Seems like the Frogs have something called “social envy”, as discussed here.
A leader of the Yellow Vest movement, Ingrid Levavasseur, criticised “the inertia of big corporations over social misery while they are showing themselves capable of mobilising a crazy amount of cash overnight for Notre Dame”.
Philippe Martinez, head of France’s largest trade union, CGT, said: “Now understand that there are billionaires who have huge amounts of money and in one click put 200m, 100m on the table. It shows the inequalities in this country, which we regularly demonstrate against.”
Such criticism has been widespread. On French breakfast television last week, a guest insulted the Notre Dame donors as “rich bastards”, and even the moderate newspaper Le Monde wrote that “too much is too much”.
Even Le Monde? The irony is strong with this one, as that rag is typically to the left of Hillary Clinton.
No, what surprised me was this little snippet:
The international Ipsos Mori survey, in which dozens of questions were submitted to respondents, showed that the French have a particularly critical attitude towards rich people. Based on its findings, a Social Envy Coefficient was calculated, making it possible to measure how strong social envy against rich people is in a country.
According to this coefficient, social envy is highest in France with a score of 1.26, followed by Germany with 0.97. It is significantly lower in the US (0.42) and the UK (0.37).
I don’t know where they conducted the U.S. part of the survey — I’m suspecting the East- and West Coast major cities — but I am amazed to learn (by this survey’s metrics) that we Murkins are more socially envious than the Brits. We aren’t. There is no expression over here that is in any way similar to the withering “fucking toffs”, for example, and our initial impression on seeing someone driving a Ferrari is “I want one of those”, and not “I want his“.
We may hate our self-professed social elites, but we sure as hell don’t envy them, or their wealth. Our loathing is directed more at their paternalistic bossiness.
But that’s not to say that we are aren’t occasionally tempted to borrow an old custom from the Frogs and apply it to scum like, say, the entire Humanities Department at Harvard or the editorial committee of The New York Times...
Envy is the most adolescent of the emotions followed closely by it’s ugly cousin jealously. Maybe it’s the circle I have frequented all of my life but I have never actually witnessed envy or jealousy on the scale I frequently see on the web.
As in this example:
“I want one of those”, and not “I want his“
So, from my detached perspective this is either a very remote display or a sign of some sort of mental misalignment, maybe both. Regardless, when the mental misfits make it physical it should be treated as any other crime. You don’t get to harm others for any reason particularly adolescent ones which most people outgrown by the age of 10 or so.
“Envy is the most adolescent of the emotions followed closely by it’s ugly cousin jealously.”
Strange how those two emotions form the very basis of Marxism and all of it’s bastard step-children, isn’t it? 😉
And one more thing.
“I want one of those”, and not “I want his“
If I am going to want something why in the world would I want his used “thing” when a brand new one is so much better? The answer is in the question. It’s not a matter of want. It’s a matter of deprivation. Removing the “thing” from the owner and giving it to someone else thus moving him closer to a lower level. Yes, there are retarded people out there that think that way. They will do anything, even if means reducing their own level, to knock others down. There is a 100% success rate in the cure of dragging. Tie a 1″x100′ length of hemp rope to the rear bumper of the Ferrari and the other to the neck of the crybaby and drive at 160 mph til there’s nothing left but a frayed end. There! No more offensive whining and stamping of feets.
Rich people are welcome to their money. What I resent is leftist billionaires trying to use their money to wreck the country. Until they stop that, I am all for expropriating them. Give them something else to worry about than confiscating guns or impeaching Trump. If they acted like the French billionaires and spent their money on cultural things, I would be a lot happier with them.
Never forget, the leftist billionaires can’t make you do anything. It’s their puppet politicians where you should focus your ire.
But then, the politicians are only in power because of you know who.
So how do you get to the root of the matter, start slitting necks in the neighborhood or across the supper table?
“…or the editorial committee of The New York Times…”
…and the top three layers of management at Alphabet/Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
I don’t think there’s much in it comparing the social envy of Americans versus the British (and Irish). I think we are all, broadly, equivalent. When I, for one, hear that someone has worked hard, taken chances and made a lot of money, my first reaction is “well done!”. I’ll agree that champagne socialists can get on one’s nerves with their astonishingly insensitive hypocrisy but like the words of your post of t’other day “A Socialist is someone too stupid to realise that they are a Communist”.