C’mon, you know you are one. Maybe it’s wine, maybe it’s beer, maybe it’s manga or even (gasp) roleplaying games. Maybe it’s some kind of indie music, maybe it’s your deep knowledge of the truth about the martial arts. Maybe you’re intellectually superior to all us snobs, who are petty and small for lording some special niche over others.

Yes, what kind of snob are you?

Me, I’m a coffee snob. I order beans green and roast them myself immediately before grinding and brewing. I pay close attention to different roasts and the finer points of brewing, be it with a french press for coffees or the finer points of the machinery for espresso. I drink my coffee untainted by sugar and milk and fancy creams, to best enjoy the taste. I don’t drink coffee in the morning because I drink it to enjoy the flavors, not for simple and pedestrian reasons like getting the caffeine high. I will slight Starbucks while secretly buying my coffee there when there is no reasonably easy to find local alternative. I can wax eloquent about my favorite beans and my favorite roasts, and I can impress (or annoy) with my coffee trivia. And I don't care if you're only pretending to be interested when I talk about it. I notice, oh sure, I notice. But I keep talking about it anyway.

So what kind of snob are you?

Rich

Hey,

Mixed drinks.
Martial arts.
Fiction, including fantasy/imaginative fiction.
Relationship hassles.

Big-time snob, in all cases.

Best,
Ron

Horror movies. If someone brings the subject up, I can't help but say "Yeah, but..." and then drop a few names of even more obscure films and/or filmmakers. Ugh.

- Scott

Replica swords and other historical weapons.

Tools (woodworking, gardening, whatever).

Both cases definitely fall into the "don't get me started" category!

I started answering this in the other thread, but...

China
Chinese Rock Music
Opera
Rock Opera (though not "rock musicals," ugh...)
Religion
Paradise Lost
Aesthetics
Graphic Design
Little-Appreciated-But-Kick-Ass-Roleplaying-Games (esp. Continuum/Narcissist, Engel, and Nobilis [even though the latter gets some attention])
My Own Creations & Creative Endeavours
Fizzball (a "sport" involving cans of cheap soda/beer and an aluminum bat)

Probably more too. I'm a big-time, unapologetic snob.

I'm a movie hobbyist, which means that I seek out movie snobs to glom onto (as Scott can attest, right Scott?), but I'm also a relationship hassles hobbyist, so Ron: what's your favorite relationship hassle? Whose approaches to relationship hassles do you especially dig? Geek about relationship hassles to me!

-Vincent, an rpg snob but of course.

Japanese Language and Culture (but, surprisingly, not History).

Philosophy, namely American Pragmatism. 'Don't. Get. Me. Started.'
(note: any other kind of philosophy talk: I immediately bend the perspective to include Pragmatism, then I get started on that angle. I have very little tollerance for the legacy of Plato).

Network technology (anything but wireless), especially Network Mobility and IPv6. That's my only techgeekiness.

RPGs :)

Ummm...

Fantasy literature
Martial Arts
Occultism

AND...

ROLE PLAYING GAMES!! :)

Science snob.
Religion snob (not in a My Way Is Best way, however -- more "know about what you believe, practice what you believe").
And Logic -- most of all, logic. Everything else flows from logic. I can forgive faults in knowledge, but not in logic, especially once pointed out.

I'll also take the label of "elitist" as a compliment.
I simply hold people to high standards of thought and behavior (particularly regarding self-examination). I expect of them. I've noticed that scares the crap out of most modern people, sadly.

I try my absolute hardest not be a snob - coming from backwoods America, where I spent my youth digging in dirt, I get huge shadows of guilt when I get too uppity.

Still, I manage to be kind of a dick about music. I listen to unabashed pop, but I'm discriminatory about what unabashed pop I listen to. And I'm a real snob about country music. If the songwriter hasn't been to jail, I pretty much write them off.

Hey Vincent,

Ron: what's your favorite relationship hassle? Whose approaches to relationship hassles do you especially dig? Geek about relationship hassles to me!

American colonial history ca. 1600-1800
Diet plans
LARPs
General science (that is; I know way less about any science than a scientist in that field, but more about the sciences in general than most scientists)
Director/Shockwave
Critical thinking

- Walt

Ron: Aw man. Not even a book recommendation?

