Pretender Diss

"Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy, I knew Jack Kennedy, Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy."
—Lloyd Bentsen to Dan Quayle, 1988 US Vice-Presidential debate.

Basically, the trope is (in the first instance) about attitudes commonly felt/displayed e.g. by vampires and related monsters, and those who actually know them (including their enemies) towards Vampire Wannabes, Big Bads towards aspiring big bads (perhaps especially the Big Bad Wannabe), real heroes towards Heroic Wannabes - you get the drift. Also has a number of Real Life and less fantastic counterparts, not least because of the (minor) distinctions differentiating those who would admit (if reluctantly) that yes, We ARE Struggling Together!.

The contempt can vary from amused to outraged, and express itself in anything from shrugging and snarking through more serious annoyance to termination with extreme prejudice. It is not, however, incompatible with using the wannabe as The Renfield, or treating a group of wannabes as "useful idiots", minions, or Cannon Fodder.

It can be justified (or not) according to a number of different variables, such as whether the wannabe(s) actually stand any chance (by nature or nurture) of achieving their Wannabe goals, whether it would actually make them happy (or cool) if they did (cf. Be Careful What You Wish For, I Hate You, Vampire Dad, Super Loser), and whether there is something... questionable about their reasons for wannabeing it in the first place (e.g. white middle class suburbanite kids pretending to be gangsta rappers, or claiming to be "spiritually" Native American).

Accordingly, the trope divides along two main paths depending on whether...

  1. The disser is or has a reasonable case for being "The Real Deal", whether or not the Real Deal has a case for being worthy of respect in their own right, e.g. even if you think that Vampires are kind of silly, Vampire Wannabes are worse.
  2. The disser actually has a reasonable case (or not) for being acquainted with the Real Deal, and (whether or not in favour of it generally) has a case (or at least think they do) for knowing the fake from the real in the relevant domain, cf. Buffy's disdain for Lestat wannabes.

For example, it's the difference between A) a real Vampire dissing a Vampire Wannabe and B) Lloyd Bentsen dissing Dan Quayle for not being JFK. (And that, for the record, is before we get into the genuine desirability of being either a Vampire or JFK, obviously)

Not uncommon (where self-aware) in those on the receiving end of in-universe Fan Dumb and Misaimed Fandom, let alone in-universe versions of Draco in Leather Pants delusions. Also not uncommon, conversely, by despisers of both, whether for or against the relevant misapprehensions.

Bonus points if the wannabe uses phrases like "I want to be like you!" or "But I really do understand!" or "I totally am X!"

See also Never Be a Hero.

Please keep Real Life examples light on Flame Bait.

Examples of Pretender Diss include:

Anime and Manga

  • Oh man, Fate/stay night. Shirou uses copied weapons in a copied combat style fighting for borrowed ideals in a battle way out of his league. Several characters have issues with this.
    • He does score points, however, in that he has no illusions about it; in fact, he's almost proud of it. "Who says a copy can't surpass the original?"
  • Alucard absolutely disdains Millennium's "Freak" artificial vampires.
    • He disses most vampires, including his own fledgling.
    • He even disses himself because he really does value humanity in his own warped way.
  • Xanxus from Katekyo Hitman Reborn constantly insults Tsuna and his family about not being real mafia. Granted they are all junior high students.
  • One early episode of Vampire Princess Miyu includes a subplot where a young man suspects there's something otherworldly about her. After she's dealt with the Shinma of the Week, he demands she make him a vampire, too, gushing about how amazing her powers are. Miyu calmly but firmly refuses, calling him out for just wanting power so he can abuse it, then turns to leave. He chases after her into the fog... and runs right off the building. Splat.

Miyu: At least you won't be bored any more.

