Status Updates From Troubled: A Memoir of Foste...

oh man and now one of his group has petted a stray dog, then turned around and kicked this poor dog over a cliff to it's death. for no reason. i really don't like him and his crowd anymore.

change in sentiment: how he was as a teenager is really off-putting to me. (for example, smashing random car windscreens with a baseball bat, shooting random pedestrians with an airgun, breaking into random places to wreck it.) there's no goal like getting $$$ for drugs it's just being destructive for fun. he kind of seems like a loser

this is wild. shelley (his adoptive mom's partner) gets a hefty insurance payout after being accidentally shot. they buy three houses with a plan to flip two except they can't sell them and end up having to sell all three plus their personal possessions and move into a trailer. everything is constantly shifting in this kid's world. this reminds me of good will hunting a bit...

got up to the high school section. he's out of the foster care system and has been adopted! you feel a big relief when that happens. his foster mother is korean as well (the author is half) so that's fortunate. when his parents marriage breaks down a year later he lives with her; his adoptive father only wants to see his biological kid afterwards (what a tool!) it's surprising he turned out so normal...

so far this is GREAT. I'd agree that class is linked to education not money; think of working class lotto winners, they're not suddenly middle class because they suddenly have means. it's poignant too; the author is upwardly mobile but says he'd would trade it all for a more normal loving childhood. :(

nb: it bothers me that this book is endorsed by JD Vance but thinking about hillbilly elegy it makes sense...

insanely excited about the "luxury beliefs" chapter because it resonates so much!!! things like "parental educational attainment is the most important objective indicator of social class" (neither of my parents finished high school) and "the chief purpose of luxury beliefs is to indicate the believer’s social class and education ...they are engaging in a status display" rather than actually helping. omg yes.