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Thanks for this post - it's an interesting collection of observations/opinions, though having experienced almost all the places on your list I do not agree with some of them. Regarding your Dresden guy, it seems very natural to me how he would end up with that preference. If you live in Dresden, you spend approximately your whole life having European baroque built at any possible budget, preserved in any state of (dis)repair, and restored anywhere on the spectrum from convincing to cheap China/Las Vegas themeparkery shoved down your throat.
To begin with, liking the middle ages is not a particularly intellectuality-signalling preference in the German context - if he wanted to score those points, by his background he would in fact more likely have been dissecting the details of whatever Rococo creamcake topping stucco you were marvelling at. Are you sure you weren't inadvertently rating him according to an American scorecard? I recall noticing that at my grad school (NE US), there was a clique of locals who were frequent renaissance faire/medieval reenactment festival goers and this slotted into a wider strategy of signalling sophistication to each other, while in Germany the counterparts to those are largely considered an extremely basic and plebeian pastime.
That is really interesting about Dresden, I have spent very little time in Germany so I didn't understand that context. I have spent about 2 weeks in Berlin and a few months in Austria and Switzerland, so most of my understanding of German culture comes from that, 3 years of German in highschool and having Swiss and German ancestors. My impression of Germany today is that they are less interested in preserving their heritage than the French and Italians (for example) and are more eager to forget their recent past. I was imagining that much of Germany must be filled with new builds today, like what I saw in Berlin. As a crass American I'm less unimpressed by budget baroque than some aluminum siding, even if it's Vegas quality.
It was not that it was medieval, it was that it was a rather ugly brown brick wall that lacked any kind of harmony or beauty or refinement which the neighboring baroque structures exuded. He wasn't trying to score points by liking the middle ages, he was trying to score points by telling me how akshually, the poor and undignified structure keeping the whole thing together is more fascinating than all that crass glitz and glamour next door. I know what he's doing! Everyone in academia does this, all the time. My art history professors in college in 2010 all treated the rococo with disdain. The rococo is my favorite era of art history. It is the most beautiful. What you are saying when you try to place some ugly thing above it, is that I uniquely am pure of heart enough to lift up the poor and the ugly, while you, crass plebeian, shamelessly love what's beautiful. In my mind this is cope. But in fact I do empathize with the impulse. I am more attracted to hairy fat men than I am to modelesque elegant men. But that says more about me than it does about anyone else. If I dated a tall blond Chad, I'll just look bad next to him. If I date a chubby short guy, I get to feel better about myself. If you point to a dirty brown wall and tell me it's more interesting, you're intimating to me that you don't see yourself as equal or worthy of the beauty of something beautiful. Which is fine, but don't pretend like you're setting yourself apart by taking a more intellectual viewpoint that hides your insecurity, and then tell me you're doing it righteously.
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I think there are a few examples like this where "Euro" things are high-status in the US, but in actual Europe they're working-class signifiers. US soccer fans are generally either Hispanic or upper-middle class, with the implied perception of looking down on "American" sports like football (US), baseball, and basketball. Cycling is, or at least used to be a few decades ago, I hear, similar: fancy road bikes are expensive status symbols in America, while in Europe it's often less gear-driven and professional cyclists are often from lower-class backgrounds more like basketball in America.
I think there is probably some general pattern of status versus foreign-ness: the lower classes aren't well-traveled enough to know what goes on in foreign countries, and the tourist class doesn't always grok the cultures they visit to understand the actual class dynamics at play there.
I have spent a lot of time in Europe and to this day I find European social class completely opaque and confusing. The "poor/sketchy" people in most of Europe dress more nicely than the "rich/respectable" people in America, for starters. There are so many specifics of etiquette that fly over my head as an American. That is why traveling in Asia is easier than in Europe in some ways- no one expects you to speak the language or know what's going on if you're white in Asia. If you're white in Europe they don't understand why you don't get the vibe/speak the language/whatever and you make them uncomfortable.
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As a broad historical pattern going back millennia, I should observe that upper classes almost always adopt technologies, cultures, and other aspects from foreign countries before the lower classes do, partly but not entirely due to increased exposure. I'd imagine there are some lower-class American things that seem high-class in Europe as well, but haven't been to Europe so don't know for sure.
Faux-gangsta was a hot trend amongst upper-class children when I was growing up.
Faux-gangsta(we would probably call it ‘thug’) codes as upper-middle class kids that would piss their pants/cry/run away in the event of an actual fight here, too. Obviously there’s people that are like that for real but the difference is so obvious that they’re not the same vibe.
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