Unwashed Masses

Unwashed masses: (noun): A common derogatory term for those who do not share the same values, principles, or ideals as the speaker.

No matter how clever you are (or you think you are), or how rich, or how educated, or how religious, or how altruistic, patriotic, sophisticated, or urbane--chances are, someone considers you to be part of the UnwashedMasses. Most of the unwashed masses like to assume and believe that they are part of an elite group--of any sort--and will readily seek out and/or create (alleged) criteria by which they--and a select group of fellow-travelers--can claim superiority over the rest of humanity.

Something to think about next time you (meaning everyone) rant about the "unwashed masses"; chances are you're no cleaner than they are, in the grand scheme of things.

Compare: YouDontDoItTheWayIdoThereforeYouSuck

The people who do not understand - and can potentially wreck - Wiki are the UnwashedMasses. Maybe 99% of the Internet population belongs here. Maybe I'm just a pessimist. Am I?

From my perspective, the masses, washed or otherwise, can destroy wiki - and simply because the S/N ratio will fall greatly once enough people hang around here, for any definition of signal:noise

Tell us more of why you think that what you say is true. It sounds like you are concerned with the potential wrecking of Wiki. That seems a rather difficult thing to do. Why do you think the UnwashedMasses do not understand? I spent a lot of time on Usenet. One quickly loses faith in humanity there.

Besides which, those who don't understand Wiki, for the most part, have never even heard of Wiki. (amen!)

Too bad, then, that if somebody semi-clueless sees or hears the expression UnwashedMasses, and does a Google search for it, they'll run into this page. Let's hope that the completely clueless don't want to know, or don't know how to use Google.

The above discourse is a perfect example of opportunistic infection. In seeking to remain secret, the seeker secretes. What the hell "secret" is supposed to mean as a verb? -- the Unwashed.

I spent two decades on Usenet, and met most of the best people I know there. Well, I believe most users (the Unwashed?) noticed a dramatical evolution of Usenet in the _recent_ years.

I've spent more than two decades on this planet and haven't met ANY of the best people I know here.