whingeing

When Daniel Andrews commented on how different the treatment accorded to NSW by the Federal Government was to the treatment Victoria received when it went into lockdown, he was promptly labelled a whinger by various people.  This led me to consider the place that the whinger has in Australian culture.

 The word is ultimately from Scottish and northern dialects and is a variant of whine.   

 In Australia a kid who can whinge effectively is a nightmare for a parent, but this is a recognised behaviour among children and there is lots of advice on how to deal with it.  It is when adults whinge that matters become more serious.

 The aspects of adult whingeing that are particularly unpleasant are that it is complaining about something that can’t be helped, or is in fact a trivial matter, or about something that the whinger refuses to do anything about.  It is complaining that goes on at some length, is exaggerated beyond what is warranted, and is totally self-centred.  

 The moment you label someone a whinger you are immediately belittling the significance of their complaint and you are attacking them personally.  Words associated with whinger are cry-baby and sook.  A whinger has no ability to deal with life’s problems with the courage and resilience displayed by the battler.  The whinger has no strength of character.

 Whingers are often described as perpetual or perennial whingers, full-time and chronic whingers.  More recently they have become serial whingers.

 However, there are no restrictions on us having a bit of a whinge. That is considered the same as a rant and perfectly legitimate as long as you don’t overdo it. 

 It comes as no surprise that the representatives of the Federal Government should employ whinger against Daniel Andrews. Now that Andrews has come up with the line ‘The Prime Minister for New South Wales’, the taunts of whinger have ceased, and the Federal Government has decided to treat all states equally.