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Snobbery- many different forms

(196 Posts)
nanna8 Thu 29-Dec-22 00:23:01

I am sorting out my clothes today ( having a break !) and have a large chuck out pile. I find it easy to get rid of the cheap labels but really hard to let go of the ‘nicer’ ones. I think it is a bit of snobbery on my part because some of the things I find it hard to let go of really don’t look nice. Why do I look at the labels anyway ?
I am also a coffee snob , and to a lesser extent a tea snob.
Am I a people snob, too? Quite likely, though it is hidden in the recesses of the brain - probably a kind of academic snobbery because of my background and the family ethos.

Grammaretto Mon 02-Jan-23 10:34:16

Ok M0nica if you promise not to do it yourself grin

I think it was my comment about how lucky we all are, nana8

Let's not take ourselves too seriously.

M0nica Mon 02-Jan-23 10:37:40

nnanna8 Read back it should be clear.

To be honest, it was a relatively slight comment on this thread that has been the straw that broke this camel's back. But we get so much virtue signalling across GN and mostly it is aimed at interesting and amusing threads like this one and it often derails and ends them.

Witzend Mon 02-Jan-23 11:01:07

A very Francophile and foodie BiL of mine - he’s lived there on and off, fluent speaker, etc., certainly used to be a terrible food snob. When we were all once staying at another BiL’s huge place in France, there was a big alfresco lunch party for friends and neighbours.

I volunteered to make various things, inc. my usual potato salad (with a little lemon juice, chopped chives etc.) which invariably disappears. However there wasn’t enough mayonnaise (Hellman’s or French jar equivalent) so I said I’d nip to the supermarket.

From hyper-foodie BiL’s reaction, you’d honestly think I’d said I was going to lace it with arsenic! NOOOOO!!!! He would make some proper mayonnaise!
OK then.
I don’t know what he did or didn’t do, but it was just oily and utterly tasteless, and despite dozens of guests, most of them French, much of my usually-vanishing PS went to waste.

I don’t mind admitting that I was exceedingly pissed off. The sheer waste, apart from anything else!

I do love that BiL, but another time I will stick to my pleb-mayonnaise guns!

Kate1949 Mon 02-Jan-23 11:18:00

Our son in law says he wouldn't eat anything from Aldi or Lidl. Well he does when he comes here, he just doesn't know it. We were at a barbecue recently. The hosts were quite wealthy. Son in law was tucking into several sausages. He asked the hosts where they were from as they were delicious. She replied 'Lidl'. His face was a picture.

nanna8 Mon 02-Jan-23 12:22:07

Love it, Kate. I know quite a few ‘wine snobs’ and I had to laugh when one of them highly praised some Pinot Grigio we were drinking. It was about $8 from Aldis. They do a good wine. This bloke would turn his nose up at anything less than $30 normally.

fancythat Mon 02-Jan-23 12:50:15

I knew someone who would only speak to a select few people. I was not in that group. However, once she found out my son was an acedemic, suddenly I was included!
Ridiculous. I was still the same exact person!

Kate1949 Mon 02-Jan-23 13:13:35

Oh yes nanna8 we love Aldi wine. I remember watching an episode of Come Dine With Me once. There was a chap on who said he was a wine expert and could tell cheap wine from expensive. The host served him cheap supermarket red wine which he had poured into an empty expensive bottle. The 'expert' was singing its praises and waffling on about how you could tell it was a good one. Very funny.

merlotgran Mon 02-Jan-23 13:38:58

Just before Christmas I was at a local ‘do’ where, along with my two adult granddaughters, I was introduced to the father of an acquaintance of theirs.

Ignoring me, he immediately shook hands with the younger one, who is a fourth year med student at Kings and said, ‘Ah! So you’re the clever one!’

Cue a frosty silence while I gave him my Granny Death Stare but his face was a picture when he asked her sister, ‘And what do you do?’ and she replied, ‘Drugs in a field!’

No way was she prepared to discuss her own quite considerable academic achievements. with the rude man who scuttled off and avoided us for the rest of the evening 🤣🤣

Bluesmum Mon 02-Jan-23 15:55:59

I am a crockery snob I suppose, as I do so love good China cups or mugs and hate drinking out of the thicker crockery ones, I swear the tea or coffee tastes better from my China mugs!!! Does that make me a “Hyacinth Bouquet”??? Oh dear! Now I have read through this thread I realise I have quite a few if the more expensive preferences, like shoes, bedding etc, but I always just considered that was my appreciation of the better things in life, nit a firm of snobbery!

Norah Mon 02-Jan-23 15:56:39

Look into the varied threads with regards to money. Many could be viewed as snobby, or perhaps nicely as just chit chat.

- How people afford beauty treatments, hair, nails, tats
- iPhones
- Holiday locations, cruises, holiday/vacation homes generally
- Cleaner, gardener, window washer, decorator - aka employed
- Dishwashers, dryers, hobs or soupmakers
- New autos or old bangers. Petrol or electric
- Academic degrees, firsts, fee based schooling
- Private insurance, pension
- Working mum or sahm (my favourite silly argument confused
- Homes to let (people need rentals or they'd purchase)
- Charitable or 'Victorian' hmm
- Personal Preferences all.

Bluesmum Mon 02-Jan-23 16:00:28

Sorry, I am always transposing “I” and “o”. Therefore that should read “ not a form”

Grantanow Mon 02-Jan-23 18:11:54

Someone (can't recall who) said s/he couldn't stand these snobs who go on about Mozart when they haven't even seen any of his paintings.

MrsKen33 Mon 02-Jan-23 19:46:04

😀😀😀Grantanow

LauraNorderr Mon 02-Jan-23 20:31:04

Grantanow 😂

biglouis Mon 02-Jan-23 22:51:20

There are no laws against snobbery.

Deedaa Mon 02-Jan-23 23:47:55

Yes I am a coffee snob. I always hated coffee until I went to Italy and discovered proper espresso. I have even (Only once because it is astronomically expensive) drunk the coffee made from the berries the civet cats eat. I has a wonderful flavour.

I like good cheese and cold meats. Preferably from Aldi or Lidl because why pay more if you don't have to? I shop for good clothes in my local charity shop because they last and continue to look good.

nanna8 Tue 03-Jan-23 08:29:35

I’ve had that coffee, too, Deedaa. It was gorgeous but we were in Bali at the farm where they produced it so not too expensive. A bit cruel though, the way they keep the civets.

Callistemon21 Tue 03-Jan-23 10:15:43

Grantanow

Someone (can't recall who) said s/he couldn't stand these snobs who go on about Mozart when they haven't even seen any of his paintings.

😂😂😂
I loved the dog in those films, Grantanow - or was that Beethoven?

It's only snobbery if someone looks down on another person because they think their tastes are inferior.

Grantanow Tue 03-Jan-23 13:01:36

Can't resist adding this quatrain by John Collins Bossidy (a comment on New England aristos):

Here’s to dear old Boston,
Home of the bean and the cod,
Where the Lowells speak only to Cabots,
And the Cabots speak only to God.

Perhaps a bit unfair on the Lowell's who produced three poets including Robert Lowell.

Ethelwashere1 Tue 03-Jan-23 18:40:50

I’m a manners snob. I was brought up on a council estate but in the 50s and 60s there were some very proud well mannered people and I was taught to be well mannered I gravitated then as now to these types. I can’t stand loud, shouty, aggressive people no matter what their background. I also avoid vulgar show offs. So yes I must be a snob