# Is it possible that someone can die from overexposure to smug? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 22, 2009, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-that-someone-can-die-from-overexposure-to-smug/507287 "2009-08-22T05:11:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2009, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-that-someone-can-die-from-overexposure-to-smug/507287/21 "2009-08-22T17:41:06Z")
> [@weirdaaron](#): > > You can say a lot of things about liberals, but you can’t say that they’re smug. Wanna bet? _Keith Olbermannnnnn Rachel Maddow Chris Matthews Al Franken Barbara Boxer Barney Frank Janeane Garofalo Hillary Clinton Nancy Pelosi Barbra Streisand Caroline Kennedy Harry Smith (CBS) Barack Obama (occasional hints of it, anyway)_ Etc., etc., etc. I could go on for pages. ---
**Author:** ![wierdaaron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/eada6e/32.png) [@wierdaaron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wierdaaron)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2009, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-that-someone-can-die-from-overexposure-to-smug/507287/22 "2009-08-22T18:09:46Z")
What you’ve done there is list a bunch of liberals. In fact, almost every popular liberal, all the way up to the top. Good work. > [@Liberal](#): > > It’s too early, really, to call you anything. I’ve no idea whether you just happened upon the board last week, or have been lurking for years as some people (often dubiously) claim, or are some sock for a more knowledgable poster who knows the ways of the board and has changed IPs as well as his ways. I just know that you did a steller OP in the Pit recently. (As in yesterday, I think.) And I know that I gave you a 10.0 (which you did not acknowledge.) And now you are opening threads all over the place, including more here and at least one in Great Debates about the “destupization” of the US — an unfortunate typo. Clearly, you’re not putting a toe in the water; you’re diving in head first. Your politics will certainly be acceptable (although I think you’re a bit more authoritarian than even most people here — very few have actually advocated central plans to elminate whole portions of the population based on perceived intelligence or faith, as you have.) So, as far as I’m concerned, you’re just another newbie — either a sock or a long time lurker. I don’t really care which. I’ve gotten PMs before that surprised me. But you’re a fresh face to most everyone here, and your recent Pit OP will carry you a long way, unless you wear it out with too much too fast. My rep is already set in stone. (Most people don’t care for me, but many do. And I’ve made peace with many lately.) You, on the other hand, have an opportunity to (re)establish one. Don’t squander it. Make fun of this. Answer with a witty quip. Ignore it altogether — whatever you wish. It is offered with sincerity. Dude, what? There’s taking things too seriously, and then there’s questioning the very nature of my existence because I posted an unappealing number of threads. My “so goddamn stupid” thread was met with a level of adoration that really surprised me, because that’s basically how I always talk when I’m riled up about something. Imagine if you drew a funny picture of a teacher in class, complete with stink lines, and then everybody who saw it said it was a work of art and deserved to be in museums. That kind of thing can screw with a man’s head. Anybody whose first attempt at anything is regarded as greatness will tell you that it’s a crippling thing. Any subsequent work is bound to be compared to it, and could never match people’s expectations. With that over my shoulders, I knew I’d always be too hesitant to post another rant. I’d spend too much time polishing it, it’d turn into a manifesto, people wouldn’t even understand it. I’d have to ride the fame and glory of my magnum opus and then die in obscurity, because nothing I could ever do would be good enough. “_That’s_ your follow up to ‘goddamn stupid?’” they’d say. I’d be Truman Capote, never able to follow up I_n Cold Blood_. So, I worked proactively. I sabotaged any chance of people considering me a master by immediately following up with a hurried, unfocused mess such as you see at the top of this page. That way, in the future, I’d never have to debate endlessly whether an idea I have is worth posting. Hopefully, anything I post in the future can be judged on its own merits, and not as some long-awaited sequel to my freshman submission. And, no, I’m not a sock puppet or the long awaited reincarnation of some long-missing messiah. I’m just some guy. Seek no higher meaning to my presence, you’ll find no answers to life by assembling every thirteenth word. Attributing any significance to me over anyone else here would be like naming one drop of water in a pond. So… relax. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2009, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-that-someone-can-die-from-overexposure-to-smug/507287/23 "2009-08-22T18:12:06Z")
Al Gore came across as very smug during one of his debates with GWB. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2009, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-that-someone-can-die-from-overexposure-to-smug/507287/24 "2009-08-22T18:15:49Z")
