Nothing says "progressive" like blatant classism.

I'd prefer to believe that this was an isolated incident. Nonetheless, when I first encountered self-declared progressives, one of the first things that I noticed about them was their combination of feigned regard for the downtrodden working class and undisguised contempt for actual working-class people. In the same breath, they could talk about their enlightened, egalitarian ideals and grouse about those stupid redneck hicks. I even pointed out as much in a letter to the editor and thus lost a "friend," who could muster no response except the standard-issue appeal to ridicule. Never underestimate people's willful ignorance of their own hypocrisy.