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Issue is “you should have learned harder” is always from office workers.

Conversely “you’re not really working” comes from blue collar workers.

Both sentences are the same and they are usually used by assholes from one or the other side that either feel attacked or feel superior.

There is no intrinsic value in any of those statements besides what it is saying about person using it - that person is an asshole.



I dont think it is as simple as that. Throwing everyone into the a-hole pool is a rather simplistic approach, and a very dismissive one at that. In particular, the first sentence is often a reply to someone lamenting their situation, while the second sentence is often a statement ment to insult upwards. Context is important.


Why is one of those better than the other?


Seems like amaurose would feel OK with dropping it on someone who is nagging about his current life circumstances while they could learn more.

Even if it is technically true - why would anyone actually say that to someone?


Maybe not assholes, but it is a pretty blatant status play. By denigrating someone else’s work you raise yourself up by comparison. And while a lot of our psychological health is tied to our relative status in society, that doesn’t make it healthy behavior.

Edit: it's also telling from a status standpoint that you characterized the blue collar comment as "insulting upwards." It would probably go a long way to avoiding those types of comments in the first place if people didn't implicitly think blue collar work is "below" white collar work.


What do finance guys think about the other two? They are just moving numbers up and down. Have finance guys ever built anything brick by brick (digital bricks or physical bricks)

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/9_oWUI7Vo_M




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