to hate how reverse snobbery seems acceptable to many on this board and RL?

[mayorquimby]

maybe i'm just having a bad day/week/month/year but for some reason i seem to be seeing more and more of it on here and in RL i've noticed people seem to think it's completely acceptable.i think it was another thread somewhere that set me off but i don't want to quote it as it's seem like i'm having a go at one person when in reality you see it everywhere.
this isn't a troll or a wind up, it's a genuine question, with the amount of threads on here at the moment about how the economy has gone to shit and the politicians have been useless (which i largely agree with) it seems to be acceptable to have a go at them because of their background. how many times do you see "public schoolboy" used as a negative comment? and bcause of my accent/where i grew up people i barely know in RL seem to think it perfectly acceptable to comment on my poshness/background as a seemingly legitimate basis to invalidate my arguments/opinions?

this isn't a class warfare saying that you can't knock posh people who are twats, just knock them for being twats rather than their background. i know the amount of abuse i'd get if i used the term "working class" about someone as a negative connotation on here and rightly so, because it's ignorant and lazy/. so why is it acceptable in reverse?

rant over

Yes the balance seems to be a bit skewed. Sign of the times. 'Political correctness'.

Interestingly, I read on one post the other day where a wheelchair user described themselves as a cripple. Now I'm not saying this is how I would go around referring to disabled people, but at the end of the day - if they themselves are not offended by the term (or are OK with it as a joke) why the hell should anyone else be offended 'for' them? That's what I find offensive.

I havenn't noticed much reverse snobbery at all in my life. Maybe the odd isolated incident.

I have however, noticed plenty of good old-fashioned snobbery here and in RL, usually the middle classes sneering at poor people, and people who live in social housing

I kind of know what you mean.

Sometimes it seems as if the only group of people that one is allowed to criticise or ridicule these days is the middle class who still seem to be "fair game".
JMO.

I agree mayor.

In fact, it's almost become acceptable these days for the middle classes to mock and sneer at poor people. It's horrible.

Far more old-fashioned snobbery on MN, than inverted snobbery - it's just wrapped up in criticism about kids names and their diets (yes, I do it too).

hi mayor, can you give examples? I do recall instances of careless use of the word 'public schoolboy' as a disparaging shorthand. But no more than other stereotypes on mn like 'city b(w)anker', or 'chav'.

FWIW, I welcome all perspectives on mn, including (particularly) those of public schoolboys because they are quite rare on these boards.

People have a choice about what to name their kids and what to feed them so in my opinion, they are a fair enough target. People who are poor can't help it though.

Dingding, I'm not sure it has become acceptable.

One could of course, if one felt devilishly inclined, do an experiment whereby 2 trolls were posted, one negative towards the so- called 'working class', and one negative towards so called 'upper class'.

It would be very interesting to see what the respective responses were.

Not that I would condone this behanviour of course.

thank you, MrsSeanBean. The pennys dropped.

YANBU, I've noticed inverted snobbery going on. Some are almost made to feel guilty for not being skint.

Well... I don't think it is always BAD for it to be pointed out that the people who end up running the country are incredible rich and therefore it is not as democratic as it should be. For example, David Cameron has a personal fortune of £30 million. Does he REALLY understand much about living on benefits/poverty?

And, as a rule, people who have all the POWER are a legitimate target for piss-taking, whereas people who have NO power are not, really.

David Cameron has a personal fortune of £30 million.

Really? That's an awful lot of money, are you sure it's right?

It's probably more acceptable because by being middle/upper class people already have quite a few advantages and generally get to run the country, so expected to not really be too bothered about a bit of piss-taking.

According to the Sunday Times Rich List, that is the case. Daily Mail article here

You will get snobbery from both sides TBH...its human nature. I suppose everyone has the right to their opinion however unpopular it seems to everyone else.
Mayorquimby- you have been very opinionated on certain threads have you not?

Mayorquimby, That why I go to the Art & Craft, days out threads etc... generally get people in a better mood to help and ask for help nicely. It winds me up when people pick up spelling mistakes and grammar, not everyone can or did get a A in English, should that bar them (me)from joining in.
Must go and do some chores now.

that article's very misleading morningpaper, it certainly doesn't say that Camerons got £30 million squid!!!! It say he comes from a wealthy family.

Morning paper, I know what you mean (kind of) - but in a democracy, is it not insulting to say that the 'people who have no power'..? And where do you draw the line between who has power and who has not and who it is ok to take the piss out of and who not?

I agree with you Mayor, I have noticed it too.

The figure quoted for the Camerons is usually around that

"Far more old-fashioned snobbery on MN, than inverted snobbery - it's just wrapped up in criticism about kids names and their diets (yes, I do it too). "

yep i'd agree with you. it's more prevelant and certainly more damaging the good old fashioned way. as i said i'm not on a class war and described good old fashioned as "lazy and ignorant" in my first post. i don't want to turn this into a competition on who's more put upon because i know exactly which side would win that pissing contest and it's not mine. i think my point is that just because snobbery is wrong and more damaging doesn't make reverse snobbery any less wrong. it's like when the old reverse racism argument comes up (just using an analogy i'm not likining my plight to those who suffer real discrimination through racism) people say it's more acceptable for black people to take the piss out of white people because white people are supposedly dominant/ fair game as others have said. where as in my mind the wrongs of one group doesn't justify the wrongs of another.

so yes while i agree with you that there is far more snobbery and a lot of it is stealth (benefits talk,parenting criticisms etc) this doesn't justify reverse snobbery any more than the people who are using the shannon matthews case as a justification for their vile snobbery and agenda against the working class.

"hi mayor, can you give examples?"

this is like when your arguing with your OH and you say something like, "you always do X" and then they go "give an example when was the last time you do X" but because it's probably such a minor thing in the grand schemes you can't remember exactly when just that it always happened . the one that set me off today was on the "in the news section"
".....they just got on my nerves. Posh boys and girls playing at being Important about Issues."

as i said i'm not having a go at the person who posted this or trying to start WW3, just giving one example. and in fairness a couple of people pulled her up on it.

Gordon Brown didn't have a blue blood background and he is literally running the country.