March 7, 2026
Hold my beer, Bourdieu
Bourdieu's theory of taste: a grumbling abrégé
Hold My Beer: Bourdieu’s Taste Test sparks a middlebrow meltdown
TLDR: A writer uses Bourdieu to confess he embraces the fancy and the cheap while dodging the safe middle. Comments brawled over what counts as lowbrow, dropped meta self-owns and grammar snipes, and concluded the real flex is avoiding the middle because taste is identity theater.
The internet grabbed a pint and went full philosophy after a writer confessed he only buys “fancy” Trappist beer or dirt-cheap swill—but never the safe middle stuff—and blamed Pierre Bourdieu’s famous book on taste. The crowd called it relatable, infuriating, and deliciously self-owning. One camp cheered the honesty about signaling; another rolled eyes at the “I’m quirky, not marketed to” vibe. Cue identity crisis: is skipping Blue Moon a personality, or just another status badge?
Cinephiles and superhero stans immediately squared up. “Master and Commander is lowbrow?” gasped BalinKing, kicking off a Marvel-versus-art-film melee where both sides claimed the high ground. The sharpest dagger came from sfpotter’s meta zinger about “seeing through” your own performative detachment—readers said that’s the whole Bourdieu thesis in one line. Then the grammar police arrived: didgeoridoo’s “maximum” correction doubled as satire, an accidental proof of taste-as-status. Meanwhile, everyone roasted Bourdieu’s monster sentences—GPS needed—yet some swore the pain pays off. Why it matters: the thread exposed a brutal consensus—highbrow and lowbrow read as authentic, while middlebrow screams try-hard. Pingou even dropped a related HN debate for the truly masochistic.
Key Points
- •The author notes a consistent pattern of choosing highbrow or lowbrow options while avoiding middlebrow ones across multiple categories (beer, books, furniture, films, word choices).
- •Pierre Bourdieu’s 1979 book “Distinction” is used to frame this pattern as socially conditioned taste serving as a marker of class and distinction.
- •The author describes “Distinction” as difficult due to long, complex sentences, redefined terms, and disorganized presentation with key caveats appearing much later.
- •Sociologists regard “Distinction” as a major work, prompting the author to read it despite its difficulty.
- •Bourdieu’s English translation preface partially justifies the dense style as necessary to reflect the complexity of the social world.