197 answers answered between 1974 and 2026 one of 25 in The Q&A
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.
Public figures who have answered a question like this elsewhere. Quoted from the source shown, not written for FLAPSS.
Generally speaking, envy, resentment, revenge, and self-pity are disastrous modes of thought. Self-pity gets pretty close to paranoia and paranoia is one of the very hardest things to reverse. You do not want to drift into self-pity.
Freeloaders with a sense of entitlement.
Talking too much.
No sense of humor.
Guys who use the word “snot.”
Self-importance, arrogance.
That they don’t give way quickly.
Self-absorption.
Amid so much blatant cruelty in our political situation, such shocking indifference to the lives & welfare of those living at the margins of an affluent society, I think it must be this institutionalized cruelty, & the hypocrisy that surrounds it. “Making America great again”—for whom? Wealthy white people? The word “deplore” is particularly relevant here.
Dishonesty. It destroys relationships. It’s something celebrities especially have to guard against because people are prone to tell you what they think you want to hear rather than the truth.
A lack of generosity. It can take so many forms—it doesn’t just have to do with money—so I’m always shocked when people can’t muster any at all.
Wow! Like, the way people mess up language. I mean, it makes me crazy, y’know?
Talking in cliches. We have the most economic, resonant and versatile language in the world, yet so many people use it in a dull and boring way.
Arrogance and entitlement.
Bullying, whether face to face or online.
Mental cruelty.
Arrogance combined with egotism and selfishness.
Trolling, meanness and male violence.
I guess lack of patience as well.
Being two-faced.
Nobody has answered this one yet.