> [@wierdaaron](#): > > What you’ve done there is list a bunch of liberals. Well, what I actually did was refute your assertion that it can’t be said that liberals are smug. The list (and how could I forget Bill Maher :smack:) was the merely the means of doing that. ---
**Author:** ![wierdaaron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/eada6e/32.png) [@wierdaaron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wierdaaron)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2009, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-that-someone-can-die-from-overexposure-to-smug/507287/25 "2009-08-22T18:32:10Z")
I will concede that Gore during the debates was smug (and made up like a TV preacher), and that Bill Maher is very smug. I think my premise was, if I can put myself into my mindset last night, that you can’t say that _all_ liberals are smug, whereas it seems to be a common trait amongst republicans. In Gore’s defense, though, I think if someone who could multiply two digit numbers together were engaged in a debate against George W Bush, you might naturally get a kind of self-satisfied smugness feeling. The same would happen if an eighth grader were in a debate against a moderately intelligent gray squirrel. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2009, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-that-someone-can-die-from-overexposure-to-smug/507287/26 "2009-08-22T18:38:13Z")
Well, of course it can be _said_. You can _say_ that GeeDubya is smarter than a plate of scrambled eggs. You can _say_ that. I can even do it with a straight face. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2009, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-that-someone-can-die-from-overexposure-to-smug/507287/27 "2009-08-22T19:05:15Z")
> [@Maia\_s\_Well](#): > > … [me, tickled]Somebody responded to my post![/me, tickled] Well, your not exactly making it easy! Total Posts: 93 Posts Per Day: 0.04 😃 CMC fnord! > [@wierdaaron](#): > > … you’ll find no answers to life by assembling every thirteenth word. … It’s every tenth word right … RIGHT? ---
**Author:** ![wierdaaron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/eada6e/32.png) [@wierdaaron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wierdaaron)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2009, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-that-someone-can-die-from-overexposure-to-smug/507287/28 "2009-08-22T19:07:59Z")
> [@crowmanyclouds](#): > > It’s every tenth word right … RIGHT? Well, you’d have to translate it into Hebrew first, but— I’ve already said too much. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2009, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-that-someone-can-die-from-overexposure-to-smug/507287/29 "2009-08-22T19:09:16Z")
> [@wierdaaron](#): > > I think my premise was, if I can put myself into my mindset last night, that you can’t say that _all_ liberals are smug… Okay, thanks for the explanation. > [@weirdaaron](#): > > whereas it seems to be a common trait amongst republicans. It seems the opposite to me. So much so that to me smugness is virtually a defining characteristic of liberals. Look at the way the two sides refer to each other. To the right, lefties are tree-huggers, environmental wackos, traitors, dirty hippies, socialists, etc. Most of these are references to leftist behavior or ambitions. But on the left, comments about the right almost invariably go to what righties _are_, or qualities they supposedly have. Conservatives are invariably portrayed as stupid, backward, uptight, knukkle-draggers, mean, selfish, evil, etc. And the way lefties refer to their opponents veritably reeks of smugness. People who come around to their point of view are deemed to have ‘evolved.’ Liberals and their goals are ‘progressive.’ Etc., etc. Each of these proclamations insinuates or claims outright that liberals occupy a higher moral and intellectual plane than do their opponents, and such a view almost invariably leads to feelings of superiority and smugness. As for myself, much of what liberalism favors is so wrongheaded that it seems to me it is guided primarily by that well-known primary human quality of wanting to seek out a perch from which to look down on everyone else. In other words, liberals are guided more by a desire to view themselves as superior than they are by the causes they espouse. And again, once a liberal reaches the point where he or she has convinced themselves of this superiory, an attitude of smugness is almost inevitable. > [@weirdaaron](#): > > In Gore’s defense, though, I think if someone who could multiply two digit numbers together were engaged in a debate against George W Bush, you might naturally get a kind of self-satisfied smugness feeling. The same would happen if an eighth grader were in a debate against a moderately intelligent gray squirrel. George Bush’s IQ was higher than John Kerry’s. He flew jet fighters. He was highly successful as two-term governor of Texas. No less than Elton John and Bono had to admit they were impressed by him during private meetings. Christopher Hitchens once told Bill Maher right to his face on Maher’s show that 'Bush is stupid" jokes have become the jokes that stupid people laugh at in order to make themselves feel smarter than Bush, and when Maher looked butthurt and his audience jeered, Hitchens declared that no one in the audience was in fact smarter than Bush, an he flipped 'em off. 😃 (The clip is available on Youtube.) So no, I don’t agree that conservatives are more smug than liberals, though I do agree that O’Reilly and Hannity are smug themselves. Limbaugh is too, but IIRC from the time when I used to listen to him, his was a more humorous and affected smugness than the type of intense and angry smugness one finds in O’Reilly and Hannity. ---
