Yes, I am seriously making that comparison. It's not as bad of course but it's certainly enough to make me cringe.

> Where exactly have you seen this "parade of sycophants" in the C++ standards committee?

AIUI The committee itself operates under the "Chatham House Rule" in which participants agree not to tell anybody who said anything and so we can only see group outcomes for the committee itself. For example 100% affirmative votes for Bjarne's "Profiles" proposal. At 100% everybody who had the opportunity to vote "Against" has to admit that er, they didn't, because that's just maths - but you won't now find anybody who was enthusiastic, somehow a room full of people who all now remember being uncertain voted affirmatively anyway. How about that.

> Bjarne is just a regular committee member

For almost a decade, WG21 has a "Direction Group" with a handful of members which insists that while as you say everybody is just a "regular committee member" their group ought to set the "direction" for the language and thus the committee. The exact membership of the Direction Group varies over time, but of course Bjarne Stroustrup has always been a member of this group. The group (whatever its present membership) writes only unanimously, which means everything it says has been agreed by Bjarne Stroustrup, and it cites as its reference for how to set the direction several books about C++ all written by that same Bjarne Stroustrup.

So, sure, Bjarne is "just a regular committee member" in the same way that Britain's Prime Minister is "just a regular Member of Parliament" that is, very much in theory but not at all in practice.