Criteria for earning a high place on the list included median home price, median household income, percent of population with a college degree, private schools-per-capita, performing arts-per-capita, art galleries-per-capita, and the number of fast food restaurants.
My response? Sure, there are a fair number of snobs in Bethesda, but I don't think their behavior stems from any of the above criteria, with the exception of income.
"Second snobbiest in America?" No snobbier than the purveyors of these cheap, click-bait "Top 10" lists. Feel free to criticize the anti-social behavior of snobs you encounter in Bethesda any day of the week; the criticism is justified.
But to suggest the presence of the arts equals snobbery makes little sense, when you consider that the arts often flourish in areas less wealthy than Bethesda. H Street? Brooklyn?
"Fast food restaurants per capita (the more the better[)]?" Either Movoto needs to hire a copy editor, or this was off-base. Bethesda currently has only one stand-alone fast food restaurant, McDonald's on River Road. It has a McDonald's and a Chick-Fil-A in Westfield Montgomery Mall, as well, if you want to be technical. Ordinarily, fast food restaurants are not considered snobbish.
Speaking of off-base, Bethesda is not a "small city." It's a town.
Finally, Rockville made the list. Really? Unlike Bethesda, Rockville is actually a city. But it is not a pretentious place by any means.
7 comments:
Rockville is also very high on the list. I think that reveals a bias. Someone from or originally from this area is trying to reinforce their own stereotypes with "science."
They might be taking some of Charles Murray's "State of White America" logic, where he considers a *lack* of fast food restaurants per capita as a sign of elite areas.
In one part of the book he actually counts the cars at Wildwood and Georgetown Square to prove elites don't drive domestic cars.
However, Murray considers all of Montgomery County elite, much to the dismay of Bethesdans being lumped in with Damascus.
I think the whole point of the fast food part was that if you have less or no fast food, you're considered snobby. Or "too good" for fast food. Which may be true to an extent...
Officially Bethesda isn't a "town" or a "city," it's a CDP. Population-wise, Bethesda should definitely be classified as a "city," as Movoto does.
I would consider a town as any population center with 20,000-50,000 residents (large town) or under 20,000 residents (small town).
I don't drive a domestic car. I drive a '98 Corolla. Somehow I don't think domestic v. foreign car is that helpful a measure.
Snobbery is an attitude born of the perception that a person's value stems from the "externals" of material wealth and social prestige. I believe its root lies in insecurity given way to envy.
I grew up in an affluent neighborhood, attending a school commonly referred to as "snobby" (the definitive factor being that the cost to attend was high). That made me feel sad. My parents taught me that it is character that defines us, and integrity which matters.
I fail to see the value in this study. It promotes a faulty conception of what snobbery is, and its design only necessitates prejudicial and divisive conclusions (leading us ... to what useful end?).
All our lives (it doesn't matter who you are) external pressures will attempt to chip away at our real identities, at our God-bestowed, inalienable and intrinsic worth. There should be no shame attached to being either rich or poor. What matters most can never be bought.
May God continue to bless your land, Bethesda. May you become an inspiring example and model on how a small town can flourish.
C. M. Geiger
Evidently frequency of electricity blackouts was not a factor.
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