I'm not much acquainted with British culture, so my analogy may not be apt. But here in the States, we have a phenomenon called "the cool kids." These are the ones who cut class, smoke, drive muscle cars, and pick on the weak. Do you have those in the UK? If you do, you've seen the cool kids do some mean thing to someone, while everyone cheers them for it and wishes they were the cool kids too.
Americans think we're the world's cool kids. We think you envy that.