What I have learned from the Dope

In My Humble Opinion
1

I learned about the little pointy symbol next to the gas pump icon on your instrument panel that tells you what side of your car the gas cap is on.

I’ve learned that no matter how (to me) neutral a statement I make or question I ask, and no matter how (to me) civilly I phrase it, someone will take offense, be insulted, take it personally, want to fight, or want to bite my face off (but only if they live in Florida).

I’ve learned that I’m not the only person alive today who laments the deterioration of correct grammar usage. Sentence diagramming–that’s what got skipped. When you diagram a sentence you will always get your subject-verb agreement correct.

I’ve learned that there’s a whole lot of shit I don’t know anything about.

What have your learned from the Dope?

2

I’ve learned that there are vast swaths of knowledge I know very little about, and that I am not going to learn them all before I die no matter how hard I try.

3

That Republicans aren’t the only socially clueless people.

4

That minority groups can seem like majorities when they congregate in echo chambers like the Dope. Can result in some pretty outlandish ideas being accepted as normal, instead of being called out like they would in the meatworld.

5

People really really hate religion and the religious (in my IRL interactions people are either religious or ambivalent).

People really really hate fat people.

Men are scared of women who speak loudly.

6

I’ve learned that some people have very long memories

7

A fair number of men urinate sitting down.

Some men like dancing.

8

I’ve learned that no matter how obscure the question being asked, someone here knows the answer. The Dope is better than Google.

9

Just what an extra-ordinary amount of effort is spent by some to create the impression that one is a unique and special snowflake.

10

That grown men really do agonise over what women (dates) think.

That BBQ is the US is not what I think of as BBQ. Same for chicken salad.

That if I turn a straight woman to the dark side, I get a toaster oven.

That Roma women regard shaking hands as sexual assault.

Something about going to the quarry to throw rocks. Actually, I still don’t understand that one.

TL;DR

11

Really? Who’s the other one?

12

That some Europeans, notably Nava and Einstein’s Hund, who acquired English as a second language, nonetheless express themselves in English astonishingly well. Their fluidity, precision, grammatical correctness and grasp of idiom are superb.

13

I learned that most people wipe their asses while still seated on the toilet. (I always wondered why those public toilets with auto-flush kept flushing before I was finished!)

14

That I’m a bigot because I don’t see a correlation between income and happiness, and because I was taught manners and etiquette.

15

Yup, sometimes my Google fu is lacking. And I have an abysmal internet connection at home.

My Wife is not a Doper, but she knows I am. Sometimes, when searching for something, my Wife will say, “Why not just ask the SDMB”.

And, that I’m not as smart as I thought I was. Lincoln said “It’s a wise man that knows he isn’t”

16

Learned this very day: there is a word “atelophobia”. Means – fear of: failure / being imperfect / not being good enough.

17

I thought it had something to do with pie…?

:wink:

18

Correlation does not imply causation.

There is a difference between ignorance and stupidity.

Otherwise intelligent people will put ketchup on a hot dog.

19

I’ve learned that if my doctor suggest going on the internet and looking for an answer about quinine that someone here will say ‘‘Go ask your doctor’’.

20

Most recently, Thudlow Boink taught me how to set my Kindle e-reader to sort by collections, a feature I didn’t know it had.

In General, I’ve learned TONS of useful stuff here, and made some friends too. I’ve also un-learned gobs of stuff, things I’d picked up over the years and thought were true, but which more knowledgeable folk here could debunk.

A hell of a lot of the time, “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” (Mark Twain.)

(Making the point just that much more acute, I originally typoed “Mark Twin.” Betcha didn’t know there were two of him!)