Well, yeah, but if you make people feel comfortable and happy in your presence they’ll tell others just how nice and kind you are and the next thing you know people will start to like you.
This reminds me of a story told in How to Win Friends and Influence People where a gentleman at a big dinner party attributed a quote to the Bible. The author (Dale Carnegie)corrected him and stated it was actually Shakespeare. They argued for a bit and decided that a third party would certainly know the answer, and asked him. The third man said “You’re wrong Mr Carnegie, it is from the Bible, continue with the story”
Afterwards, Mr Carnegie approached the 3rd man and said “you know it was from Shakespeare”, the man said “Of course it is, but why make that man lose face when it made no difference to his story?”
You’re not going to make any friends by constantly correcting trivial bits of information, and certainly not by making fun of them over it. I used to correct people all the time, and was insufferable, now I pick my spots, and let a lot of crap go.
I generally try to live by the motto ,“I’d rather be nice than right.” (except, of course, in GD and the Pit, where I crush my enemies, see them driven before me, and hear the lamentations of their women.)
There is something singularly unintelligent in the behavior of certain nerds who might have mastered some obscure facts which they parade before an apathetic audience in order to feed their sad little egos (“A peanut is neither a pea nor a nut, HA!”), but who are unable to synthesize isolated facts into coherent arguments, or even polite cocktail chatter. The exhibition of arcane knowledge that might gain you plaudits here on the board will quickly make you a social pariah in daily life.
Should I pick on JuanitaTech because she missed a Pulp Fiction? Hardly, because she could handily kick me in the intellect in any number of ways. Moreover, the OP betrays a perhaps unconscious social hierarchy of learning. While the OP’s roommate may lack an understanding of biology, I’ll wager that he knows a great deal about criminal justice, firearms, and the judicial system, none of which is to be lightly dismissed. Socoiety deems some forms of knowledge to superior to others. A computer game designer might be more respected than a car mechanic in a social situation, but I know which one is more vital to society.
Like Mark Twain said, we’re all ignorant, just on different topics. A quote from Emerson was used on “All in the Family” (the “Rashomon” episode where Archie remembers a black repairman as a militant with a machete and Mike remembers him as an Uncle Tom), “Every man is my superior in that I may learn from him.”
gobear, any one who knows what true joy in life is almost enough to make me switch teams…
[conan] to crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of the women [/conan]
For example, she could easily beat me in coding. (I am such a moron…)
This thread reminds me of the senior biology major, pre-med (now a well respected doc) at a party in my college days, who said he wanted to make a difference and didn’t just want to go along with the quid pro quo said he should be doing as a doctor. The two history major, pre-laws in the room simply looked at him in stunned silence and and then looked at each other and one finally said “We’ll eat well”.
I generally try to be polite, but I do correct people. I think people that let others be ignorant just to be nice are morons. But that is just my opinion, however bad and tasteless it is. If you would rather be nice than fight ignorance, even politely, then WTF are you doing here? This isn’t the PC, be nice and cuddly message board, where the motto is “It is better to be happy and cheery, than be right” no, fighting ignorance. And the Grandmaster does it in a mocking and sarcastic way. Duh!
On another note, my sister saw a postcard from some missionaries in Ethiopia my parents had. She said when she saw that. Isn’t that near Brazil in S.A? I gave her a funny look, and politely told her that it is Africa. My thoughts were “don’t they teach Geography in college”? Hell, I remembered that from High School, and I graduated 3 years before she did. (as a note, she is in Graduate school going for her Ph.D in Virology, hardly uneducated)
Epimetheus, I think that definitely, if someone is pointing to a picture of G. Gordon Liddy and saying it’s a kumquat, you should correct them. We should always be quick to HELP PEOPLE LEARN…but to go out of your way to be an asshole and say “I really can’t believe you’re that fucking ignorant” (when they’re already nervously laughing and feeling uncomfortable) and THEN making them sit through a lecture on the difference between fruits and radio show hosts and THEN proclaiming that you HATE that person because they made a mistake is a bit over the top, wouldn’t you say?
Awww… {{{{{{{{{Epimetheus}}}}}}}}}… What? Oh stop your frantic struggling in the mighty, viselike grip of the SDMB cuddlehug … You’re not goin’ anywhere Sparky.
Epimetheus, what’s more important, making sure everyone around you knows the right answer to trivial questions that they never really cared about in the first place… OR… actually having people enjoy your company?
Being a know-it-all can quickly make you a person people don’t like having around. I know a lot of trivia (mostly from here!) but I don’t shove it down people’s throats. Like I said, I pick my spots, correct important stuff, and let the trivial stuff slide by.
Also, this board is here to get the answers right, the rules are more stringent, and inaccuracies should not be left unchallenged. A night out at a bar is not necessarily under the same rules.
At a family gathering once, my sister-in-law was explaining the reason why she would never want to go on an African safari. She said she didn’t want to be attacked by a tiger.
I explained to her that tigers are not found in the wild in Africa. After which, all of my husbands relatives told me I was crazy. In the end I conceded. Sometimes it’s just better to let it go.
He was sort of an A-hole, I admit. Not knowing the situation of their friendship I withold my judgement though. Some of my friends exchange insults and hard assed sounding banter quite often. Calling each other a m-fing ignorant hoe isn’t anything mean. Its like a ritualistic greeting.
I certainly wouldn’t say that not knowing that mammals is an animal is trivial. I wouldn’t have called him an idiot to his face, unless it was one of those friends in which it is acceptable.
Yeah, being a know-it all can probably have it’s downsides. Thankfully there is alot I don’t know, so I can’t claim that title. When people say something wrong around me, I correct them if I feel it is important enough. Something that is taught in basic biology would probably qualify as something to correct. Inmaterial to their lives or not, correcting them now, so they don’t look like a complete moron later is a pretty helpful service don’t you think? Strangers can be quite unforgiving. (well, in this case, so can roomates)
I don’t think that people who think that people that let others be ignorant are morons are morons.
What did you just say?
Okay, lets see if I break this down correctly.
You think people who think others are morons for letting others be ignorant are not themselves morons?
Or to simplify it even more:
You think people thinking others morons for letting others be ignorant is not moronic.
I got that. Moron.
I generally don’t like to rub people’s ignorance in their faces.
I’ll correct people sometimes, but usually only people I know well.
However, some people really are clueless. I had to explain to a roommate once (he was 21 at the time) what circumcision was and that he was circumcised. :smack:
That was not a fun time. 
Moron. 
Correctiveness is annoying but I would want friends or roommates to set me straight on something as basic as recognizing what an animal is. But they had damned sure better be right before they correct me.
In a sense, the roommate actually paid Neurotik a compliment by being willing to reveal his ignorance and become a little better educated. I don’t think that questions are ever stupid but the desire to float in a cloud of ignorance about things that should have been learned in elementary school is.
you shoulda been at our bible study last week.
there’s a v. intelligent guy there, who
a)won’t use a 1 syllable word if an obscure 10 syllable one will do.
b) doesn’t like to be corrected. even if shown where he is wrong. because he can usually find an obscure 13th century saint who agreed with him.
he doesn’t fight ignorance, he just annoys people.
because i think if you want to educate people, the best way to do it avoids making them feel more stupid than they really are.
[SNL]
A whale is an animal? That’s crazy!
I’m Brian Fellow!
[/SNL]