Behaviors

one-upper (behavior)

a person who responds to hearing someone else's experience or problem by immediately telling a similar story about themselves with a much more fantastic or terrible outcome --request

run amok

Amok originated from the Malay word meng-âmuk, which when roughly defined means "to make a furious and desperate charge" --wikipedia

not letting yourself do what you want

The ironic non-liberation of trying to be a good person

flailing

"beset by difficulties" -- merriam-webster.com

disciplinarianism

Discipline for the sake of discipline, often without explanation or reasonableness. An inflexible, hardnosed commitment to "discipline is a virtue."

trying to make the unreal real

Request: seems to be a common way we deceive ourselves

stand one's ground

"To refuse to yield, compromise, or be belittled" -- thefreedictionary.com

preferential treatment

Request: treatment of one individual or group of individuals in a matter that is likely to lead to greater benefits, access, rights, opportunities or status than those of another individual or group of individuals

resigned to the fact

to accept a bad situation that cannot be changed -- merriam-webster.com

day drinking

"On average, the time from first to last drink on day-drinking days was three times greater than on evening- or nighttime-drinking days" --newswise.com

beat the system

"To circumvent rules, regulations, or conventions, usually by finding loopholes" -- wiktionary.org

hot take

a "piece of deliberately provocative commentary that is based almost entirely on shallow moralizing" in response to a news story, "usually written on tight deadlines with little research or reporting, and even less thought" --wikipedia

snobbism / snobbery

posture of looking down on those perceived to have inferior or unrefined tastes

splitting hairs

"To make or focus on trivial or petty details, differences, or distinctions." -- thefreedictionary.com

self-satisfaction

"a usually smug satisfaction with oneself or one's position or achievements" -- merriam-webster.com