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sethdmichaels.bsky.social · @sethdmichaels.bsky.social@bridge.neodb.net

Rated Dignity: Seeking Respect in Back Row America 8/10

Not 100% sure how I feel about this book and my opinion wavered as I read it. In some ways the book itself is also the kind of thing the book is intended to critique: a well-intentioned poverty safari, a member of the elite trying to explain to other elites what the non-elite life is like, without really offering the reader anything to *do* about it. But it’s humble and kind enough that it doesn’t come off nearly as badly as it could, and Arnade doesn’t paper over or exclude the reality of racism and the deleterious effects of market capitalism. I don’t know who the ideal reader of this book is; I guess I’m included in that category, though I think I know a lot of the broader points he’s trying to make and certainly buy his worldview a lot more than other people in the technocratic-elite set he’s addressing. A quick but tough read, mostly in the ways it intends, and I’m glad it exists and I read it, but I do have some mild reservations about it.

#book

Published 2026-08-18 14:45 UTC · bridged from Atmosphere