Comics

  • Cassidy from Preacher (Comic Book), faced with Les Enfants du Sang, a group of Vampire Wannabes: "Bunch of poncy rich kid goth wannabes".
    • Though he isn't any nicer to the actual vampire who cultivates their fanboyism and uses them as food stock, possibly because the guy acts like every vamp cliché in the book. (That book being The Vampire Lestat, not Dracula).
  • In "Collectors" from The Sandman, the actual serial killers take this attitude to the fanboy who has infiltrated their convention. When they penetrate his cover, the fanboy's fate is...unpleasant.
    • Also from The Sandman, Thessaly's disdainful attitude towards neo-pagans; she herself is an ancient and ruthless witch who would under no circumstances act like a cuddly environmentalist in harmony with all things. Perhaps unusually, this isn't meant to be a Take That to make the audience feel superior - she's frightening (almost monstrous) in her behaviour and prickly in attitude, and Death rather definitively disagrees with her on one important point.
    • Another example: Morpheus's response to the ghost of Hector Hall calling himself "The Sandman" is - in stark contrast to his usual behavior - laughing his head off.
  • Vampires Dave and Jerome in Life Sucks are really just regular guys who happen to subsist on blood and be burned by sunlight, but even they manage some contempt for people like Rosa's ex-boyfriend, a melodramatic Goth who goes around in a black cape. And when Rosa, not knowing Dave is a vampire, wishes she were one, he shows some exasperation at her fantasy of what life as a vampire would be like.
  • Johnny the Homicidal Maniac takes the "extermination with extreme prejudice" route when Jimmy the wannabe homicidal maniac shows up at his door, raving about his "work." This is a reminder to the reading audience that ours is a Villain Protagonist.
  • In one issue of Green Lantern Corps, Kyle Rayner confronts Sinestro, who tells him something along the lines of "I want the real Green Lantern". Rayner responds, "A few years ago, that would have stung, but not any more. You want the REAL Green Lantern? You're looking at him."
  • The climax of The Flash storyline "The Return of Barry Allen."

Professor Zoom: You can't do this to me! Not to me... I'm... I'm Barry Allen...
Wally West: Is that so? Mister, I knew Barry Allen, and believe me... you're no Barry Allen!


Film

  • Blade: Big Bad Deacon Frost is dissed as a Vampire Wannabe by the elder vampires despite actually being one. As probably the only person on this page who didn't wilt under the repeated Pretender Diss, he proceeds to torture the head vampire to death and sacrifice the rest for his evil scheme. That'll show 'em.
    • Bonus points for said evil scheme being to transform himself into the vampire god. Especially since said scheme worked (mostly).
  • Dark Knight: Batman scolds the band of vigilantes.

Batman Wannabe: What gives you the right? What's the difference between you and me?
Batman: I'm not wearing hockey pads!

    • In the comics, usually when written at his worst, Bats thinks negatively of nearly every hero, super or otherwise.
    • On the other hand, in Batman Returns the Penguin gives Batman a dose of his own medicine with "You're just jealous, because I'm a genuine freak and you have to wear a mask!"
  • The Maltese Falcon: Sam Spade has venomous contempt for wannabe tough-guy and "gunsel", Wilmer.
  • The Matrix Reloaded. Neo and the rest of the crew of the Nebuchadnezzar can't stand the Kid who's always following them around and bothering them because he wants to become a member of the crew too.
  • In SLC Punk!, the movie's beginning is largely about the main character explaining who the fake punks are and why he hates them. It closes with him finally admitting that he is himself a poser, accepting it, and moving on from the lifestyle.
  • In the music documentary on No-Wave, Kill Your Idols, a few of the interviewees express hatred for modern music, which they deem to be full of wannabes compared to THEIR generation of music, which they consider to be legit. The most outspoken on this side of the scale is probably Lydia Lunch.
    • Lydia, in turn, is generally dismissed as a bad joke by performance artists.
  • The Incredibles has Buddy, a powerless (though talented) fanboy of Mr. Incredible. Bob brushes him off for several reasons, among them that he was just a kid, that he followed Mr. Incredible around to incessantly harass him (which put Buddy and others in very real, life-threatening danger), and that he was really, really irritating. Unfortunately, Buddy took the brush-off as Bob saying he'll Never Be a Hero because he hasn't got superpowers and grew up to massacre innocent Supers specifically to screw over Bob in revenge.
  • In Turtles Forever, 2003 Raph tries to suck up to the more-badass Mirage Turtles by ripping on 1980s Turtles' initialled belt buckles. This causes his Mirage counterpart to roughly twist his arm behind him before shoving him.
    • The Mirage Turtles first comments to the others are mumblings about "colored bandanas" and "wannabes".
    • As a kind of Brick Joke, Mirage!Michaelangelo says he kinda dug the belt buckles in the ending scene.
  • William Munny's reaction to the Schofield Kid in Unforgiven.
  • From Carlitos Way : Carlito Brigante does not like gangster wannabes. At all.

Carlito: Who the fuck are you? I should remember you? What, you think you like me? You ain't like me motherfucker, you a punk. I've been with made people, connected people. Who've you been with? Chain snatching, jive-ass, maricon motherfuckers. Why don't you get out of here and go snatch a purse?

