210223-matters

“Being pretentious is rarely harmful to anyone. Accusing others of it is. You can use the word ‘pretentious’ as a weapon with which to bludgeon other people’s creative efforts, but in shutting them down the accusation will shatter in your hand and out will bleed your own insecurities, prejudices and unquestioned assumptions. And that is why pretentiousness matters. It is a false note of objective judgement and when it rings we can hear what society values in culture, hear how we perceive our individual selves. Pretentiousness matters because of what it teaches us about the creative process."

• dan fox, pretentiousness: why it matters (2016)

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