Public Rob Henderson: Social Class, Elite Virtue Signaling, and "Luxury Beliefs"
Rob Henderson is a writer and academic perhaps best known for popularizing the concept of “luxury beliefs.” Over the past several years, he’s become an influential commentator, both in mainstream media and with his own Substack.
Now, he has a much-anticipated book coming out from a major publisher. “Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family and Social Class,” recounts his tumultuous childhood and unlikely path to elite universities, and expands on ideas – about class, social psychology and culture – he developed while studying at Yale and Cambridge.
His profile and social media following all but guarantee an audience. And yet, bookstores in progressive cities like San Francisco and New York won’t host his book events.
Don’t worry about Rob, the book will do fine. But it’s bizarre that liberals aren’t more open to his ideas, especially since he spends a lot of time thinking about how social and cultural trends impact poor and working class people.
Perhaps the reason Henderson is such an insightful critic is that he traverses boundaries that remain invisible to some, intractable to others. Moving through class divides, from the foster system, blue-collar America and the military to the most prestigious institutions, he is both outsider and insider. From this vantage point, he asks us to think deeply about the meaning of privilege.