# What were you THINKING? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 13, 2023, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532 "2023-10-13T19:36:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 385
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2026, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/8071 "2026-08-25T15:52:12Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > > [@wolfpup](#): > > > > The accusation of “peak stupid” against some fun and friendly banter seems deeply ironic coming from someone who just recently said: > > Oh hell no it isn’t. It’s mean spirited and nasty to call someone “peak stupid”. If they happen to be a close friend and you have personal understanding that you are speaking in jest, it could be okay. But to say that about a stranger on the internet is, at best, an attempt to drive them away. It’s not cute. It’s not friendly. And i really hope the poster doesn’t read all those nasty comments about them. You appear to have somehow completely misread my post. I didn’t call anyone “peak stupid”. And the “fun and friendly banter” to which I referred was the ongoing commentary about the linguistic oddity of “electronic engineer”. > [@puzzlegal](#): > > … my father used to refer to himself as a liver doctor, which is the same construct. I think @robby nailed it. “Liver doctor” instead of hepatologist, or “foot doctor” instead of “podiatrist”, are informal constructs that doctors use to communicate with the lay public. A GP is more likely to tell a patient that they’re referring them to a liver specialist rather than to a hepatologist. The informal terms are linguistically curious but serve a purpose in informal communication. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2026, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/8072 "2026-08-25T15:54:56Z")
The electronic engineer poster is also from the UK. I know I don’t know what typical UK terminology is now or was 60 years ago when he started college. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2026, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/8073 "2026-08-25T15:56:51Z")
Well, as Canadian as someone living elsewhere can still be, sure. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2026, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/8074 "2026-08-25T16:01:05Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#): > > I was actually trying to figure out a way to say “who, exactly, is paying you to post shitty anti-Canada propaganda on a small American message board?” without breaking P & E rules. I’ll just note again that [he has been here for decades and has been entirely consistent](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regional-differences-in-canada/142031/15) (thread from 2002). He’s not a paid provocateur, he’s a true believer. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2026, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/8075 "2026-08-25T16:05:27Z")
I’ve hear Black guys from the 'hood call them, “Funk and Jive Artists”. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2026, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/8076 "2026-08-25T16:07:41Z")
IOW he’s in thrall to the paid provocateurs who dominate RW discourse in both countries. Sincerely spouting total BS a mile / km a minute. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2026, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/8077 "2026-08-25T16:15:20Z")
In Africa, we use _askari_ for the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2026, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/8078 "2026-08-25T16:19:43Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > To be fair, it was me calling @wolfpup’s behavior “peak stupid”. He just called engineers “not the epitome of literacy” and said that the poster “even g[o]t their job title wrong” and suggested they were a robot, based on his pretending to misunderstand what they meant when they said they were an “electronic engineer.” Thank you for clarifying @puzzlegal’s misunderstanding. A few more words about this tempest is a teacup. I was initially critical of a poster who started a vacuous and carelessly titled thread in FQ, which was quickly closed. After that, the conversation devolved into general banter about the term “electronic engineer”. No one was “pretending” that they didn’t understand what it meant, or feeling smug about it. It’s just a linguistic oddity. Yet you came roaring in full of fire and brimstone as if you’d been personally and grievously offended. As for the crack about engineers and literacy, first of all the more complete – and obviously facetious – quote was that the odd term “electronic engineer” was to me “proof that engineers as a group, as bright as they may be, are not the epitome of literacy”. This was a riff from my background of being briefly in an engineering major in college before I switched majors, and that sentiment comes from self-deprecating jokes that were part of the engineering culture, at least at that time and place. Engineers were proud of their skills in the hard sciences like math and physics, and jokingly disavowed any interest in literacy (or the liberal arts in general). ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2026, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/8079 "2026-08-25T16:28:37Z")
