― Christopher Marlowe
In recent times, it has become extremely popular to use the term "privilege" as a pejorative, and it's easy to see why. It allows people to wallow in resentment and envy without questioning their own behaviour. If they are unsuccessful, it must be because others have an unfair advantage. There is no other possible explanation, and they are justified in feeling anger over the perceived injustice.
Their remedy for this always involves trying to pull down the one whom they think is more privileged- as in the response to my sister's post. Nancy's not happy that she's doing well, nor interested in how she's achieving success; Nancy's goal is only to inform her that she didn't do this, it was her unearned "privilege".
It is of course true that some people start out with more advantages than others... that's the way of the world and always will be. In my sister's case, she came from a large family- ours- and knows how to manage one. Her kids are all bright and inquisitive (if somewhat over-energetic), and she and my brother-in-law have always made time to help them with their school work. Also, my sister has years of practice teaching Sunday school and making Bible lessons interesting and informative to multiple age groups, something she excels at. Finally, she just has a natural talent for raising children- and loves it- which is why she always wanted to have a large family and informed my brother-in-law of that before they married. This is what earned the accusation of privilege from Nancy: natural ability, learned skills, and preparation. But Nancy was not interested in reasons, she only saw someone doing better and her first instinct was to attack and denigrate, a reaction that is all too common- and celebrated- these days. I would never suggest that life is always fair and there is no inequality- obviously that's not the case. But if our immediate response to someone else's success is to reflexively accuse them of privilege and try to tear them down rather than pull ourselves up, then the real fault lies in us and our attitude.
― Friedrich Nietzsche