The Great Big Chav Megathread... ALL discussion of Chavs here.

[Nicholarse]

Points well put nm. However, even you've got to admit that chavs are responsible for all that is ailing this country.

 

So you don't think the people who have the power to sort this country out should shoulder any of the blame then?

 

You know like politicians for example?

 

If a sick society fathers children who ain't up to much, it's no good just blaming the kids.

 

NM

[max]

So you don't think the people who have the power to sort this country out should shoulder any of the blame then?

 

You know like politicians for example?

 

If a sick society fathers children who ain't up to much, it's no good just blaming the kids.

 

NM

 

Irony + nm = whoosh.

[Bartfarst]

"Chav" is a word designed to de-humanise the poorest people in our society. Those who have been born at the very bottom of our rigid class system. By placing the emphasis on their 'style' it's possible to even attack people who climb financially up the tree. Those disgusting lower class scum who manage to do well for themselves like Jordan and Wayne Rooney's girlfriend can be castigated for getting above their station. The best example of this is that bloke who won the lottery.

Yes, which only goes to prove that "money maketh not the man". Low-lives remain low-lives irrespective of whether they win money.

The word does not de-humanise the poor. It's not about poor or rich - as exemplified by the reminder that the likes of Rooney remains a chav - they dehumanise themselves by their actions and attitudes. Plenty of poor people are respectable, upstanding individuals. Others are chavs - you can't dehumanise something that's barely human in the first place.

 

This word is part of an agenda designed to provoke all of the above responses. It comes from the people who want you to support the oppression of the few by the many. It has been created and popularised by people who want you to have a word which de-humanises and attacks people by appealing to your basest instincts.

Grow up, stop using the word. Replace it with - commoner if you insist on being a snob. Be honest with yourself and others.

There is no agenda. It's just a natural reaction for upstanding people to be disgusted by the workshy, the criminal elements and the crass idiots whose antisocial, dimwitted lifestyles have earned them the title 'chav'.

[Nicholarse]

Yes, which only goes to prove that "money maketh not the man". Low-lives remain low-lives irrespective of whether they win money.

The word does not de-humanise the poor. It's not about poor or rich - as exemplified by the reminder that the likes of Rooney remains a chav - they dehumanise themselves by their actions and attitudes. Plenty of poor people are respectable, upstanding individuals. Others are chavs - you can't dehumanise something that's barely human in the first place.

 

 

There is no agenda. It's just a natural reaction for upstanding people to be disgusted by the workshy, the criminal elements and the crass idiots whose antisocial, dimwitted lifestyles have earned them the title 'chav'.

 

Ah! More of this irony thing?

 

NM

[StarSparkle]

Ah! More of this irony thing?

 

NM

 

You really, REALLY don't get irony, do you?

 

StarSparkle

[Fingers]

This thread is so risible it's awe inspiring. On the one hand you've got Fingers who seems unsure what exactly it is we're all supposed to be laughing at.

 

One of the problems with the debates about chavs is that people with different views have different definitions of chavs. The income- or class-based definitions that you and others with similar views (such as John Harris who recently wrote an article on the subject for The Guardian) use is wide of the mark because not all working class people or poor people are chavs and not all chavs are working class people or poor people. The definition based on the clothes chavs wear and other material possessions is a bit more accurate but the definition based on behaviour is the most accurate one and it tends to be used by people who have been the victims of chavvish behaviour.

 

So beggars are Chavvy. So what are you talking about then? You're having a pop at the poorest people in a society which has a rigid class system. A class system whose victims you are laughing at.

 

In recent years I have seen relatively few of what some people would describe as old-fashioned beggars, the people who sit in one place and ask for money. The people I was thinking of (and I should have made this clear) are the people who walk around asking most of the people they pass for money and particularly those continue to ask after you politely refuse and, in the case of two such people I encountered, verbally abuse you and spit on you or threaten to rob you. Are they the victims of a rigid class system? Judging by the behaviour of many of them I suspect they were addicted to heroin or crack. Unless someone forced them to take heroin or crack against their will in the first place I wouldn't class them as victims.

