Snobbery- many different forms

tictacnana

Tea and coffee snob here. Also, a bit of a punctuation snob. Don’t mimd accents though. Everyone has some sort of accent but the upper class twerp way of saying “SomethinK or could OF, drives me mad !( I know, we’ve been here before!)

Upper class twerp? Many people say somethink or sumfink but rarely the so called upper classes I bet😄
There’s snobbery and there’s inverted snobbery.Do we all know a Mrs Bouquet? I’ve got a similar neighbour but tho she makes me smile she’s a lovely generous person too.

I'm a grocery shop snob apparently according to my BIL because I won't shop in Aldi or Lidl. Just don't like them.

My personal preference is top quality bedding, especially sheets. We had a UK family holiday in 2022 and me and both of my daughters went out the first day and bought 1000 thread count sheets after a sleepless night was had by us all. We washed and dried and remade the beds and slept well after that. It must be twinnings English Breakfast tea for us all too. I taught my girls a few things, mainly about good sheets and tea!

BigBertha1

I'm a grocery shop snob apparently according to my BIL because I won't shop in Aldi or Lidl. Just don't like them.

My DN said her husband wouldn't eat anything bought in Lidl. Luckily I'd shopped in Waitrose when they came for lunch, but I doubt he would have realised anyway.
The best Cheddar cheese I've ever eaten was this Christmas and it was from Lidl!

Aldi's Welsh yogurt is lovely.

I’m a music snob.
I’m sniffy about people who don’t realise there is a whole world of wonderful classical music out there apart from pop (which I also like) and dismiss it.
Table manners too.
Going to Benidorm regularly (I have been once 😨)
Blackpool.

We don’t have Lidl but our Aldis are quite posh here, clean and spacious. I went to a continental one once,however, and it was nasty so maybe the British ones are like that ?We only have 3 major chains - Coles, Woolworths and Aldi and I would put Coles and Aldi as equal with Woolworths lagging behind nowadays.
This year I have become a tinsel snob and none of our decorations ,tree or otherwise,have it. I gave my pink and white thick tinsel to my youngest granddaughter who loves it.

Nanna8, I too wonder about my propensity to snobbishness!
I don't watch commercial tv which can leave me out of the loop with people at work, and I can't stand reality tv.
I totally agree with Doodledog about managing to look good on a small budget, and although I do love the finer things in life they must be value for money.
Grandma H I love quality DARK chocolate which must be at least 70% cacao, in fact the higher the better simply because I eat less when its bitter.
Whether this is snobbery or just good taste is debatable, either way it's these little things who make us who we are.

nanna8 Lidl and Aldi are so much better than they were when they first opened here.
I think Aldi has won Supermarket of the Year at least once.

I would put Coles on a par with Tesco but probably not quite as good. Woolies? Similar but I haven't been since Covid.
I've not found the equivalent of Waitrose or M&S Food in Australia so far.

as for looking down on people, i definitely look down on people who can seriously (? i presume)
describe a fellow human being, ie a whole person, as a hand.
i can't help it. it's how i was brought up.

Do you mean handyman?

ie the expert who's handy because he lives just round the corner?

no i mean referring to someone as a garage hand.

Ah, yes a qualified motor mechanic who has completed an apprenticeship.
ISWYM.

Nanatoone - my mother-in-law drinks Twinnings English Breakfast tea - and even worse, has the tea-bag version.

It's certainly not to our taste here... I can't believe you think you are a tea-snob if you like it!

I, on the other hand, clearly am one!
🤣

Can't sleep so I'm reading through this thread. What a giggle!
Thanks GN.
Am I a snob? I don't know.
I can't drink instant coffee. I'd rather have water.
I can't shop in Primark and try to avoid any imported plastic.
I don't shop in Waitrose because it's too far away.
We do all make judgements don't we but shouldn't condemn others just because we don't share the same tastes. It's based on our own experience.
Aged about 11, a girl sitting next to me at school dinner watched me eating I think it was rice pudding and she said "how can you like that stuff"

Only fair trade coffee, chocolate and tea for me. That's not about snobbery but about growers and workers not being exploited. I'm a bit snobby about words- never toilet, living room, lounge, settee but, loo/ lavatory, sofa, sitting room.

welbeck

as for looking down on people, i definitely look down on people who can seriously (? i presume)
describe a fellow human being, ie a whole person, as a hand.
i can't help it. it's how i was brought up.

Do you mean like Thing from the Adams Family?

Aren't we lucky that we can afford to be snobby!

There's snobbery and there is discretion. If you are a snob, you think YOU are better than someone else for no good reason. Didn't Mrs Thatcher look down on people who used the bus rather than going to work in a car? She thought they had ' failed'. Because they didn't have 'enough' money...
Having refined tastes isn't snobby: it just shows that good coffee, wine, chocolate..or whatever.. isn't wasted on you. If you have a genteel accent and use the language carefully you are often thought a snob- but it is really your behaviour towards other people and not believing you are a better person that counts.
Most snobbery is hilarious because it usually draws attention to the pretensions of the perpetrator. I know someone who genuinely believes that Whittard coffee must be better because it is SO expensive!
And no one necessarily looks better in designer clothes. They just think they do!

I don’t go on buses- very few do here. They are unreliable. I think they are ok in Sydney though. What I won’t wear are clothes with the designer name on them. I think they should pay us to wear them not the other way round. Who wants to walk round with Adidas or Puma or whatever written across their tops ? Nuts.

I think most of us in this thread are entering into the spirit of it rather than demonstrating being a snob.

And yes, Grammaretto we are indeed fortunate that we have choices - and that we are free to spend time here on Gransnet chatting about unimportant things.

Most of us can remember times when we were not quite so lucky and don't "look down" on other people. It's "looking down" and probably "putting down" too that really makes a person a snob, not preferring silk to polyester. Others upthread have acknowledged this.

How fortunate we all are here.

Somewhere could we have a moratorium on virtue signalling in almost every thread.

Whether is is reminding us how fortunate we are to have choice, regularly killing threads by telling us how lucky we are to be able to afford a pair of shoes, or that stupid phrase 'First world problem' (which is rarely correct).

Most GN members make it abundantly clear of their awareness of those less fortunate than themselves and we do have many threads that discuss these. So please can we have less of the virtue signalling in perfectly innocuous threads like this one.

Or possibly we could have some phrase that can be attached to a thread that indicates that we know and understand the problems of those less fortunate but would just like to flag these up and then have a discussion on some innocuous subject, without it constantly flagged up.

In my youth there was a saying 'The more he talked of his honour, the faster we counted the spoons (silver)', which meant essentially, the more someone paraded their virtue the more aware one was that that this might be being used to hide dishonesty.

I think the biblical description was 'whited sepulchres'.

Thanks M0nica I am with you on this as it is (surely?) a given that most of us do know we are the lucky ones in global terms - and yes, I for one often feel the need to say so in response to something.
Apologies all.

I think it happens mostly on chatty threads which talk about material things M0nica.

But why should chatty threads on material things be constantly disrupted and spoilt by Virtue-signallers?

It gives no aid to anyone living in poverty, the VS has no evidence, that I am aware of that, those taking part in a thread are not cognisance of the level of poverty to be found everywhere, and may well be working actively to allay it

. It is emotional bullying that does nothing to help those in poverty. Just enhances the VS's sense of being morally superior to the rest of the world.

Just curious but who here is ‘virtue signalling’? I can’t say I have noticed on this particular thread. Others, maybe.