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Pairodocs's avatar

It seems to me, at least here in North America, that the snobbery and virtue-signalling has gotten worse in lockstep with the ascendency of women in the ranks of the managerial class. Women are, psychologically, much more "agreeable" (and therefore more likely to conform with groupthink) and higher in negative emotion. Orwell was aware of this. A quote from 1984: “He disliked nearly all women, and especially the young and pretty ones. It was always the women, and above all the young ones, who were the most bigoted adherents of the Party, the swallowers of slogans, the amateur spies and nosers−out of unorthodoxy.” (FYI, don't shoot me, I am a woman!)

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David's avatar

Fussell is superb; if you haven't yet, read his The Great War and Modern Memory.

I've read in a number of places that the word "snob" has origins that harmonize with your observations: that in the "Oxbridge" universities, the "untitled" students had "sine nobilitate" -- marked "s.nob" -- next to their name, indicating their status. And, the story goes, it was these very s.nob-categorized students who were more likely to "put on airs," and generally preen and pretense their way through the halls and chambers of those universities.

Not sure if it's historically true; but it does seem psychologically accurate.

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