Why do his parents always positively reinforce him?

My ex-boyfriend (I'm gay) is extremely close to his parents. They are his best friends *eye roll*. Actually, they're his only friends, because he's a miserable @sshole. But anyway, whenever he'd do anything, his parents would always positively reinforce him. "You're so smart Greg." "You're such a hard-worker Greg." "You're such a nice person Greg." Meanwhile, he's a total idiot, unemployed, and destroyed my whole life. I wouldn't exactly call him a "nice person." But with me, they were really nasty and always were telling me how stupid and ugly I am. "Get it together Brian." "Look at Brian's receeding hairline." "Shouldn't you be cashiering at a Wal-Mart somewhere?" I do not get this. Why were they so nice to him, but so nasty to me? And is it normal for parents to tell their kids that everything they do is so wonderful? My parents are always telling me what a loser I am ... how stupid I am, how I've amounted to nothing in life, making fun of me for being on government social istance, telling me I should be standing on a street corner with a "Will work for food" sign. I don't know ... I guess I'm just bitter because everyone's always telling him how great he is, while everyone's telling me what a loser I am.