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Ketchup, Steaks, Classism and Barro

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Recently had a weird experience reading Matthew Continetti column on the hubbub over Trump’s steak-related fake pas; I actually agreed with some of it. Expecting to sneer my way through the column, I instead found myself cringing a little at some of the distinctly classist critiques of Steakgate he catalogued.

The idea of eating a steak well-done and topping it with ketchup sounds really unappealing to me. But I like to eat my steaks cooked medium and I sometimes eat them Bearnaise. I imagine some people would find that offensive. So, the bottom line is that I’m sometimes a tad squeamish about harshly critiquing people’s food choices, especially if there’s a classist bent to the critique. In other words, have fun making fun Trump’s (pretty gross, to me) habits, but for crying out loud, don’t pull a Barro:

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Of course, Continetti gives away the game later in the column:

“Trump eats $50 steak with ketchup, foodies aghast,” reports SFGate.com. It is hard to read stories like these without coming to the conclusion that so much of our elite’s abhorrence of Trump is a matter of aesthetics, of his not fitting in, of his stubborn devotion to practices and ideas deemed retrograde by opinion leaders but that still appeal to, oh, about half the country.

This is, of course, Kobe-grade, dry-aged bullshit. People–even most elites–don’t dislike him because he’s tacky and crude. They dislike him because he is petty, childish, stupid and cruel, all perfectly legitimate reasons to dislike someone.

That being said, I had to address the Barro tweet, because he is sometimes right, but when he’s wrong, he’s spectacularly wrong. It comes with being spectacularly privileged and being a Democrat for about 2 minutes. His tweet is classist, ugly and cruel. (Oh, and fat-shamey!)

I have issues with fast food. I don’t mind it existing and partake of it myself from time to time. But I do think it’s palate-perverting empty calories and I wish people didn’t subsist on it. That being said, I understand why people do–it’s cheap and easy.

Eating good food can be expensive and time-consuming. I’m a stay-at-home mom and even I sometimes just DON’T. FEEL. LIKE, COOKING. Then I remember there are people who cook while working outside the home, while working and having kids, while being a single parent, while doing it on a tight budget. And I get my ass in the kitchen.

So do I understand the lure of fatty, salty, quick (tasty, sometimes) food? You bet I do. So let’s try to create a world where fast food is a once in awhile treat (or necessity), not a way of life. We probably can’t do that by posting nasty, judgmental, classist, shitty tweets. There is good snobbery and bad snobbery and my god that is THE WORST kind of snobbery.

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