  • Averted in The Mask of Zorro, when a crowd of prisoners all pretend to be Zorro when their jailer demands that Zorro identify himself. The real Zorro (Don Diego de la Vega) just hangs back and doesn't say anything.
  • The villain bikers in Wild Hogs don't like Tim Allen's little group because they're a bunch of middle-aged men who just bike for fun instead of riding across the nation leaving terror in their wake, and call them posers. Then it gets turned around on them when their hero shows up and points out that they're a gang of fifty-someodd young men in their prime; and four middle-aged office workers, who only bike for the wind in their hair and the road beneath their wheels, are standing up to them; so who's the poser again?
  • In the wretched 80s rock/horror flick Trick Or Treat, the protagonist verbally provokes the Satanic rocker's ghost to lure him into a trap. He finally succeeds in getting the reaction he wants by calling the ghost a fucking wimp poser.
  • In the original Fright Night, vampire Jerry Dandridge shakes Peter Vincent's hand, telling him that he's seen all of his old vampire-hunter films and found them very amusing. He and Billy later poke fun at Peter's show dialogue.


Literature

  • In Neil Gaiman's novel American Gods, Mr. Wednesday expresses hatred towards a neo-Pagan waitress who doesn't know anything about the religion she's following. His exact words were "doesn't have the faith and won't have the fun". Further, he knew all of her sins, some of which were pretty heinous; she's even shown to be a pretender there, because Wednesday made it clear he felt that, terrible though the actual acts of wrongdoing were, the worst was that once she reached the point of no return she would chicken out rather than follow through on her transgressions.
  • Good Omens: Demons are said to feel like this towards satanists, whom they also treat as useful idiots.
    • There is also a later reference to how Hell's Angels feel about weekend bikers. On the other hand, literal Hell's angels (well, the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, anyway, who incidentally also use bikes now), tolerate the Hell's Angels they meet, finding them rather cute - though not enough to avoid leading them to their deaths, in passing and without even bothering to laugh at them.
  • A similar approach to satanists is taken by the demons in Mike Carey's Felix Castor novels.
  • Literary vampires in general tend to take this view, combined with the "useful idiots" angle, towards human admirers, whether this is Played for Drama (Stoker) or Played for Laughs (Terry Pratchett, Christopher Moore). The Renfield version of the useful idiot wannabe often features here.
  • Occurs sometimes in The Dresden Files, at least one Black Court vampire was contemptuous of a crowed of LARP players in vampire get-up (ironically, one of their number really was a relatively decent White Court vampire), but also subverted somewhat in that most of the vampires we see don't think enough of their posers and food-stock to be contemptuous of them. They don't rate them that highly. Vampires like Lara Raith are chillingly businesslike about the whole thing (including eating their own wounded servitors). This is made the more chilling by the fact that Lara can be quite warm and empathetic to humans she respects.
    • Done again in another short story in which Dresden is confronted by a small group of teens wearing a combination of goth and 'wizard' garb (as in Slytherin). They were upset that Dresden removed a curse so weak he could barely detect it, placed by the leader (assuming there was one in the first place). Dresden laughs at them and points out that none of them have any real magical potential, then pulls a gun on them when they threaten him.
    • And then there's Thomas's habit of wearing a Buffy T-shirt despite being a vampire himself.
    • Harry himself famously attended a Red Court Vampire gala dressed in a cheap Dracula costume. The results were... fairly disastrous, but probably would've turned out that way regardless of his choice of attire.
  • In Alan Dean Foster's Glory Lane, punk rock guy Seeth points out you can always tell the posers by their nice shoes.
  • In the Codex Alera, Aldrick ex Gladius, regarded as one of the greatest swordsmen living, is legendary partly because of his famed duel with Araris Valerian. At multiple points throughout the series he crosses swords with other famed warriors, calmly informing each of them "The only man who has ever matched me in battle was Araris Valerian himself, and you aren't Araris." When it turns out that one of them actually is Araris, Aldrick practically collapses.
  • The first line in Rogue Squadron is Wedge Antilles knocking an overconfident rookie pilot down several pegs with "You're good, Corran, but you're no Luke Skywalker." When the squadron is officially formed Wedge makes sure to remind the next generation of pilots that they'll never be considered as good as those who fought and died before their time. Corran's mental response is "I can dream, can't I?"
  • In the Bernard Cornwell novel "Scoundrel" a group of Provisional IRA members have great contempt for their Irish-American supporters who think that simply giving money to The Cause entitles them to think of themselves as 'freedom fighters'. The IRA men like to invite these posers to visit Ireland and then have them beaten and robbed by other IRA members posing as Protestants or British police.


