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Who does he think he is?

Ghost of the dead horse

filling some space
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I'm thinking of a class of statements with a perhaps a common ideology to them. I'll give a set of examples.

-Who does he think he is? The king of europe?
-He tried to order me around as if he were the boss of me.
-that doctor of medicine is always trying to look better than he really is.
-she thinks she's something because she directs the department.
-those gym guys think they're so tough and admirable with their silly weight-lifting contests and whatnot.
-she thinks she's something with all those snappy comments and come-backs she always tries to use so much.
-those home-owners think they're better, though they've done nothing but indebted themselves with a bunch of mortar and plaster.

What makes a person attribute certain thought processes or attitudes to someone else, where there may be none? Envy?
 

KDude

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You should make up your own thought processes for them to explain this.
 

Cellmold

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This is actually a whole topic in itself to me.

A lot of it could stem from projection, as the individual briefly considers what they would think of themselves and how they expect their mindset would be within those scenarios.

It might be envy, but id say more likely it stems from a whole host of deeper issues belonging to an individual. Ive noticed some people will find any little bit of information onto which they can build a prejudice or assumption.

Everyone does it to a greater or lesser extent and id say the more deep you are in when it comes to judging others, the more difficult it is to recognise this in yourself and then you throw your projections further and further afield in an attempt to distance yourself from an examination of your own position and it's frailties.
 

Ghost of the dead horse

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Yeah, I'm thinking of what person A thinks of person B, and in doing so I'm painting a picture of person A's mental landscape.

I'm trying to find true statements, and I tried to avoid attributing envy to anyone, but .. I though I better say it anyway, as it crossed my mind.

There are lot of socially acceptable explanations to various behaviours, but I'm not sure if they are more than haphazard inventions which just have become accepted because they reinforce the current social dogma. Edit: but I'm getting off topic. I'm really more interested in people explaining other people's behavior, with sometimes perhaps less-than-accurate logic.
 

Jaguar

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The statements sound like nothing more than whining, stemming from insecurity.
 

Ghost of the dead horse

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Pretty much what I think as well. They're mostly lifted from finnish message boards as I recall them. edit: it's the theme from many years, so my memory might not serve me right, but that's about the gist of it.
 

Il Morto Che Parla

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Depends on the context.

If some inferior came up to me and said "get me a coffee", I'd surely be right to say "who does he think he is, my boss?"

This is because 1.) often you can reasonably deduce thoughts from actions/statements* and 2.) Sometimes rejection of both is justified.

I feel like we just reinvented the wheel.

*Which ironically is what nearly everyone in this thread has done, with regards to those who made those statements. xD
 

sprinkles

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It depends on whether or not the statement is paired up to a narcissist or not.

Some times it's justified in that the person clearly does think they are better than you. In some cases they will outright tell you so directly.

Other times people just be hatin.
 

Bamboo

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I'm thinking of a class of statements with a perhaps a common ideology to them. I'll give a set of examples.

-Who does he think he is? The king of europe?
-He tried to order me around as if he were the boss of me.
-that doctor of medicine is always trying to look better than he really is.
-she thinks she's something because she directs the department.
-those gym guys think they're so tough and admirable with their silly weight-lifting contests and whatnot.
-she thinks she's something with all those snappy comments and come-backs she always tries to use so much.
-those home-owners think they're better, though they've done nothing but indebted themselves with a bunch of mortar and plaster.

What makes a person attribute certain thought processes or attitudes to someone else, where there may be none? Envy?

Some of these statements might be true.

Maybe the person who is saying "the doctor is trying to look better than they are" is jealous of the doctor, or maybe they have an actual insight that the doctor is overcompensating for some reason to look better than they are.

If the case is legitimate insight, they may be providing a warning for other people.

---

In another case, the person who "thinks they're something because they run the department" might actually be someone with a greatly inflated ego, who perhaps uses their managerial power to try and assert personal control over members of staff, say by engaging in personal/sexual harassment, or bullying.

OR the person saying this is a slacker worker who is pissed at their boss.

There are many options.


Whenever I hear these sort of statements I think it's best to reserve judgment on the situation and the person saying them until I get more information.

Perhaps these sort of statements could be attributed to envy, but they are basically attributed to "someone making a judgement." In cases where they arrive at judgment where the other person's motive is still unclear, than it's use of intuition (which is a form of prejudice, but it may provide valid insights), unreasonable prejudice, or error.

All cases suggest questioning an image and contrasting with a reality that the speaker supposedly understands better than the subject.
 

Mole

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I'm really more interested in people explaining other people's behavior, with sometimes perhaps less-than-accurate logic.

We are the only inter-subjective animal. And our inter-subjectivity has made us the most powerful animal on the planet.

Yes, we are able to share the subjective thoughts and feelings of others.

However there is a dark side to inter-subjectivity. We are able to deceive one another. And as you know, the first casuality of war is truth.

And we are able to ascribe to others less than noble thoughts, as you so well point out.

So our inter-subjectivity can lead, on one hand to love, and on the other hand to deception, calumny, detraction, libel, slurs, slander, and obloquy.
 

Ghost of the dead horse

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Acting according to the society's implicit and explicit values often produces favorable assesments from everyone around, even though it might not have been the person's primary goal. I'm thinking that some people may come overly allergic to some forms of approval they don't consider being earned.

What I'm thinking, there's various levels of image-boosting activities. As someone said, people assess each other about whether or not their public image was earned or not.
 

xisnotx

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I am who I am, come and get it while I'm available...
Because, one day you won't be able...
Sitting at the table, with my words loud...
Scheming looking like why he so proud...
Two types of humans...
Mine and my own, that makes three..
But if you want the truth, it's just me, myself, and mine.
 

Coriolis

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Yeah, I'm thinking of what person A thinks of person B, and in doing so I'm painting a picture of person A's mental landscape.

I'm trying to find true statements, and I tried to avoid attributing envy to anyone, but .. I though I better say it anyway, as it crossed my mind.

There are lot of socially acceptable explanations to various behaviours, but I'm not sure if they are more than haphazard inventions which just have become accepted because they reinforce the current social dogma. Edit: but I'm getting off topic. I'm really more interested in people explaining other people's behavior, with sometimes perhaps less-than-accurate logic.
I find this next to impossible to do with any degree of accuracy. The occasional exception is professional decisions which may have a hidden agenda (e.g. group A is only working with group B because they think it is a good way to get more funding). For the most part, I look at the observable behavior, and evaluate it on its own. I won't assume to know why someone is being disrespectful, or obstructionist, or is not pulling his weight. I will just address the behavior for what it is, highlighting the problems it is creating.
 

Ghost of the dead horse

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Accuracy can't be had here, but I see it as an equation of two variables - roughly, how does A have clue about B and how much, and what kind of general factors might make A to give that kind of assessments. I can hope to find a rough indicator of who's more trustworthy in this kind of situation. Don't worry, I won't put great trust in the accuracy of this kind of thinking, not even my own thinking. Still, I'm not giving up thinking because there's so little evidence to either direction.

Perhaps this saying describes my attitude the best: "after I've heard both sides of the story, I'll be sure there's more than two sides to it."
 

sprinkles

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There's not one answer. Not even one inaccurate answer.

I think the best you'll get is several inaccurate answers. I doubt you'll be any wiser for it in any case.
 
G

garbage

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Some people are arrogant; some are jealous. Both groups are insecure.
 
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