two kinds of snobbery

This is a restatement of something I said on Levi’s blog lately.

Snobbery must be vigorously opposed when it is a matter of class, education, background, and the like. No external set of credentials really means that much in the end.

However, I am completely in favor of snobbery in the assessment of motives. Some people make objections because they are trying to move the ball forward. Others make objections because they don’t want anyone to move the ball anywhere, as an alibi for their own lack of initiative. It is true that even such people may occasionally make objections that are of intrinsic value. But one can process those objections at one’s own leisure; we are not obliged to respond in any way to nitpicking contrarianism and pettifogging “devil’s advocate” maneuvers. The medium is the message, and valid propositional content is overshadowed by the tonality in which it is uttered.