When I'm older, I'm gonna come back, you realize that.

-Vincent

I'm a little snobby about everything I can be (wine, food, ethics, travel, board games, beer)...but in a good way. The only thing I regularly get obnoxious about is child rearing. You're doing it wrong and I can help :-)

Chris

I'm feel like I am working on developing my snobbishness in the following areas:

coffee
tea
RPGs
board games
movies
beer

I would love to be able to be a wine and cheese snob as well, but my budget couldn't stand it.

Seth Ben-Ezra
Great Wolf

* Breeding and Procreation (I got my vasectomy when I was 21 years old, and am a proud supporter of the voluntary human extinction movement; note this is NOT the same as "children", this is strictly procreation)
* Roleplaying Games (more specifically I'm mostly a non-vocal anti-d20 snob)
* The News and Current Events (my snobbery here is through my NOT keeping up on it)
* Organized sports, especially professional kind and the sort that infects and pervades academic institutions, dragging them down when they could soar.
* Art in RPG books (and how its lack usually makes things better - it's just the visual version of in-game fiction, most of the time, and its only the threat of Snowball not being included in the NPA that's forced me to get an artist there)
* Carbonated and Caffeinated Beverages (I don't drink them; I also don't drink alcohol, but I'm more a snob about my no-soft-drinks than my no-alcohol 'cause, well, getting drunk SOUNDS fun, I just can't get past the taste; soft-drinks, tea, coffee, they don't even SOUND fun)
* Polyamory (It always bugs me when people assume that the only form of legitimate "love" or relationship is a monogamous one; this one actually came up on the indie-netgaming channel last night, though I don't know if anyone else noticed my snobbery there; I don't think it's necessarily better, 100% of the time, but I'm bugged by all the people who simply discount it without giving it a chance)
* Cars (I hate 'em, think they're little polluting money pits, and refuse to even have a license to drive them; I love my motorcycle and will give it up when you pry it out of my cold, dead fingers)
* Hypnosis (just 'cause)

And this one I won't explain, but those who know me will get it:

* Potatoes

Emotional problems and self reliance.

Just cope!

I sense semantic drift well underway...

I think with the move from page 1 to page 2, we've shifted from "here are the things I am snobbish about (see post 1 for an example of me with coffee because everyone must read my post or be damned!)" to "here are things that bug me, that is, that I'm snobbish... against (?).

I am snobbish about my thread. You must use my definition of snobbishness, I say. This thread is for posts about things you snobbishly adore, things you use to promote your one true way, things you know more about than all the proles who surround you. If you are snobbishly opposed to something, you are not welcome in this establishment! (This is me, with my nose turned up in the air.)

Rich

You're being over sensitive.

Cope damnit!

:)

I will not give you the satisfaction of a response. (And yes, I am aware of the irony of posting to tell you this. I choose to ignore the irony of it. In my thread, the rules only apply to the rest of you.)

Rich

Things about which I am snobbish:

Classic rock n roll, for lack of a better term. With few exceptions, if the rockers didn't get started before 1975, they suck. I like Eddie van Halen. Eddie van Halen is a pre-schooler compared to Jimi Hendrix. Then there is the Zeppelin category ... oh nevermind. I also have several sub-categories of snobbery related to said rock n roll, including guitar virtuosos, live performances, and so on.

Typography. I'm not the world's greatest graphic designer. However, I swear to god, if I see another designer use and abuse typography, demonstrating their utter ignorance of a craft hundreds of years old, I will stomp and piss all over their designs. It'll be grand!

Role-playing games. I've snobbed myself right into not playing the vast majority of games that exist (or, heck, even reading them). This is probably not a good thing. It remains, however, a thing about which I'm snobbish.

Literature. I frown upon most schlock within the commercial genres of fantasy and science fiction. I cherish and praise "real writers" for no better reason than my professors said I should. <shrug> Fortunately, those professors were right more oftent than they were wrong.

There you have it.