Live Action TV

  • A recurring issue between vamps, the Slayer, the Scoobies and Vampire Wannabes in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
    • A specific example in Buffy occurs in the episode "Lie to Me." Angel is investigating a club full of vampire wannabes, bemoaning the fact that these teenagers don't know anything about vampires, from the way they act to the way they dress. Cue a wannabe brushing past him wearing exactly the same clothes as Angel.
    • People who like to be fed on, including Buffy's long term boyfriend Riley.
      • And Willow dismisses most of the neo-pagans at her college (except Tara) as a "bunch of wannablessedbes".
      • Similarly:

Spike: You stay in on Halloween. Those are the rules.
random Vampire: Me and mine don't follow rules. We're rebels!
Spike: No, I'm a rebel. You're an idiot.

  • Being Human: Mitchell responds to a wannabe-vamp girl who wants to be fed on by sending her away and later feeding her to a friend.
  • True Blood - A Redneck Vamp threatens a frat boy and a wannabe-vamp clerk. "I'll fuck you, and then I'll eat you."
  • The monster hunters of Supernatural dislike wannabe-hunters, since they tend to derive their knowledge of monsters from popular fiction - which can get them and others killed. When Dean meets Samuel, Samuel tests him with a question about vampires that a wannabe would fail.
    • Sam and Dean are also very derisive of Vampire Wannabes and vampire fandom in general. Supernatural's vampires are brutal killers who will use their fans for food without second thought.
    • Death himself delivers one to a power-tripping Castiel in the season seven premiere. "I know God, and you, sir, are no God."
  • The bikers of Sons of Anarchy do not like posers. However, they usually skip the dissing and go right to severe beating, especially if they feel the poser is disrespecting their colors or their motorcycle.

Music

  • Pulp's "Common People" is a Take That at rich kids playing at bohemian poverty.
  • "Captain Anarchy" by Anti-Flag; basic gist, you can't be an anarchist if you buy designer jeans.
  • Take a Frank Zappa song about hippies. Any Frank Zappa song about hippies.

Think I'll just drop out, I'll go to Frisco, buy a wig and sleep on Owsley's floor
I'll stay a week and get the crabs and take the bus back home
I'm really just a phony but forgive me 'cause I'm stoned!

  • Extremely common in rap, punk, hipster and black metal circles.
    • There's an inversion, too, in the case of black metal. Just as hardcore Satanists and various other violently anti-Christian sects within the black metal scene scorn the more commercial bands for "selling out," so too do the "sellouts" scorn the "Satanists" and "anti-Christians," calling them the wannabes for claiming to be full of misanthropic rage when anyone who actually felt like that would wind up committing either mass murder or suicide.
  • The Mindless Self Indulgence song "You'll Rebel To Anything" seems to be about this.

Boo fucking hoo, you're not the only one whose life's a piece of shit
And yet miraculously somehow we all seem to deal with it
Did anybody think that you would really seriously slit your wrists?
In fact I think that everybody thinks you're seriously full of shit

  • Five Iron Frenzy's "All The Hype" is a bit of a Wannabe Diss at themselves. On that note, Reese was known to refuse to sign autographs so as not to allow the fame to go to his head.

Tabletop Games

  • Call of Cthulhu (tabletop game) supplement The Cthulhu Companion, adventure "The Rescue". A werewolf despises two insane men who want to be werewolves like him. He has told them that the power of transformation lies within everyone and only the oppression of society and the lies of religion prevent people from using it. He has them perform ludicrous and humiliating "meditative rites" that he says will open their eyes to the truth (they're actually useless). He will kill either of them if they ever pose a threat to him.
  • Shadowrun has the Elf Poser and Ork Poser disadvantages. Humans look on "posers" (normal humans who alter their bodies to look like elves or orks) as either pathetic or (for extremists) race-traitors; actual elves consider posers irritating and a little insulting. (Orks, by contrast, often avert the trope and embrace any poser who's orky enough.)
  • Warhammer 40,000 has the rivalry between the Imperial Guard and various worlds' Planetary Defense Forces, similar to the Army/National Guard divide mentioned below. When the Redshirt Army looks down on you, you know you're bad.
  • The gaming-humor document "The Munchkin File", about the four types of RPG player, repeatedly Lampshades alleged poser-like attitudes on the part of Munchkins ("I'm a Real Roleplayer too!").


