failson
English
Etymology
From fail + son.
Noun
failson (plural failsons)
- (Internet slang, derogatory) An incompetent, unsuccessful middle-class or upper-class man who is protected from economic duress by his family's wealth or influence.
- 2012 November 20, Haoma, “Failson Hangout”, in The Something Awful Forums / FYAD:
- This is the thread for Failsons. We are disappointments to our families, burdens on societies, and NOT jealous of our older sibling's nice houses and luxury automobiles.
- 2016 November 18, Jia Tolentino, “What Will Become of the Dirtbag Left?”, in The New Yorker:
- That manifests itself differently in different classes and geographic areas. For white, middle-class, male, useless people—who have just enough family context to not be crushed by poverty—they become failsons.
- 2017 June 7, Gary Legum, "Trump family grift is getting worse: Eric and Donald Jr. resurface with a discount hotel scam", Salon.
- But that is how it went for family failsons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. on Tuesday.
- 2017 December 5, Benjamin Fogel, “Why Do So Many Western Leftists Defend Robert Mugabe?”, in Jacobin:
- Zimbabwe’s people suffer while the spoiled failsons of the elite floss on the ’gram.
- 2019 August 6, Ross Douthat, “The Nihilist in Chief”, in The New York Times:
- [T]he white nationalism of internet failsons is like the allegiance to an imaginary caliphate that motivated the terrorists whose depredations helped get Trump elected in the first place. It's often just a carapace, a flag of convenience, a performance for the vast TV-and-online audience that now attends these grisly spectacles, with a malignant narcissism and nihilism underneath.
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See also
- wikipedia:Superfluous man