Sweet jeremiah on a pike. Um... I try not to be a snob - more of a fan who pushes his stuff to his friends as much as possible OUT OF LOVE, but not snobbery. But okay:

* corporate branding / vauge pretensions of proletarian-ness (i.e. I largely reject Starbucks in favor of a local coffee shop or, eh, Dunkin Donuts.)
* egalitarianism, mutual respect, humility (so, I'm a snob vs. the snob mentality?)
* yeah, RPGs.
* programming languages / operating systems / random netstuff. (Ask me about my addiction to Movable Type!)

and most certainly:
* indie music, or at least music that's good. (see my list of fav genres at this bio. Trust me, it's enlightening.)

Rich Forest wrote: I will not give you the satisfaction of a response. (And yes, I am aware of the irony of posting to tell you this. I choose to ignore the irony of it. In my thread, the rules only apply to the rest of you.)

I'm a snob about

- Celtic anything. I have a masters in it - that's like a license for snobbery, isn't it? And I got it at an Ivy League school - even better.

- Congruency: I despise and abuse the poor moron who hasn't bothered to think through and ensure that his beliefs are congruent. "What? You don't believe in God but you do believe in Satan and angels? Moron."

- The numbers 3 and 9. They rock!

- Chaos magic: supreme disdain for the teenage rebel who thinks that because he masturbates, it must be chaos magic. As well as those who outright refuse to consider other belief structures but call themselves chaotes.

- modern Fantasy fiction. I refuse to read most of the stuff out there, as it's crap. Anyone with a brain knows that the only good fantasy authors are Charles DeLint, Clive Barker, and China Mieville.

- Spelling. But I'm getting better about that. I even let my typos remain most of the time now. <shudder>

I'm a beer snob. I live in Milwaukee & I can't drink the swill they produce here. Give me a Guinness, give me a decent European or Canadian beer, but don't give me the piss they make in the US. (Really good American microbrews don't count as swill.)

After sipping a shot of Grey Goose, I've become a vodka snob.

I wouldn't say I'm a snob about literature, film, or TV. I'm opinionated, but not necessarily a snob.

Hmmm, the list, it would seem, would be endless. I am an elitist. And, I am egocentric... therefore, it would seem that few of you even have a chance of approaching the wonderful magnificence with whichI view the rest of you robots (you aren't people like me).

Some big sticking points:
Economic/Sector-wide Financial policies (I am rabid capitalist that loves watching politics try to fuck with my chi)

Chess (yeah, I'm that guy that knows the proper name and response to just about everything you could possibly do in chess, and will painstakingly attempt to educate you while you play, telling you why your move was good or bad... even if you knew it was a good or bad move... even if you don't care)

Scotch (and no, I don't go for that "single malt only" shite. Single malt is for someone who wants scotch to be seven different flavors only (bonus points to name 'em, kids). I prefer a blended scotch that attempts to capture varying elements and create a new palette)

Obscure RPGs that never get published in English (I have no idea how it started, but I love the foreign RPGs, even foreign versions of them, and how much better Kult was before it came to the states and got pussified, and how Engel is STILL crap, and the publishing and design differences depending on region of the world targetted)

Game Design (not RPGs, but RPGs in-development. I love to compare, contrast, and toss away those RPGs still being worked on, and those that never see the light of day. And, I also like steering people away from D&D clones, fantasy heartbreakers, and storyteller wannabes... still already been done people, try being original)

Noise/Powernoise and nuances of electronic music (I will talk circles around the head of industry professionals (and I have... it's seriously pretty sickening to watch my eyes light up and my mouth begin to speak... and the slow, dawning horror upon someone else's face of "holy shit, this guy knows the scene like my right hand knows my dick!") (While I specialize in Noise and Powernoise (especially the now defunct title "rhythmic noise"...) I can school anyone in EBM, industrial, breakcore, dark wave, goa, experimental, glitchcore, and synthpop)

Those would be the big ones.

Dav

I'm a web-standards snob. I put too much work into learning the right way to do things, it narks me when others get paid to do things badly.

I'm another fantasy literature snob. I hate cookie-cutter fantasy epics.

-Matt

RPG designs, and not really even there. I'll put out my gooberistic philosophy once again. Taste is good for making you unhappy with what you have in front of you. Be easy to please, and you'll be pleased all the time.

I am.