Video Games

  • Very minor example: In The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, you can give your sword to the blacksmiths to be sharpened, they do this by beating comically large hammers onto an anvil. Using your own hammer on the anvil gets you a response of "Hey, hey, amateurs shouldn't try to do this."
    • Probably justified, since smithing in real life is highly skilled labor and if you don't know what you're doing, you're probably going to screw over the poor sap using that sword.
      • Especially Japanese smithing, which refines the metal as the blade's being shaped due to the low quality ore in that country.
  • OG Loc from Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, a black kid who tries so hard to be gangsta it hurts to watch. His rapping is just as bad.
  • The Reapers of Mass Effect despise the AI geth who see them as their Gods - in fact, they find the worship (and the idea that the geth could ever be like them) insulting.
    • Also, Renegade Shepard's dealings with Conrad Verner. Even Paragon Shepard, to some extent, although (s)he at least tries let him down gently in telling him he doesn't have what it takes.
  • Shadow in Sonic Adventure 2 has one. "Faker? I think you're the fake hedgehog around here. You're comparing yourself to me? Ha! You're not even good enough to be my fake!"

Web Comics

Web Original

  • Batman towards Spiderman in I'm a Marvel And I'm a DC, upon learning the web-slinger wants to be more like him. That said, he never disses Spiderman for his actual heroism, and later tells Superman that he thinks Spidey is a pretty impressive and admirable hero. You could go even further into Alternate Character Interpretation and say that Batman secretly wishes he was lik Spiderman, since both took a lot of crap in their lives but Spidey is heroic without being moody and depressing- exactly why he's annoyed that Spidey wants to be more like him.

Western Animation

  • In a recent episode of The Simpsons, Lisa receives a failing grade on a test and the rest of her class accepts her as one of them, "normal". When it turns out that her test wasn't a failing grade, they shun her as "gifted", and therefore, "fake normal".
    • Subverted in another recent episode, where Lisa has to do a school report on her family's ancestry. Dismissing her Anglo/French roots as too bland, she decides to pass as part-Native American and invents a fictional tribe to belong to. Her ploy backfires when some actual Native Americans in the area not only believe her, but invite her to speak at a large Native American conclave about her experiences - and, of course, Lisa doesn't have any! At the conference, she confesses that she made everything up....prompting half the attendees at the conclave to shamefully stand up and confess that they are impostor Native Americans, too! One of the genuine Indians at the meeting, however, is not offended, and takes the fakery as flattery: "Who wouldn't want to be like us?!"
  • South Park played with this trope a while back in an episode featuring the hilariously snarky "Goth Kids." The Twilight movies have just become popular, and quite a few of the "cool" kids at school have begun dressing like vampires (complete with fangs and capes, and drinking tomato juice while pretending it's blood). The Goth quartet already seen in earlier episodes is annoyed at this, especially since they now get mistaken for vampires themselves due to their antiquated black clothing and Looks Like Cesare face paint. They angrily tell the "little Justin and Britney wannabes" to stop pretending to be somebody they're not....but, ironically, the Goths fit this description themselves. In fact, it's revealed that the only difference between them and the "vampire" kids is that they chose to become "Goth" not as the result of a fad, but because they were social outcasts who were picked on by the other children and so decided to embrace their outsider status as dramatically as possible- that, and also the fact that they presumably made their costumes and makeup at home rather than buying them prefab from Hot Topic at the mall. They end up giving a speech before the entire school in which they pointedly explain the differences between Goths and "vampires." And burning Hot Topic to the ground so the vamp-kids can't buy their clothes anymore.
  • In the The Legend of Korra episode "The Voice in the Night" Tarrlok brings up Aang's defeat of a man named Yakone 42 years before the start of the series during his speech calling for an anti-Amon task force, resulting in...

Tenzin:"This is a completely different situation, and how dare you compare yourself to Avatar Aang!"


