at their other extreme and a means of coercive control by a social elite. Not a commons. A burden imposed in certain (usually not public) contexts. The Met gala is hardly the public square. More like a Versailles.
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i'd argue that stuff like Met Gala/high fashion has an ability to trickle down into culture that is worthwhile - there are collective benefits even if not everyone is interested in participating (like how literature has societal benefits even if many don't read books)
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Granting that, it’s still not an argument for kinda… slob-shaming those who ignore those trickle down cues and just dress with minimum effort. Same as with literature it’s fine to just consume middlebrow stuff. “Commons” is an extreme label for these things.