If you have no idea what the answer to a General Question is, keep your fucking mouth shut and DON’T MAKE SHIT UP!!!
First, in this thread you were completely and utterly wrong. Do not pass go, Do not collect your food pellet. Bricker corrected you, as did I, and I tried to point out you error there, in a calm and rationale manner.
Guess what then? We get this gem in this thread, where you DO THE EXACT SAME THING!!! I’ll once again try and repair the damage you do by opening the festering piehole that is your mouth, but STOP IT!! I am not going to follow you around the board correcting every goddamn piece of misinformation and lies you spread.
I was going to go into how fucking stupid you are, about you obvious anti-police attitude, and your apparent lack of a cerebellum, but you really aren’t worth it. All I want is for you to STOP IT!!
Can we make this statement a sticky in GQ? It’s really getting out of hand there. I’m amazed at the number of people who just pull stuff out of their ass and post it as if it were fact.
Yeah, but you guys are forgetting one thing–these people aren’t seeing the OPs and thinking, “Hey, I have absolutely no clue what the correct answer is, so I’ll drag something out of my ass that sounds good!”
No, they’re seeing the OPs and thinking, “Hey, I know this one!” and so they post. It’s not really their fault that they’re 100% wrong. Blame the American educational system or something.
And I know LOTS of people who firmly believe that the cops can search your car, your house, your RV, and your body cavities any time they want. But they’re not “fuckwits”, they’re just “wrong”.
If phlosphr had said something along the lines of “I’m not sure, but I think …” or “IANAL but I’ve heard…” or any qualifiers, I wouldn’t be nearly so pissed, but there still is no excuse for giving PATENTLY WRONG ANSWERS in General Questions. If you don’t know, or aren’t sure, do some research before you spew some bullshit you pulled out your ass. He has his little anti-police grudge, fine, do it Great Debates or here in the Pit, but don’t spread Ignorance on a board that is designed to fight it.
I always figured GQ was FACTUAL in nature, and that people gave something resembling facts in response. Hence the most recent crackdowns on political sniping there. It shouldn’t be a place to spread misinformation.
Also, most people know that around here, someone is sure to say “cite?” and if you don’t have the first clue about how to back something up, a disclaimer may be in order - or something to that effect.
I do think Duck Duck Goose makes a good point that these people think they know the answer. Perhaps it isn’t that phlosphr is a fuckwit for being incorrect as much as for not adding some disclaimer or something to show that his knowledge on the subject may be limited (and Hamlet has stated this as well).
Happens to me all the damn time. I had no idea how ignorant I really was until, time after time, someone pointed out to me that I was an idiot. (Although to be perfectly fair, no one has ever actually called me an idiot - but I know I sure feel like one when it happens.)
On the other hand, if someone has corrected my misapprehensions, I don’t insist I was right and keep saying the same thing.
Seems to be an awful lot of arrogance on both sides of the issue.
But, giving out opinion as a GQ answer should not be allowed. That’s why we have IMHO and GD. Our Mods have a hard enough time with the politcal bullshit popping up in GQ.
It does get annoying to see a great GQ OP posted to by people only guessing. And if you’ve deliberately posted misleading information, there should be some consequences. Mistakes, though, should be expected and corrected with mildness.
I think Phlosphr shouldn’t be getting hammered as much as he is. Sure, he probably should have used phrases like “I think,” or “to the best of my knowledge”, and stuff like that to make it seem like he wasn’t being arrogant about it, but he’s learning just like the rest of us. People who are dead wrong really do bug me, though. I’m reminded of a substitute teacher once, who proclaimed, “like Einstein, I am an atheist.” That’s pretty angering, and it seems like he’s using Einstein’s atheism to support his. But one problem, EINSTEIN WASN’T AN ATHEIST! I was polite and didn’t say anything, but I was really mad. I think we all should just practice more patience with people that don’t know some things, and teach ththose people, instead of ridiculing them.
Maybe he really thought he knew what he was talking about. No one’s perfect. Maybe he just really, really wanted to help someone out. Good intentions… I don’t know.
Hamlet you said:
In that thread, he said a few things, and all you said in response was that he should go to the thread he created for you. Which is fine, perfect. Just that I’m clueless (I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t ;)) and after you mentioned in the thread that he was wrong yet again, you never said what parts or if all of it were wrong. Granted, you want to keep the fights off the non-pit board, but it would be nice if do lead the clueless around a bit and difalsify every last thing that is wrong, instead of making me wonder whether half of what he said had truth and half was wrong.
I’m coming from the fact that he said a) they can search you anytime you want and b) unless you’re in your house.
So, now I am confused, because I know at least a or b is wrong, or both, but I have no way of knowing which is which.
make sense ? thank you for listening
this isn’t a post so much as for me, as for in the future when Dopers get to deal with people who lie (un)intentionally.
I don’t know if it’s worth an invective-laden pitting, but it would sure be nice if people took the time to differentiate between knowledge and assumption before responding to GQ threads.
Learn to anticipate that “Cite?”, folks!
Hell, incorporate that behavior into your day-to-day living. When you think you know the answer to a question, make damned sure you know how you arrived that answer, and if it has any validity.
Don’t do it to oblige anyone else, do it to avoid carting around the baggage of a multitide of false premises that are only errors waiting to happen. Think of the embarrassment and inconvenience that you can spare yourself.
I often go and do a google ™ before posting in GQ, just to make sure what I think I know isn’t complete bollocks. A few times (but just a few ) it has saved me looking like an idiot.
