Ressentiment and What it Means for Growing Your Online Business.
Have you heard of the term, “ressentiment”?
I hadn’t until I saw it mentioned in a fiction book I was reading about an Insta ‘mumfluencer’.
What is ressentiment?
Soren Kierkegaard, the French philosopher was the first to explore ressentiment and described it as being:
“a reassignment of the pain that accompanies a sense of one’s own inferiority/failure on to an external scapegoat”.
Source: Wikipedia.
Later, Nietzsche described ressentiment as:
“A deep and long-lasing sentiment that suggests a sense of weakness or inferiority, together with feelings of hostility and malice directed at whomever or whatever is seen, accurately or not, as causing suffering and associated frustration.
Ressentiment is based on a feeling that one is undeservingly losing, or has lost, the superior, or even equal, social position to which one is entitled, and where: (i) an aspiration which is repressed has been denied; (ii) an inability to acquire these desires is not accepted; and (iii), one becomes vulnerable to mistreatment.”
Ressentiment runs deeper, more pathological than ‘resentment’.
The difference is explained as:
“Ressentiment involves not only resentment but also envy, vengefulness, shame, and self-contempt”. (Reginster, 1997: 296).
Source: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/64b0/99672c38841f5133754191885b83e33121ce.pdf
Ressentiment in the current world:
In other words, it’s people who are triggered by what they perceive as making someone else “superior” in an area that they feel they are “inferior” – and then they invert it to become something that they perceive as being “superior” about them.
“You/they might [positive thing] but they/you [negative thing]”
“They might get paid a lot of money, but their partner looks miserable in photos with them.”
Ergo, my relationship is superior.
“They might have more followers than me but mine are more engaged.”
Meaning, my audience connection is superior – or their following was bought and mine is not.
“They might look great, but they’ve had a ton of work done.”
And I have not had any tweakments.
How ressentiment impacts online business owners:
No matter the size of your audience, I GUARANTEE you that someone…
☑️ had ressentiment thoughts about you when they saw you in their feed recently.
☑️ is ONLY following you to trigger their own ressentiment thoughts so they can pick holes in you with their unfulfilled friends.
(This practice is called, ‘hate following’.
Celebrity gossip forums are filled with people bragging about ‘hate following’ the object of their ressentiment)!
☑️ has been the target of your ressentiment thoughts at some point.
What you should remember about ressentiment as you grow your audience online:
- Many people are unfulfilled in at least one area of their life, leading them to feeling ressentiment towards those who they perceive are fulfilled.
- Fulfilled people can slip into their shadow self at times, and from that place, are vulnerable to being triggered into ressentiment.
- A person feeling ressentiment is probably going to write an unkind comment, angry email or bitch in a post about the object of their envy.
- And that “object” is going to be you.
It likely already is!
Depending on the size of your audience and the frequency they see you online, you’re going to hear from people feeling ressentiment towards you, daily, occasionally, or rarely.
WHEN it happens, remember this:
Ressentiment TOWARDS you is NOTHING TO DO WITH YOU!
It’s all about THEM.
You are NEVER going to stop random people on the internet resenting their unfulfilled life.
Nor can you stop them projecting their feelings as ressentiment to you, the object of their envy.
So, why even try?!
If you recognise you are censoring yourself in case ‘someone’ or ‘people’ don’t like what you’re doing, or say mean things about you, STOP.
There is no point dumbing yourself down and holding yourself back, fearing unsubscribes, negative comments or someone unfriending or blocking you because they “JUST CANNOT WITH YOU ANYMORE”, when you’re going to be the object of someone’s ressentiment for daring to breathe, is there?
Might as well show up some more for the people who DO want to see you in that case, eh?! 🙌
What do you say?
When you are ready to master the art of writing standout social media “Storyselling” content that engages and impacts your readers, and leaves them wanting more…
You can buy the “Sizzling Storyselling on Social” content writing course for $9 here:
Veronica Pullen
Latest posts by Veronica Pullen (see all)
- Somatic Copy Case Study: Turning Katya Varbanova’s Difficult Announcement Into 100% Positive Feedback - April 1, 2026
- The Secret Envy That Drives Sales - December 18, 2025
- Is Love Silently Vetoing Your Sales? - December 11, 2025
Connect on Social Media