Here in the US of A, we like to put down politicians and lawyers as beings of unmitigated evil. Is that a trend that occurs elsewhere too? What about less law-abiding countries? In general, which professions are considered evil – not just lower-class, but deliberately sinister?
This is probably more suited to IMHO than GQ.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
Don’t forget used car salesmen
Tax collector. Unjustified, as they don’t make the laws, but commonly portrayed as evil.
I think it is much the same here in Britain: lawyers, politicians, used car salesmen, and, of course bankers/financiers, maybe salespeople/marketers in general (not shop workers, obviously, but people who you either have to haggle with, or who are actively pushing a product), and advertising people, maybe journalists.
I think most Americans could probably agree to that list, though, and probably people in most other first-world countries. Maybe they don’t even have to be first-world.
In Norway, it’s television licence fee collectors. I suspect this is also the case for other countries.
(Yes, there’s a license fee used to fund public television. Wiki link for any of you Yanks who want to learn more about this madness.)
For the UK, I’d say football (soccer) agents are probably high on the list.
Estate agents and landlords have a pretty shitty reputation in the UK I think.
Abortion doctors when it comes to certain sets of people. Cops sometimes and definitely CEOs.
If anime is anything to go one, being a member of a military tends to be a bit morally suspicious, if not actually automatically baby-eating “evil,” in Japanese pop culture.
Pakistan. Lawyers, politicians, estate agents. Traffic wardens and nurses.
Why nurses? What’s their reputation?
Is it something to do with vaccines?
Liquor distiller in Thailand. Thai Beverage, a big whiskey distiller, is listed on the Singapore Exchange, but every single time it starts making plans to list at home on the Stock Exchange of Thailand, the masses come out in protest, because it’s an un-Buddhist occupation. Considering how popular drinking is among the Thai population, not to mention how big the bar industry is, this is very hypocritical.
Being scowling, unfriendly and forcing having the manner and symphaty of an executioner.
Yes estate agents have a bad reputation, and traffic wardens.
Not considered evil, but people are a bit suspicious of plumbers as rip-off merchants.
Oh yeah, and motorcycle taxi drivers. I never take them myself, but they’re considered a necessary evil. Hang out at the entrance to any lengthy lane. Myself, I would rather just take a regular automobile taxi even for a short hop. But the stereotype is that if you ever need a hit man, go check among the nearest motorcycle taxi ranks.
Telemarketers, used car salesmen, estate agents, and, of course, politicians, take the cake in Finland (like Norway, television license fee collectors were once easily among the most vile, but they no longer exist).
And motor mechanics, come to that.
This is going to sound racist, it probably is, but in the UK having Irish handyman/labourers offer to do work on your premises is viewed with extreme scepticism and sometimes great hostility.
India. Politicians are the only ones considered actually evil. Autorickshaw drivers are hated in all cities (except Bombay) for price gouging and cheating.