public spitting: transgressive pride and autonomy

I've been puzzled about public spitting for decades, too stupid to recognize the obvious. Men who spit, spit on a world that they see is unworthy of them and their basic dignity. 

Lemme explain. In American culture, spitting seems to be about pride, masculine autonomy and something akin to solidarity or community: "I'm too proud to conform to norms of a class from which I am excluded. Acceding to such norms would compromise my proud masculine autonomy. My identity of masculine pride is supported by a community of likewise autonomous anti-elite, self-justifying refuseniks, comfortable and even snug and happy in our community of crude habits." That's a lot of lofty language and reasoning, but it comes down to a preference for peer behaviors cultivated during the youthful developmental stage and an indifference to adult elite notions of etiquette, perhaps perceived as effeminate or effete or fay. 

While the privileged educated elite respect their world, a world from which they derive so much including and especially respect for their education, their sophistication and career accomplishments, the non elite have little reason to respect their environment. "This degraded and degrading world around me isn't worthy of me and my pride. I spit on it freely and trash it as it deserves. I don't think twice about it. Why should I?"

The knock-off effects of respect also include propaganda beliefs and conspiracy theory beliefs (many blog posts here on this topic). It's evident in the elite cherishing of "proper" English and the respect it gets from high and low. There's been plenty of public attention lately given to privilege -- white privilege, mostly -- and not enough to respect vs lack of respect across the social pyramid. Respect infects our understanding of the world in our theories about it, infects our attitudes about our surroundings and even our perception of language. It also infects our self esteem and our judgments of others. And it is an interactive game -- we get it from others and even from our surroundings and others' perception of our surroundings.