Do Singaporeans really have a ‘poor little old me’ mindset? A Reddit user asks

SINGAPOREANS: A local Reddit user sparked somewhat of a debate when they asked if “Singaporeans tend to have a poor little old me mindset.”

They appear to find this to be particularly true among males, who are more prone to blaming the environment or circumstances for the situations they find themselves in, as opposed to their own decision-making or lack thereof.

In their post on the r/askSingapore sub from earlier this week, the post author qualified that not everyone has this type of victim mindset, as they have friends who grab life by the horns and go after what they want in life.

They did, however, list a few people who seem to blame everything and everyone but themselves when the chips are down.

One was a friend who “only has an ITE cert, shows absolutely no interest in upskilling or bettering his circumstances, but always starts business after business based on what’s trending, only to fail abysmally and ask for loans.”

Another was a male who “always laments” the poor job market but turned down opportunities from others, since it wasn’t what he wanted. This person, the post author added, still complains until now.

The third example was of a 28-year-old man who is unemployed and spent S$30,000 on SPY 0dte options, which are single-day trading options that the post author described as “practically gambling.” This man keeps “whining about his circumstances from NS to his family’s poor financial situation,” but wants to be a millionaire within a year.

The post author asked if they are being too judgmental, adding that they’ve “always thought that being born a Singaporean is already tantamount to winning the geographical lottery.”

A lot of users on the platform have dropped comments, including one who wrote, “Yeah, that’s why I don’t like hanging around them. Complain about everything, but don’t want to take action. The only way to change things is to take action.”

“It’s very common,” a Reddit user observed.

Another added, “That Malaysian comedian Ronny Chieng once made a joke that Singapore is an island of small-minded Karens. Of course, this kind of inflammatory statement got backlash in SG, but let’s be honest, it’s really true for a significant portion of our population. So the short answer is yes, I do think so.”

However, a commenter begged to differ, writing, “Idk man, there are really people who are just dealt with bad cards in life. Like, no matter how hard they try to help themselves break the cycle of poverty, bad luck gets in the way. They just cannot get out of the cycle. And when you are in that position, sometimes blaming everyone/everything else might feel better.”

A commenter opined, “It’s the people you have around you, not all Singaporeans. Mix with a different crowd, and you will find a different behaviour.

My take is that these are people with low self-esteem. They hate their life and want to break out of their circumstances asap. So they set unrealistic and impossible goals. Take ridiculous risks. When they fail, seek to protect their ego by blaming circumstances. It’s this unwillingness to be realistic that is their undoing.” /TISG

Read also: Singaporeans say Ronny Chieng ‘isn’t wrong’ for calling Singapore ‘a country of small island Karens’