Real Life

  • One of the most famous examples: "Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy."
    • Curiously, Bentsen was in private business during Kennedy's political career and never was a friend of John Kennedy, as annoyed Kennedy people pointed out. Rather like Reagan's "I paid for this microphone", which is usually assumed to be literally true but was actually a quote from the 30s film "Meet John Doe".
      • They did serve together in the House of Representatives. Bentsen was there from 1948-1955, and Kennedy was there from 1947-1953. How well they actually knew each other being from different states is anyone's guess.
    • One cartoon paraphrased the quote, in reference to Sarah Palin: "Governor, you're no Dan Quayle."
    • Context for this example, since it is cited so many times in this article: just before the debate, the Democrats were making an issue of Quayle's young age, and whether he was old enough to be president. He pointed out that JFK had been even younger when he became president. It seems plausible that much of Senator Bentsen's outrage at Quayle daring to compare himself to Kennedy was feigned, since mentioning Kennedy was an obvious counterargument to the age argument. The age issue quickly disappeared from the campaign; the "no Jack Kennedy" meme was more effective anyway.
  • La Vey Satanists towards Satan worshippers.
    • Well, the ones that look up to them anyway.
    • It also goes the other way around.
  • Professional soldiers often feel this way towards any reservist which isn't proper military (the exact details of which depend on the country). For example, in the United States, Army National Guardsmen and Army Reservists are often referred to as 'weekend warriors' by the Regular Army, which views them as incompetent liabilities.
  • The disdain that "old money" families stereotypically have towards the Nouveau Riche. Assuming the upstarts stay around for more than a generation or two, this becomes their attitude towards the even newer money. And the cycle continues...
    • Believe it or not, the Kennedys are considered "old money" these days. Yes, a family of former bootleggers.
  • The Bourgeois Bohemian gets this a lot, and from both ends of the U.S. political spectrum (liberals in Case "A", conservatives in Case "B").
  • The standard phrase for any "serious actor" who hasn't got talent - or, at least, nearly as much talent as they think they do? "X, you're no Meryl Streep."
  • People who read pre-Twilight era vampire books feel this towards Twilight and it's Follow the Leader style books. Of course, some of them can get just as vehement about what vampires are and are not ("scary!" "romantic!" "nocturnal only!" "sparkles during the day!" etc.) that they're almost as bad.
  • Common complaints among EMT personnel are aimed at well-meaning but clueless good Samaritans who engage in Hollywood-style healing and end up making the situation worse for the afflicted person.
  • People officially diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome tend to view the ever-increasing multitude of self-diagnosed cases as posers. Or "jackasses making up excuses".
  • Those who consider Renaissance faires or SCA events Serious Business sometimes react this way to others who show up wearing a costume-shop tunic over jeans and sneakers. Such events often have to provide explicit declarations about whether or not "garb" needs to be period-appropriate to avert conflict between the two.
    • Same for historical-reenactment buffs.
  • Legitimate hippies against poser-hippies who just want to get high and get laid. Of course, considering this latter group is what the general public thinks of when they think of hippies, this may be a valid complaint.
  • Some people from other countries (mainly, America) who have Irish ancestry proudly proclaim themselves as Irish, though there are people who look down on this, mainly people who are from Ireland, claiming that these "plastic Paddys" know very little about real Irish culture beyond leprechauns, pots o' gold, the color green, and only care about their "heritage" when St. Patrick's Day rolls around.
    • This belief also extends to other cultures where natives or purists feel "If you're not 100% X and/or aren't from X, then you're not a true X."
    • It could also extend to any who play up a national heritage during an appropriate holiday and go back to ignoring it for the rest of the year.
  • After The Great Politics Mess-Up lots of people "suddenly saw the light!" or "always felt that way, honest!" all over ex-USSR. Those vocal about it tend to be seen as weasels by everyone else, but no one despises them deeper than the real dissidents, especially a few exiled from USSR.[1] These invented several new vitriolic terms like "almost-shot ones".
    • Much the same happened after Joseph Stalin was denounced by his boar-like successor's New Era Speech: those who were seriously against him back when he was alive tend to call the crowd loudly stricken by "revelations" names such as "jackals baying on the dead's tiger grave"— remembering that the tiger was a man-eater, but these same jackals weren't too picky about leftovers.
  • At the 2017 Golden Globes, Meryl Streep dissed President-Elect Donald Trump for his "effective performance":

“There was one performance this year that stunned me. It sank its hooks in my heart, not because it was good, it was — there’s nothing good about it. But it was effective and it did its job. It made its intended audience laugh and show their teeth.

    • This had the predictable response from Trump, tweeting that the greatest actress of our generation is "overrated".


  1. ↑ even despite the general trend to not let anyone out, no matter what - almost Beyond the Impossible
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