I occasionally try if I think it might have some effect, but after some unfortunate incidents I’ve (hopefully) learned not to throw pearls before swine.
My friend had the best/worst encounter with this. She graduated with a masters in history/archaeology specializing in ancient Rome. In a conversation over lunch at work, the subject came up. This guy there said 'Well you know the reason the Roman empire fell was because they were all homosexuals." My friend calmly and thoroughly schooled him on some of the more accepted reasons behind the fall of the Roman empire. He responded with “Oh just because you studied it in college you think you know about it?”
Since my degree is in anthropology, I was known as the “evolution guy” in my office, and was actually sucked into a couple of unwinnable arguments. Never again. How do you reason with people who believe that demons are real, tangible beings?
I’m starting to think that one of rarest, most prized gems in the world is a person who’s willing to be convinced. It makes me appreciate my younger brother, a dyed in the wool conservative, all the more. He and I have actually changed each other’s minds on rare occasions.
Don’t know ‘bout you, but I’m mostly here to fight my OWN ignorance, not other peoples.’
I am for the most part the ‘‘smile and nod’’ type when confronted with obvious BS.* I would rather be nice than right. If people really wanted the truth, they would seek it out.
*Does not apply to destructive BS, such as lies intended to denigrate minorities. I have no problem giving people ass-reamings for their bigotry.
I usually don’t, but if I’m in a lousy mood, it can be difficult to resist the siren song of telling someone they’re wrong. I once got into an argument with a Bulgarian over the accuracy of astrology (Bulgarians LOVE astrology), which was grade A stupidity because there was no way I was ever going to win this argument, ever, especially because I’d only been in the country for about seven months and my language skills weren’t really up to the task. I also once got into it with a guy this last summer when I was in India over the moon landing. We eventually looked up the moon landing hoax page on Wikipedia and he gave in and agreed that the moon landing is real. HA I WIN.
On a slightly different note, I had a friend when I was in high school who was a compulsive liar. Looking back, I can’t believe I fell for her patently ridiculous stories, but I was pretty young (14-15) and it took me awhile to realize nothing she said was true. I did eventually catch her in a lie and confronted her about it. She denied it, of course.
And that is a different kind of BS, but the reason I don’t call people out on that is because I’m really gullible. I’ve wisened up a bit over the years (after dating a compulsive liar, you learn that some people are just amazing at their ability to BS.)
I have a friend who has been claiming ever since I met him that he is on the verge of becoming a big-shot Hollywood star. He told us stories about his on-and-off again relationship with a certain cast member of Smallville. I remember one weekend he had to fly into California for a casting call for the WB (maybe true, he was a serious actor and claims he won a contract through a national competition), but he swears he took a private jet with Britney Spears and that she gave him her phone number, and on the way back he flew with some cast members from Friends. There’s always some big thing that’s going to happen and make him famous, and it never happens. He’s my husband’s friend, and I’m amazed that I’m the only one who’s been increasingly :dubious: about his stories. He doesn’t tell them to everyone he meets, just ‘‘people he trusts’’ because he says he doesn’t want people to hang out with him for the wrong reasons. Maybe none of us ever say it out loud but we’re all thinking the same thing.
The thing about it is, the guy is naturally gifted in so many ways, I’m not sure why he feels the need to impress us, or exactly what he’s doing. He isn’t the kind of guy that would NEED to overcompensate. He aced his undergraduate courses without cracking a book and now he’s in law school. Plenty of women want to date him. He isn’t by any stretch of the word ‘‘desperate.’’ Since he rarely, if ever, talks about this stuff anymore, I’m not sure it would benefit to call him out. He’s a good guy.