I’m an average shmuck. I’m educated because my working class parents had the money not because I displayed any savant behaviour. My social circle consists of regular people like teachers, cops, firemen etc. I love the Straight Dope because it allows me to listen and learn from people who are innately more intelligent than me. I have noticed however a direct correlation between eloquence, knowledge, and bile. I’m in awe of some of the brains on this board yet at the same time I am amazed at the level of social retardation and quite happy that I can learn from these people without actually having to interact with them. Are really smart people as petty in real life as they seem to be here or are my observations skewed by a few pissy, petty, yet prolific posters?
I think it’s more a result of this being an Internet message board. 
Anyone, whatever their intelligence, who uses such media as their primary form of social interaction is already some significant distance away from societal norms of “regularity”.
The smartest people I know are also the nicest in real life; quite often nicer face-to-face than on email. However, it’s entirely possible that the rotten nasty ones just never meet me–or much of anyone.
The latter.
As has been stated, it’s an artifact of the sample and the environment, which tends to bring forth strongly opinionated types who’d rather be right than be liked.
The Board being inspired by Cecil Adams, who has been known to use some cutting invective in responding to his readers, does nothing to discourage it.
:smack: clarify, clarify…
By that meaning, that the overall spirit of Cecil Adams columns creates an atmosphere where a certain level of snappy smart-aleckness is considered par for the course – the Board managemen DOES discourage being abusive.
My time perusing various Internet boards has convinced me that there are an awful lot of pissy, socially retarded people who aren’t smart. In fact, I’ve wasted time arguing with people who were not only rude and arrogant, but seemed manifestly too stupid to find a computer’s On button.
(Not that being smart is any excuse for being pissy.)
Agree with the above posters, and I would also add that it’s partly attributable to the nature of written media. It’s much more difficult to express subtle emotional nuances in writing. I’ve noticed many times that things I’ve said that were mean lightly or in jest have been taken far too seriously. I tend to eschew smileys and I never, ever put "LOL"s in my posts, so my humor is often missed. I’m sure this is true of other posters here, as well. In person, body language plays a very large part in communication and without it, misunderstandings appear far more common.
I’m a sweetie. 
Well, I know I’m extremely petty and pissy, but I can only speak for myself.
(I am also pretty and prissy, but that’s another thread)
Two words: KEYBOARD WARRIORS.
Most people say things here they wouldn’t have the cojones to say in a pub. I do try to live up to the “Would I say this in a pub?” test before I get shitty with somebody here, but I know many times I’ve failed that test. Still, I try not to throw the first punch (often people are such arseholes online that you just have to reply to them in kind - but I’m not proud of that). On the other hand, I don’t think I’ve ever pitted anybody in the strict sense of opening a new angry thread dedicated to them. But we’re all guilty of being keyboard warriors to a certain degree, and not just on the SDMB.
You’ve obviously never read Yahoo or GameFAQs message boards if you think bile doesn’t exist without eloquence.
Perhaps what you’re witnessing that increased vocabulary & eloquence means that opinions and feelings are conveyed more successfully & less ambiguously. Isn’t that the whole point of improving one’s writing abilities?
True, but some people just need to be told to get fucked.
Heh. Google link for “ivy league dating.” Got to wonder what combination of “smart” and “asshole” in our discussion called that forth? 
I am pretty intelligent by most accounts. I am not the smartest person on this board or even close to it but it will be a good bet that I will be smartest and most informed person in any random group that I happen to associate with. If that happens to not be the case at any given time then that is great and I am impressed. I have gotten told how smart I am several times a week since I could talk.
My personality on this board is similar to how it is in real life. The only difference is that I tend to laugh a lot and make jokes much more in person. All arguments in real life tend to be light-hearted and full of drama and that is hard to express here. I get told about once a week that I have a “unique personality” or “I’m odd” or “you are the funniest person I’ve ever met”. I also have lots and lots of enemies but I also have lots of people that would practically die for me. People tend to love me or hate me and I am largely the same way with others. A rough approximation of me would be that 30-ish clean cut slightly snobby arrogant person that people tend to come to with hard problems and advice. Think a Frazier Crane that is actually raised a poor boy in the Deep South but much less prissy.
I always have a line for people seeking help either in person or on-line with people that request some kind of miscellaneous expertise. I am very generous with helping people and really do have a very kind heart. I never hesitate to piss people off if I don’t like them personally and this has been a life-long weakness that has caused many problems. I never blindly respect anyone just because of their position but I gladly respect authority when I believe it has been justly earned.
Two different bosses told me that they respected my brains but I had lousy people skills. I have, over the years, tried to work on my people skills – at least to the point where I hold off on rolling my eyes until I’m out of the room.
But on a message board? It’s the nature of the beast that you can’t soften the moment with looks, gestures, etc.
Look, I’m no Einstein. But thanks to message boards like these, I can be JUST as pissy as an Einstein who hasn’t ben laid in six months and has a burr under his saddle! SO DON’T TRY TO TELL ME THE INTERNET ISN’T THE GREATEST COMMUNICATION TOOL EVER, DAMMIT!!!
Why yes, yes we are.
Seriously, I’m pretty average, & I’ve been as “pissy” (anybody got a good definition of this word?) as anybody here.
It just goes with being online.
I’ve occasionally seen, what appears to be, elitism here on the board. I think that
academia, like politics, has more than it’s share of people who confuse conviction w/ arrogance.
.
Modest. You left out that you would also be the most modest person in that group, too.