He doesn’t live in Alberta? That makes his ramblings even weirder. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2026, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/8080 "2026-08-25T16:30:30Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > Engineers were proud of their skills in the hard sciences like math and physics, and jokingly disavowed any interest in literacy (or the liberal arts in general). That’s true, and some engineers are bad writers, but I do have one in my writers group, who is not half bad at fiction writing. She gives good feedback too. In general though it’s bad form for engineers to discount an entire field just because they don’t do well in that subject. I’m thinking of people like Elon Musk here. He sucked at liberal arts and so concluded it just wasn’t that important. If he had bothered to read some books he might have developed the empathy the world so desperately needs. Both my Mom and my grandfather were engineers, so I know them well. My Mom couldn’t wrap her head around why I wrote fiction. “Why would you write something that didn’t happen?” She enjoyed movies so I can’t quite follow the logic there. But at any rate, she wasn’t a very good writer. In all fairness, I’m not a very good engineer. But I don’t use it like a badge of pride or anything. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2026, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/8081 "2026-08-25T16:31:37Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > Yet you came roaring in full of fire and brimstone Trust if it’s fire and brimstone from me you’ll know. That was just be being irritated with, as I said, supercilious mockery. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2026, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/8082 "2026-08-25T16:32:07Z")
> [@RitterSport](#): > > Is Uzi some kind of Canadian MAGA? Should I just not bother engaging in the Carney thread? Yes to the first question. But go ahead and engage in the thread and others that **Uzi** pollutes, but for the sake of your blood pressure and mental health, maybe put the asshole in ignore. > [@Jihi](#): > > Yeah, that’s pretty much accurate. Far right wing isolationist. Massive partisan blinders and constantly expects Mark Carney (and Trudeau before him) to perform the impossible when it comes to negotiating with Trump. And then blames everyone except Trump when the impossible fails to materialize. > > He also thinks Alberta should secede from Canada and it will magically become the Saudi Arabia of North America with its gigantic oil profits. Conveniently ignoring the practical issues (such as being landlocked) and the last 100+ years of history. Good analysis. He also ignores the fact that the oil industry is in decline, and that a separated Alberta would be a sitting duck for almost immediate US colonization. And when oil revenues dry up, it’ll become a third-world backwater. **Uzi** is not just an idiot, he’s also a traitor to his own country in seeking its breakup. ---
**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 25, 2026, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/8083 "2026-08-25T16:35:44Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > I’ve hear Black guys from the 'hood call them, “Funk and Jive Artists”. _Shuck_ and jive artist, > **[Shuckin' and jivin'](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuckin%27_and_jivin%27)** > > Shuckin' and jivin' (or shucking and jiving) is African American slang for joking and acting evasively in the presence of an authority figure. It usually involves clever lies and impromptu storytelling, to one-up an opponent or avoid punishment. According to the linguist Barbara Ann Kipfer, the origins of the phrase may be traced to when "black slaves sang and shouted gleefully during corn-shucking season, and this behavior, along with lying and teasing, became a part of the protective and evasi... ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2026, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/8084 "2026-08-25T16:42:57Z")
> [@RitterSport](#): > > He doesn’t live in Alberta? That makes his ramblings even weirder. **Uzi** ’s profile indicates he’s in Hong Kong. I assume he’s originally from Alberta and perhaps plans to return there, as I can’t think of anything else that would make him so obsessive about the fringe issues of Alberta secession. Unless he’s one of the paid foreign agitators that have been so closely associated with the movement. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2026, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/8085 "2026-08-25T16:44:40Z")
Another often clueless RW apologist has just started a thread in GD about stereotyped groups being responsible for the labels they get labeled with. The question is superficially worded neutrally. But the fact it gets asked at all is about like “Flat earth: truth or lie?”. The fact somebody wants to talk about it at all says they devoutly believe in the bad/stupid side of the “debate”. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2026, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/8086 "2026-08-25T16:46:37Z")
Aw, shucks, I got mixed up. LOL ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2026, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/8087 "2026-08-25T16:51:59Z")
I don’t know what’s gotten into Tokyo Bayer that he’s now decided to play the troll in the Confronting racism thread. Twisting my words out of all sense. Talk of “screaming.” Did he blow a gasket or something? ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2026, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/8088 "2026-08-25T16:53:24Z")
As someone that got really annoyed at you earlier in that thread, I agree: I think he’s latched onto a pedantic point that misses the thrust of the thread and is defending it even after a clarification made it moot. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2026, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/8089 "2026-08-25T16:55:23Z")
Once again, I am not looking for a name for someone who fakes being an expert in many things. I am looking for the name for someone who claims to be an expert in many _woo_ subjects, like ghosts, UFOs, ESP etc., people that talk out of their ass on subjects that are hard/impossible to check on. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2026, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/8090 "2026-08-25T16:58:33Z")
Yet another “I’m going to trick the libs into saying racism is okay under certain circumstances” thread. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532.md?page=384) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532.md?page=386)