I've always thought this. Because Chris thinks he's incredibly intelligent, it doesn't occur to him that other people might actually understand words that fly over his head. For instance, in this exchange, he clearly has no clue what "pretentious" means other than "something bad that you might say to a posh person."
It certainly reminds one of the Dunning Kruger effect (which is making its way through Chris life like a red string).
Add to that his attitude of "
I know what I was trying to say, so if
he doesn't understand, then that must mean he's an idiot." without ever considering that maybe the error is on his part (ie: choice of words, abstract metaphors or unusual figures of speech)
Seriously, if Chris understanding of the theory of mind was any worse, he wouldn't introduce the topic of whatever he was talking about, assuming everyone was on the same page as him at all times (as if they'd magically know what he was talking about).
Chris doesn't seem to get that people who have those things have worked for them. I think he deliberately chooses to interpret it as dumb luck on their part, because acknowledging that they worked for what they have implicitly means admitting his own failings. It's ironic that having the kind of life where you can afford loads of Lego and Sanic crap is the kind of life where you don't want those things.
I personally blame cartoons for that. Namely the ones where rich kids always are assholes who just happened to be born to a household with gold plated diapers.
It's a really weird world view where Chris deserves a shitton (like a sweetheart, a ton of money, attention, asspattings and so on) just for being Chris, while everyone else undeservingly got stuff, even though they worked hard to earn them. "
Earning something" is certainly a concept Chris has trouble understanding.
She's a manipulator and quite possibly a bit of a psycho. She probably thought she could talk her way out of it and when that didn't work, she didn't know what to do - the idea that she might be subject to the same laws that regular folks are was just too much. Now we know where Chris gets it from.
When all this shit went down, she claimed to have issues with her heart, IIRC. I'm a hundred percent certain she thought she could use that as a get-out-of-jail-free-card. Like the cops would call an ambulance and ol' Barbara Anne would just walk out the hospital, catching a cab home, with a smug "Suckers, the lot of them!" on her lips.
And on top of that she continues to let her son drive wherever he wants. ALONE! I mean, how many times does Chris have to get arrested before she understands that no matter where he goes (intentionally or not) he always draws negative attention to himself?
Well, to be fair, I guess most often Barb doesn't really learn about Chris being banned in yet another store. Apparently, he was recently banned from the Get-Tar region over his BLARMS-hissy fit and we only found out through a leak of Catie-Emails...
Most likely Chris just leaves the house, gets back some time later and whines, bitches and moans about JERKOPS, Manajerks, the male population and discrimination. Sometimes he might be doing that out of frustration over being banned yet again.
I don't see Barb being that much interested in Chris escapades...
Still even with the few things she must know about, she should pay a lot more attention to the misadventures of her son.
