One of my favorite nitpicking stories comes from the old book How to Win Friends and Influence People.
The author Dale Carnegie is at a dinner party when a guest, in telling a story, attributes a quote to the Bible. DC knows it’s Ackchyually from Shakespeare and corrects the storyteller. A brief argument ensues and both agree to accept the decision from Authoritative Person, as to the source of the quote. AP says “It’s from the Bible, please continue your story.”
DC corners AP sometime later and says “You know that quote was Shakespeare!” and AP replies “Of course it is, but you were being an ass and ruining a good story.”
Oh, shit, good point. (If I was in the mood to nitpick, I’d say Blade, like the X-Men and the first Spiderman, weren’t technically in the MCU, but I don’t feel like it.
Obviously not on here because everyone here is too smart to be wrong so their nitpicking is totally justified. It’s the other people who are wrong who’s nitpicking is unjustified.
Having read the Dope for 20+ years I’ve noticed that if a poster quotes another post and then begins their reply with “Umm actually…” or “Not really…” There’s a better than 90% chance that post will either be complete horseshit or will simply restate the previous post using longer words and more of them. The other 10% will be a legitimate correction or will add contextual information that may or may not be relevant.
On the dope at least it’s good to helpful. It’s more important to be right. (I think its one of the reasons I’ve stuck with this place for so long.)
I don’t think people here are immune to being wrong.
What I was talking about wasn’t just about being earnestly wrong about a thing. It was whether anyone knows they are wrong, but continues to say the thing.
I can imagine a situation where someone has carved out for themselves a social identity as e.g. The One Who Knows The Origin Of Quotes. They find that somehow they got steered wrong as a youth and the quote they’ve been telling everyone is John Donne is in fact Kit Marlowe. Will they, next time it comes up, admit to their circle they’ve been wrong all these years? Or will they continue with the “correction”, knowing it’s wrong but unable to face up to the social implications of admitting long-standing error?
I can quite easily see the latter happening in at least some cases.
Sure - I think maybe some people brought up in religious contexts might quietly lose faith, but carry on going through the motions just to maintain the peace.
I think in the context of this thread though - people offering unsolicited ‘corrections’ - if they know for sure they’re wrong when they do that, it’s kind of just trolling.