That doesn't mean that you can't try to make things better. Just don't let the fact that there's better and worse make you feel that what you have is bad.

To quote Ashleigh Brilliant, a guy who just made slogans, "All we need is to realize how little we really need."

Mike

English (American version).

I am nit-picky when it comes to grammar and even berate myself for grammatical mistakes. This problem of snobbery really infuriates my wife.

Music

I don't put this bias into practice much, but I am kind of snobbish in regards to classical and jazz as being the "best" forms of music. Although, I enjoy listening to most kinds (not thrash, metal, gangsta rap, heavy folk), but blues, some pop, CCM, hip-hop, 80s music, new age, dance, etc.

I'm sure there are others, but I'm too sober to think of them now. ;)

Maybe my wife can let me know.... "Honey?..."

I'm not a snob... well, maybe print production and bad design. Is it out of register? Any hickies or holes? Should they have trapped that different? I'll stop now, I'm gushing. Dot Gain, anyone?

My wife ridicules me for mocking print imperfections in menu's before actually checking out what's being served.

I'm a snob about everything. I know more than most people about pretty much every subject that matters. If I don't know more about it, that's because it isn't worth knowing about, and I feel smugly superior for recognizing that fact and maintaining my ignorance of the subject (you know, the old "Oh, well, that's interesting but I have a life!")

However, unlike the majority of superior assholes, I have the good sense to be polite and NOT say what I am really thinking, so most people mistake me for a good enough guy. After all, if you really are superior, you don't really have anything to prove, do you?

I can't believe no one else has copped to this:

I'm a GNS snob. Totally. I mean, I try to be nice about it, and admit to the slim possibility that I'm missing something, but - really, I'm a GNS snob.

Not that it does me the least bit of good . . .

Gordon

Self-awareness?

Don't know a better way to put it. Basically, people who base their opinions on ignorance, refuse to admit they're ignorant on a given topic, and claim that theirs is the only right way can drive me to a frothing frenzy just by thinking about them. If I am shown to be less than knowledgeable about a given stance, I'll generally back off and research. If I really don't give a flying fuck, I'll say so. I'll admit my ignorance, admit that my opinion is based on ignorance, and that I'm not going to change it. I have to know why I feel the way I do about things, unless they're the things that I've confessed, if only to myself, that I'm ignorant about, and choose to remain so.

Overall, I think an opinion based on ignorance is one of the worst things imaginable. However, it greatly mitigates it if you admit to being ignorant, and simply don't care. Pig-headed honesty is better than lying to me, yourself, and everyone else.

Examples of "pig-headed honesty" I hate Rifts and Hondas. My reasons for both are petty and ignorant, but I accept that, and hate them anyhow.

Scourge108 wrote: However, unlike the majority of superior assholes, I have the good sense to be polite and NOT say what I am really thinking, so most people mistake me for a good enough guy. After all, if you really are superior, you don't really have anything to prove, do you?

The Simpsons
Punk/Metal
Video Games
Transforming Robots
Homelessness
Nudity/Stripping(Don't ask me)

Most of those are *sorta* specialized by time period(Early punk/The simpons before season 7/Video games before 3d/Transforming robots during the 80's) But I'm still pretty much a snob about them.

I'm a snob of all sorts. ;) In particular...

Music. I've got a degree in music, and I don't believe taste in music is _only_ opinion. There truly is sucky, poorly constructed music out there. I believe preference for a _style_ of music is largely taste, since good musicians and composers can be found in all genres. I _try_ to use the criteria that if a musician is performing at his or her peak, and is capable of performing virtually anything one could be required to as a professional, _then_ it comes down to taste. I can't say who's better... Micheal Brecker or Joe Lovano (both influential jazz saxophonists), but I _can_ say they are both better musicians than ME. By an order of magnitude at least. Probably several! No taste involved... that's just a fact. However as far as professional musicians go, the best players tend to be found in the jazz and classical fields, though there are amazing musicians in metal, country, salsa... you name it. :) That being said, just because a certain peice of music is good doesn't mean anyone has to like it! :P That was long, sorry. :D

Beer and Ale. I like decent microbrews, imports, and anything different from mass-produced beer.

Tea. By all the gods I think Tetley's Tea is crap.

