This sentiment takes many forms indeed. Think about your stereotypes of a vanished upper class, any upper class - for instance, the pre-revolutionary French no

This sentiment takes many forms indeed. Think about your stereotypes of a vanished upper class, any upper class - for instance, the pre-revolutionary French nobility. Obviously you never met any of these people, but you will find many negative stereotypes coming to mind. Are many of them true? Perhaps they are. Was the old Versailles full of charming, brilliant, talented, wonderful people? It most certainly was. You might also have some stereotypes of PHP programmers. Perhaps they're true as well. No set of human beings is without patterns of fault. However, the PHP programmer is a peasant and cheerfully accepts the daily rain of mockery that falls on his head. He knows he is not above being laughed at, indeed he knows he is laughable, as all human beings are in some way laughable. The distinctive feature of a privileged class, always and everywhere, is that it can't accept being mocked. Unfortunately this always increases the temptation to mock it, which I agree is a low and unproductive pastime. But anything to make type inference seem fun...