the.com/ressentiment
the slow-cooked revenge of the powerless: turning envy into a whole moral system.
means a festering resentment toward those you feel wronged by, so corrosive it reshapes your values to condemn what you secretly want.
from nietzsche borrowed the french word in 'on the genealogy of morality' (1887) to describe how the weak, unable to act against the strong, invert the scoreboard and call their own weakness virtue.
not just envyenvy wants the thing; this wants the thing punished
nietzsche's targethe blamed it for inventing slave morality itself
scheler's twistmax scheler said it explains modern humanitarianism too
self-poisoningnietzsche called it a toxin the resentful drink themselves
for instance
aesop's fox — cannot reach grapes, declares them sour, 6th century bce fable
nietzsche's priestly class — reframes suffering as sacred to outlast the powerful
online cancel culture debates — scholars cite it constantly since the 2010s to explain pile-ons