Single Malt Scotch. Happiness is a bottle of Carhdu or Lagavulin.

I'm not an rpg snob in any sense of the term. I'll play anything. I have my preferences, but I'm willing to say what I think is superior, just cause I'm an ass and like to talk about it almost as much as music! :)

Happy Birthday, Forge! :)

-Mark

I'm a homebrewer and a bit of a beer snob...

...its a crime that the beers rapidly becoming popular in England are American beers like Miller etc (which have their places).

The funny part is that they are made over in England virtually the same as ordinary bitter, just extra filtering and carbonation... and lots more expensive.

Sad...I'd love to live there with good solid beers at a pub on the corner...hope they are still available at corner pubs if I ever hit the lottery.

:)

Cheese. Particularly Italian cheeses. I literally cannot stomach some American "Parmesean" cheeses. They make me throw up. Seriously.

Pasta. "Al Dente" is a perfect state obtained only by me, and infrequently at that.

Books. I don't rub other people's faces in it, so that might not count as snobby, but I'm *very* particular about the books I read.

Creative Process / particularly writing. Ron can attest to some bitter PMs complaining about how everyone keeps calling Narrativist play "like writing a story" and how flamingly inaccurate that is with regards to the creative process. I'm one of these writers who needs his feng shui perfect.

Grammar.

yrs--
--Ben

Rich Forest wrote:
I am snobbish about my thread. You must use my definition of snobbishness, I say.

Hmm...

Visual Art, especially contemporary. As someone said earlier, I have the Masters so that gives me the license for it, right? I know that some of the art out there is really crap, and it has nothing to do with 'taste' either but I find the "I don't know about art but I know what I like" idea to be far to prevelent. Art is an enormously interesting mirror of the culture that produced it and one's laziness in engaging it seriously is a poor excuse for dismissing it.

anti-'Talent' snob. Talent in the arts is nice, but its like having a talent for swimming. Just because you don't have a talent for it doesn't mean you can't become a great swimmer. Most of the artists, visual or otherwise, who really get anywhere work their asses off.

RPG's and, of course, GNS.

--Trevis

Programming languages - give me Objective-C or give me death! If you don't appreciate weak types and dynamic binding, you're clearly an inferior human being.

Sushi - Once you've had really good seared ahi... repeatedly... it's hard to go back cheap tuna rolls. And there's something so wonderfully hedonistic about blowing $14 for two little pieces of o-toro nigiri.

(snob-in-training) Port - I'm just barely starting down the road towards being a Port snob. I thought about becoming a Scotch snob, but even the smallest amount of Scotch gives me a hangover in 30 minutes flat.

This is a great thread.

I have a sort of investigative snobbiness. That is, every time I get interested in something new, I figure out what the snobs in that area like. This enables me to get into conversations with said snobs, from which I often learn things. Also, it insulates me from being mocked as an idiot, and consequently from that painful experience where you have to either pick a fight with someone or withdraw into your shell.

Other than that, I'm a little bit of an art and fiction snob. I used to be a snob about philosophy until I realized how hard it was to make any progress in the field at all. I think some people would consider me a food/wine/coffee snob but I'm not; I just can tell the good stuff from the bad.

Good golly, where do I begin? Actually, I'm not a snob; I am actually greatly superior, that's all. :)

Various forms of academic theory
RPG's (though not here)
Music (classical, esp. early 20th century)
Television (which I can't stand)
Food (fancy)
Fantasy literature
Art in RPG's (I usually hate it)
Spelling and typos
Native-plant gardening
Cars (I hate SUVs, most American cars, overpriced pseudo-sports cars, automatic transmission, etc. -- go get yourself a late-90s Honda Prelude with manual transmission)
Anime (very little of which I think is any good)
Occultism (about which I know far too much)

I'm sure I'll think of more soon...

...its a crime that the beers rapidly becoming popular in England are American beers like Miller etc (which have their places).

I guess mine would be swing dancing...

*looks around at all strange gazes*

What?

taalyn wrote: I'm a snob about
- modern Fantasy fiction. I refuse to read most of the stuff out there, as it's crap. Anyone with a brain knows that the only good fantasy authors are Charles DeLint, Clive Barker, and China Mieville.