**Author:** ![wierdaaron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/eada6e/32.png) [@wierdaaron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wierdaaron)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2009, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-that-someone-can-die-from-overexposure-to-smug/507287/30 "2009-08-22T19:11:14Z")
If you’re saying that political opinions are subjective and based on party lines, I’ll have to disagree with you on the basis that you’re a republican. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2009, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-that-someone-can-die-from-overexposure-to-smug/507287/31 "2009-08-22T19:15:35Z")
I would be willing to accept that provided that you are willing to acknowledge that, while subjective and based on party lines, the conservative point of view is nonetheless the correct one. ---
**Author:** ![wierdaaron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/eada6e/32.png) [@wierdaaron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wierdaaron)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2009, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-that-someone-can-die-from-overexposure-to-smug/507287/32 "2009-08-22T19:19:29Z")
I scoff and call you smug. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2009, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-that-someone-can-die-from-overexposure-to-smug/507287/33 "2009-08-22T19:20:09Z")
You’re dying of smug exposure and you came HERE? This place has a very low hanging cloud of thick smug, especially on the hot days. Even though there is a lot of wind here it doesn’t seem to push it out to sea, like ever. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2009, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-that-someone-can-die-from-overexposure-to-smug/507287/34 "2009-08-22T19:22:51Z")
> [@wierdaaron](#): > > You can say a lot of things about liberals, but you can’t say that they’re smug. You can say they’re wrong, dangerous, deluded, full of themselves, or in favor of killing your pappy, but you can’t call them smug. Wow I was with you the whole way until you shit out this gem of complete idiocy. Liberals can and often ARE smug. In fact I’d argue that it’s the rule rather than the exception. ---
**Author:** ![wierdaaron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/eada6e/32.png) [@wierdaaron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wierdaaron)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2009, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-that-someone-can-die-from-overexposure-to-smug/507287/35 "2009-08-22T19:26:34Z")
Are you replying on a line-by-line basis? ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2009, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-that-someone-can-die-from-overexposure-to-smug/507287/36 "2009-08-22T19:43:14Z")
> [@wierdaaron](#): > > Are you replying on a line-by-line basis? He’s a very slow reader. ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2009, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-that-someone-can-die-from-overexposure-to-smug/507287/37 "2009-08-22T19:45:23Z")
Also it’s time for his nap. He sounds out a few sentences, sucks his thumb for a bit, and then sometimes he crashes afterwards. It’s a lot of work for him. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2009, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-that-someone-can-die-from-overexposure-to-smug/507287/38 "2009-08-22T20:02:22Z")
> [@wierdaaron](#): > > Are you replying on a line-by-line basis? :rolleyes: No, I mostly agreed with your rant about Bill O’Reilly but then I couldn’t stand the smug look on your face when you saw that we were watching you suck your own dick. It’s actually kind of funny how smug your posts in this thread are. ---
**Author:** ![wierdaaron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/eada6e/32.png) [@wierdaaron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wierdaaron)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2009, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-that-someone-can-die-from-overexposure-to-smug/507287/39 "2009-08-22T20:07:25Z")
By the way, you’re welcome on the Factor, any time. =^} ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2009, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-that-someone-can-die-from-overexposure-to-smug/507287/40 "2009-08-22T20:10:58Z")
> [@wierdaaron](#): > > By the way, you’re welcome on the Factor, any time. > > =^} That’s a very good smug smiley. 🆒 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-that-someone-can-die-from-overexposure-to-smug/507287.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-that-someone-can-die-from-overexposure-to-smug/507287.md?page=3)