What professions are ok to denigrate?

[NYCgrrl]

Only bankers.
And and municipal workers, specifically those who work enforcing (or not) housing code; same for state positions.
Elected housing court judges and their minions oops I meant clerks.
Oh right and IRS section chiefs who are the only civil servants that scare the bee jees outta me. Well maybe take the IRS workers out considering their power- yeah sure I love them. Really.

 

[CarolAnn856]

OK, let's be honest. There are a couple of professions where it generally seems OK to disparage the entire profession. In other words, you NEVER hear what good they have accomplished, but if there's one example of something "bad", basically everyone in that profession is lumped in with them.What are they?

Lawyers
Journalists
Car (other?) sales folks
Politicians

I know there are bad apples in every profession, but think about it, when's the last time you've heard about something good from the above? I was going to mention Law Enforcement, but I think they generally do get at least some "good" pub, and most people seem to acknowledge that the bad apples don't reflect the entire profession.

I’m editing my post, since I’m not sure you are agreeing with denigrating these professions or not. I’m hoping not.

 

[BuckeyeBama]

It is also okay to have a poor personal opinion about any profession. Those opinions didn't just materialize out of thin air. If professions want to have a better image, they should do a better job of policing the bad actors among themselves.

 

[wenrob]

IRS employees
DMV employees

The IRS has been so disparaged that when we ended up owing a large amount of money several years ago I was terrified. They turned out to be not only easy to work with but also some of the more pleasant and helpful people I’ve encountered.

 

[CarolAnn856]

It is also okay to have a poor personal opinion about any profession. Those opinions didn't just materialize out of thin air. If professions want to have a better image, they should do a better job of policing the bad actors among themselves.

Personally, I think it’s ridiculous to look only at the poor examples and lump everyone in with them. If someone isn’t savvy enough to differentiate between individuals within as large a group as an entire profession, it speaks more of that person than the profession.

 

[sam_gordon]

It is also okay to have a poor personal opinion about any profession. Those opinions didn't just materialize out of thin air. If professions want to have a better image, they should do a better job of policing the bad actors among themselves.

So you think a lawyer in Indianapolis, IN has any control over an ambulance chaser in Miami?
Do you think the local 6P anchor of the NBC station has any standing to tell the Today show "you did this wrong"?

You want to call out the lawyer who says RCI is at fault for the toddler who fell from the ship? Fine.
You want to call out Hoda Kotb because she did a bad interview? Fine.
You want to call out the car salesman who tried to "swindle" you? Fine.

Why do you think everyone in those professions is like that?
Why don't we say doctors are evil? How many of them have sexually assaulted patients? Yet somehow most people understand that because one doctor (or 10 or 100) does that, not all doctors do.

 

[BuckeyeBama]

Personally, I think it’s ridiculous to look only at the poor examples and lump everyone in with them. If someone isn’t savvy enough to differentiate between individuals within as large a group as an entire profession, it speaks more of that person than the profession.

There are countless bad actors among many of the professions mentioned in this post. If it was one or two, you would have a point. It is thousands.

 

[BuckeyeBama]

So you think a lawyer in Indianapolis, IN has any control over an ambulance chaser in Miami?
Do you think the local 6P anchor of the NBC station has any standing to tell the Today show "you did this wrong"?

There are those within the professions who do. Police your own or accept the carnage to your reputation.

 

[sam_gordon]

There are countless bad actors among many of the professions mentioned in this post. If it was one or two, you would have a point. It is thousands.

You're pulling a number out of your behind. There are bad actors in EVERY profession, even yours. And again, you haven't explained how you expect the morning anchor in Atlanta (for example) to "police" Hoda Kotb.

 

[BuckeyeBama]

You're pulling a number out of your behind. There are bad actors in EVERY profession, even yours. And again, you haven't explained how you expect the morning anchor in Atlanta (for example) to "police" Hoda Kotb.

I did not specify the media - don't really care about the media.

We are never going to agree about this, and that doesn't bother me. People think that their profession should be given a pass because most are good people doing their best to do a great job. This is very true. But when the bad actors are so prevalent in an industry, the industry is going to be tainted. Straight fact. You don't have to like it. It doesn't have to be fair. Life isn't fair. It is what it is.

