What is the trait you most deplore in others?

Originally asked

The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A

A verbatim standing question in The Guardian's rotating Q&A questionnaire, documented across respondents and years.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Recorded Allison Janney said elsewhere, not written here
People who punch down.

Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, July 2025 source ↗

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Anne Enright Novelist and short-story writer
I find it really interesting the way people are drawn to power, usually male power, sometimes in its dark mode. I wonder what they get from it. My experience of bastards is that there is very little material benefit gained from being in their company, though you feel there might be, any minute. Or you get something for a while and then the polarity switches. It’s a huge con. Trump made the mechanism clear – in this, I think he is a timely figure.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 7 September 2024 source ↗
Lying. Let’s not call it “untruthful.” Or “factually inaccurate.” I don’t even call it bullshit, because I like bulls. And bulls need to shit. So you can’t hold that against them. Let’s call it what it is: lying.
Recorded Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, June 2025 source ↗

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