Yesterday morning I was talking to the kid who cuts my lawn. “Jason” is about 22 and reasonably intelligent, though not currently possessed of a high school diploma; he is studying to get his equivalency diploma and aspires to eventually become an x-ray technician. We often shoot the shit on completely irrelevant topics; he seems genuinely interested in how I cope with my legal blindness, for instants, but we are just as likely to converse on hot actresses (a topic in which I could no longer hold my own).
Yesterday, for no apparent reason, Jason inquired whether I believe in evolution. From habit, I replied that I provisionally accept the theory of evolution as the best explanation for the variety of species on Earth and that I believe humans evolved from earlier, non-extant primates. Jason replied to this in a fashion that would have gotten him excoriated on the dope: he said “If man evolved from monkeys, why are there still monkeys?”
I did not trouble myself to correct Jason’s ignorant remark. I just didn’t see any benefit to me in doing so. But it did seem to me that such a huge error in the thinking will not do him well in the career he aspires to. And I did wonder whether I was breaking the middle-aged-black-dude code in not correcting an error made by a Younger brother the way I might if he had, four instance, boasted about avoiding paying child support. NB: Jason has never done such a thing to my knowledge; that was just an example.
Someone who mows the lawn? Maybe not, it’s hard to find someone who will do that for a reasonable price. After spending 5 grand on a car for my youngest he just did a lousy job mowing the lawn for me and I am tempted to teach him the underlying principle of evolution right now, but if I can find someone who will do a half-decent job for $100 I’d let it pass. If I had more of a relationship with someone I’d try to edify him/her. More so in the kind of circumstances you describe where someone is at a turning point in their life and needs to broaden their knowledge.
If someone asks you a question, I think you’re entitled to answer it. This may have been a rhetorical question, but it’s still a question. You could answer seriously (“Actually, it looks like human beings and monkeys both evolved from a common ancestor”) or snarkily (“So, I assume your parents are no longer around, since you came from them”).
I’d have said something, if only to keep him from embarrassing himself some other time. Also, an answer like “Some monkeys evolved into humans, some into other things, others into dead-ends that became extinct, others into things that humans came back around to and interbred with, others not at all; but all adapted to changing demands in their environment” points into the direction of the better general lesson, “It’s not that simple, think more deeply about it.”
And this middle-aged-black-dude code you speak of sounds an awful lot like the middle-aged-white-dude code I live by. Do you reckon there might really be just one code, but maybe it’s being target marketed to different demographics?
First, based on context, i think the word you’re looking for is egregious, not agree just.
And I would try to answer his question to the best of my knowledge. Partlybto fight ignorance and partly because I like explaining stuff. If he’s just been badly educated, it might work. If his disbelief in evolution is based on ideology, it won’t. But I don’t think I’d be capable of letting that one slide. Just like I couldn’t let “agree just” slide.
I mentioned the middle-aged black dude code because I was thinking of my work wife, who some years ago told me I had an obligation to give some sage advice to a young coworker who shared our skin color. It was on a character failing which she feels young black men are particularly prone to, and which I myself had in my 20s. I don’t think she would have so the Hemit Lee suggested that I stick my finger in somebody else’s soup had the young man been white, and had it been a young black woman, she would have been giving the advice herself.
A lot depends on how much time I have available and how much time I think I will need to address the conversation. Something simple like what is the speed of sound and sure; I’ll make the correction no matter who or when. For the example in the OP it could spend an hour or more discussing/trying to correct the thinking so I would be a little fussier about the who and when.
I suspect your eyes work better than mine. I can’t safely operrate a lawn mower, and additionally, I have difficulty telling how high the grasses, so I can’t competently manicure a lawn either. That is also the source of the errors in the thread title, as Apple’s dictation software sucks eggs.
Having said that, I am not worried about offending Jason and losing his services. He is a good kid and toO practical to let such a dispute cost him a customer, for one thing. For another, we give one another shit all the time. His comments on The silliness of the iPhone are frankly hilarious.
I think I’d engage in conversation to see if it’s something he hasn’t thought much about, or if he’s a “true believer” in alternative facts. In this case I’d have said “If Americans came from Europe, why are there still Europeans?”
My knee-jerk reaction to someone saying something outrageously unscientific is to respond; in the case of the OP, I’d pretty much feel obliged to do so unless I had a very strong professional reason not to.
One time a coworker said “what if the moon landings were faked?” and got back a chorus of “that’s a Stanley Kubrick movie!” with accompanying rolleyes and a reminder from the boss that “it is better to keep your mouth shut and leave doubt whether you’re stupid than to open it and dispel the doubt.”
Based on Jason’s broaching the subject and asking what you thought, it is possible he was looking for guidance on something to hang his hat on to respond to the notion of “why are there still apes”. From that framing, I would say that you should have tried, gently, to suggest that he study this a little deeper. And that there is plenty of good information available, and to try to differentiate between “good information” and “something on the internet”.
And maybe suggest that, while his bumper-sticker style quote is catchy, just because something is catchy doesn’t make it true.
I enjoy the opportunity for such discussions, so I would probably carry forward and try to ask/answer those questions in a friendly way. If a casual acquaintance says something I’m pretty sure is very wrong, factually, especially on a topic I’m comfortable with (i.e. the basics of most scientific principles like evolution), I’d say something like “I’m pretty sure that’s not correct – in fact, the way I understand it is that humans and monkeys have a common ancestor, but our ancestors since then have evolved in a different way to better adapt to different habitats and niches than the ancestors of monkeys”. But I wouldn’t let it get into an argument or anything other than a friendly discussion – if the other party became agitated, I’d end the discussion.
I will gleefully correct my friends, and take my lumps that one time when I was wrong.
I did chicken out once, not a friend but the then CEO of the company I was working for. I was working on his computer and said something about the cache (cash) he corrected me and said cash-shay. I repeated cash and few minutes later and he corrected me again. I let it drop and went about my business, not worth any possible aggravation.
And even if we had evolved from monkeys there no reason to assume the monkeys would cease, just branch off.