If a lawyer has a problem with his/her profession having a bad reputation they have many options - but blaming the bad reputation on the public at large is exactly what is wrong with the world today. No one wants to take responsibility - everyone wants to blame someone else.

 

[BlueStarryHat]

 

[kaytieeldr]

There are countless bad actors among many of the professions mentioned in this post. If it was one or two, you would have a point. It is thousands.

If there are "thousands" of bad actors in a given profession, there are hundreds of thousands - maybe millions - of good performers in that field.h

One of the few 'professions' where everyone in the field is a bad actor is serial killer.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

TV talking heads (as opposed to actual journalists)

Politicians

Hedge fund managers

 

[JimMIA]

So you think a lawyer in Indianapolis, IN has any control over an ambulance chaser in Miami?

Aw c'mon Sam! We don''t have ambulance chasers. We have LCRSs -- Legal Critical Response Specialists.

But to be perfectly honest, we don't even have that. We just have billboards and TV ads wherever you look. You're lying in the street waiting for Rescue and a Metro Bus drives by with a total wrap advertising a law office.

 

[JimMIA]

TV talking heads (as opposed to actual journalists)

I call the cable news folks "TV Performers," because that is exactly what they are. They're not journalists, they're performers -- saying whatever it takes to help ratings and clicks on their website.

Local news is much better -- actual journalists and straight news.

 

[kaytieeldr]

I did not specify the media - don't really care about the media.

@sam_gordon citing the media is what most readers consider an example.

But when the bad actors are so prevalent in an industry,

But are they actually prevalent?

 

[Jennasis]

I did not specify the media - don't really care about the media.

We are never going to agree about this, and that doesn't bother me. People think that their profession should be given a pass because most are good people doing their best to do a great job. This is very true. But when the bad actors are so prevalent in an industry, the industry is going to be tainted. Straight fact. You don't have to like it. It doesn't have to be fair. Life isn't fair. It is what it is.

If a lawyer has a problem with his/her profession having a bad reputation they have many options - but blaming the bad reputation on the public at large is exactly what is wrong with the world today. No one wants to take responsibility - everyone wants to blame someone else.

This way of thinking is why racism is still a thing. Just replace "profession" with "race/religion/creed" of your choice.

 

[daisy2013]

None
There are people in every profession that give the profession a bad name, whether the profession is lawyer, accountant or plumber. However the vast majority of people in any profession are hard working and honest.
Attorneys defend our constitutional rights and help people navigate the complexities of law. Bankers help people access money to buy houses, open businesses etc. journalists expose wrongdoings of those in power. Without journalist we wouldn’t have exposed Nixon, Weinstein or many other criminals and not to mention war crimes and environmental disasters.

 

[kaytieeldr]

There are those within the professions who do. Police your own or accept the carnage to your reputation.

Easy if you're referring to (for example) the 38 active U.S. astronauts https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/nasa_astronaut_corps
Not so easy when the field is currently over a million https://www.statista.com/statistics/740222/number-of-lawyers-us/

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I get tired of all the comments about medical insurance (and really all insurance) companies being so horrible and unhelpful. As a very proud employee of one of them, I can tell you that we want to help you and ensure you get the care you need. Our company is very strongly on the front lines of Covid helping and we are working so hard for everyone.

I worked in auto and home insurance (and have been around that industry growing up as my dad was an agent as well). Working at the call center I dealt with mostly agents and even the agents were sometimes bad to us as if we set the rates or denied someone's claim. It would irk me sometimes when agents would call and want information regarding their state and get impatient that I couldn't find the information in lightning speed..it's like you have a state (sometimes two to three) and I had about 33-35 states to know all their DOL stuff, what I could and couldn't say (especially related to the words credit as some states you have to say insurance score other states don't allow credit to be used in rating structures), the rating structure and rules and all sorts of things. It takes time to look that up.

But there were times when claims or agents would call and ask me to put a notation in the client's file that they were threatening regarding rates being raised or claims being denied. I remember one time a claims agent called and said "please put in that the client has put a death threat against me and that the police have been notified"...

So yeah I get you. I think sometimes the health/medical insurance gets the brunt because the bills often are so high to begin with and the procedures needed/wanted that could be declined are related to someone's quality of life. It's not your fault personally though, you just get the fallout from people's impressions.