The tall poppy syndrome is alive and well, it's just a nicer way to say envy.
I was talking specifically about what people were tweeting him. Lots of spoiled brat, and poor little rich boy comments. The man is 31 for fudges sake.
I too don't like it when people become arrogant and abuse their positions or look down on people, and that's one of the good things about NZ not many people have that innate sense of superiority that you see in other countries. But I don't mind it if someone is successful, and he's been working since the age of 6 to be where he is.
We don't know the reasons behind the tweet, and the fact that he pulled it down shortly after posting it probably means that he changed his mind about whether or not that was appropriate. So for dozens of people to hound the guy seems a bit of an overreaction, especially based on a lack of evidence and pure conjecture.
I also tweet complaints, and review places. Nobody hounds me, people were attacking him specifically because he is wealthy and famous, and for no other reason than that. Hence envy, hence tall poppy syndrome.
As I said above, I'm not a fan of the man - I prefer to support more working class teams (if you can call any team in F1 working class) like Williams than the sort of team that Hamilton drives for, he always struck me as a bit of a arrogant git.
"I too don't like it when people become arrogant and abuse their positions or look down on people, and that's one of the good things about NZ not many people have that innate sense of superiority that you see in other countries. But I don't mind it if someone is successful, and he's been working since the age of 6 to be where he is."
That's the great that he's achieved that. But if he is going to talk shark to a lot of people about an establishment supporters of said establishment are going to call him out on it.
Being a dick is being a dick, if you are rich or not.
You are right that its pure conjecture but seem to be supporting it regardless of the outcome by saying anyone criticizing him for his comments has tall poppy syndrome.
So hypothetically if he acted like a petulant child and said he had never been treated so badly to all of his twitter followers because Sky City asked him to follow the rules of the establishment, you are saying its tall poppy syndrome for saying he's acting like a child for acting like a child.
I read on stuff that was the reason before seeing it was a theory. Others may have missed the theory bit. I would say it's websites like Stuff's fault for propagating that crap before getting facts.
"I also tweet complaints, and review places. Nobody hounds me, people were attacking him specifically because he is wealthy and famous, and for no other reason than that. Hence envy, hence tall poppy syndrome."
Are you sure they were specifically hounding him for being rich and famous? so If he hadn't sent that tweet then he would have received the same tweets? Or did they hound him specifically for sending that tweet? And is the rich and famous the reason a) it was in the news b) more people read it and c) it had potential to cast a NZ establishment in a negative light, potentially unfairly to a wide audience?
Also if you are going to compare the tweet you send vs the tweet he sent I assume that your tweet was a headline news article and to about the same number of followers and had about the same number of retweets.
The reason I specify that is because if I hounded him but not you, but I follow him, and not you, then your reasoning would mean I am suffering from tall poppy syndrome because I tweeted at a person who is famous, but didn't tweet at a person who I didn't know exists. which makes no sense.
"he always struck me as a bit of a arrogant git."
Did you call everybody else who has been an arrogant git ever an arrogant git? If not by your definition your suffering from tall poppy syndrome.
These days Tall Poppy Syndrome is heavily used to criticize people who criticize famous people.
It should mean your actions are caused by you disliking them BECAUSE they are famous. But its commonly used for people criticizing famous people even when the criticism is for their actions, not because they are wealthy.
\Rant (sorry but buzzwords being overused out of context these days to undermine people opinions really grinds the shark out of my gears).