 

So, you know, if you are a right wing hate merchant who likes laughing at the small man of society crack on with the unpleasant posts. I don't really have a problem with that to be honest. However if you're one of these people who thinks all this is a bit of harmless fun - having a pop at "the way people think (or not)" perhaps you should look closer to home for your big laughs.

 

I'm not "a right wing hate merchant" and I don't think that you have to be one to be critical of chavs. It's perfectly possible to be left wing and anti-chav because some chavs don't show the consideration for their fellow citizens that is necessary for a good society to exist and are damaging the lives of other people and destroying communities. I'm not one of those vaguely anarchist lefties who believes that people shouldn't co-operate with the police and I'm certainly not one of those people who thinks anyone who gives information to the police or even reports a crime is a grass. If people break the law (whether they are stealing or damaging private property, stealing or damaging public property or harassing, threatening or assaulting people) the law should deal with them. If you respect the rights of your fellow citizens there shouldn't be a problem but if you don't you've crossed a line and your victims and the public in general should have the right to have you held to account for your actions. The alternative to living by the law of the land is living by the law of the jungle and if you believe that the weak should be protected then we have to live by the law of the land.

 

Your being screwed with. This word didn't exist five years ago. It has mysteriously appeared in the mass media.

 

The word "chav" existed five years ago but wasn't widely used because various different words were used in different parts of the country or by different groups of people. In the North West of England chavs were known as "scallies" (a term that has been in use for over two decades), in the North East of England they were known as "charvers" and in Scotland they were known as "neds" (other terms which have been used include "gadgies", "townies" and "pikeys"). The word "chav" became more widely used partly through the influence of the Internet and partly because it is similar to "charver" but mainly because it was mainly used in the South East of England and eventually the mass media noticed the "chav culture" and the term "chav" and started using it. However, the type of people who are now known as chavs have been around for a few decades and the use of various words over the years hasn't made them go away. Indeed, in that time Britain has undergone a process of chavvification as people have fallen over each other to cater to the desires of chavs.

[the-lioness]

the whole thing is a load of bull****!! why ru so bothered? i get the feeling a lot of ppl who are taking the time to write these looong essays on the subject (and they are interesting sometimes) might be taking it too seriously- everyone is differnt and just cos a 15 yr oold boy/ grl wears certain *burberry* clothes doesnt mean they are thugs/ slappers. they might be nice ppl. if u actually too the time to get to know these ppl instead of writing about ppl u have never mixed with then u might understand...

[Fingers]

the whole thing is a load of bull****!! why ru so bothered? i get the feeling a lot of ppl who are taking the time to write these looong essays on the subject (and they are interesting sometimes) might be taking it too seriously- everyone is differnt

 

If "everyone is differnt" why do some people try to look like lots of other people and do the same things as lots of other people? Then again, by saying that I am falling for lies about a chav uniform and chav habits which don't really exist because all the similarities are just a coincidence and not the result of people thinking like sheep?

 

If I'm out of order why don't you hit me with your handbag? It's a Gucci, isn't it? Actually, it isn't, is it, because you later admitted it was a fake Gucci you bought from a market stall on The Moor?

[the-lioness]

If "everyone is differnt" why do some people try to look like lots of other people and do the same things as lots of other people? Then again, by saying that I am falling for lies about a chav uniform and chav habits which don't really exist because all the similarities are just a coincidence and not the result of people thinking like sheep?

 

If I'm out of order why don't you hit me with your handbag? It's a Gucci, isn't it? Actually, it isn't, is it, because you later admitted it was a fake Gucci you bought from a market stall on The Moor?

 

yeh that was me!! hehe right funny wer'nt it- u reminded me cos id totally 4got!! nice one

[nick2]

If I'm out of order why don't you hit me with your handbag? It's a Gucci, isn't it? Actually, it isn't, is it, because you later admitted it was a fake Gucci you bought from a market stall on The Moor?

 

The shame of it.