askchapo

As a former , I've learned that the first, best step you can take is learning to tell people to shut up

It can be hard, mainly because we're usually browbeaten into believing that we're supposed to settle things with civility

But the thing is, they're the ones who aren't being civil, they're the ones who don't show anyone respect, they're the ones who will resort to cruelty and bullying

So it's important to remember that even if you don't know everything, you know enough to know that nobody knows everything and anyone who pretends to be the arbiter of absolute knowledge is just being a shit

Intelligence is a poorly defined concept, epistemology makes any notion of objective knowledge seem hallucinatory, and it's much more likely that self-declared intelligence has a psychological origin than an objective one so that they're entire personality is built on foundations of sand.

I interacted with a lot of intelligent assholes in my schooling in physics, and I was on track to be one of them until I realizing that leaning into that role was trying to exempt myself from the basic social requirements of humanity. The end result of that didn't seem like a good place to end up so I ran the opposite way with it.

So if you find yourself interacting with one who seems intent on beating you down, try lampshading what they're doing and what they hope to accomplish and why they think this strategy is the best way of getting there and just keep asking them why they think that and if they have evidence and if it perhaps can be attributed to their own pyschological factors and so on. Because these types also typically eschew the social sciences they'll quickly end up on the backfoot.

"lmao okay * motion* " then leave.

It's that easy!

Learn to box and wrestle, then set boundaries knowing you have some capacity to enforce those boundaries with violence.

"Nerds" seem to cling to an idea of objective truth, and that their ideologies are universal, and that they are important for the "knowledge" they have obtained.

You can flip the script by pointing out the ways these things are wrong.

Lol "that's what they want you to think" "Where'd you get that, ?" Or if you really want to piss them off compare them to an evangelical pundit or

"Anyone can get a Ph.D / doctorate, it's the most middle-brow achievement" "What do you call the guy who finishes last in med school?" (Doctor) "spent your time slaving away when you could have been stacking papers" "too smart to be happy, not smart enough to be successful"

Nerds will generally take the bait and continue to try to make their point if you catch them in a leading question / insult. "I know YOU can rely on RealDolls for jobs no one wants to do, but other work needs living minimum wage, healthcare, etc." "Your mom wasn't really providing 'skilled labor' last night but she still should make a living wage" "Everyone makes mistakes, like your parents when they made you" "Hey yeah, with all the money you're saving by not tipping, maybe you can buy a friend / self-respect / whatever"

Online: drop a wojak, pig poop balls, close tab

Real life: smile, don’t dignify them with a response, walk away

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3tG-4i0ygBE

It works with know it all nerds, asshole customers, family members, coworkers, managers, etc. They’ll probably end up seething to themselves or finding someone to complain to. If they care that much they’ll come find you and continue arguing, but chances are they don’t want to be making a fool of themselves.

I hold my hand up like I'm wearing a sock puppet and match its movements to their speech so it's like the imaginary sock puppet is talking instead of them.
I also do it any time I just want to annoy someone. It works especially well if they're talking to someone else and you hold the "puppet" just behind their shoulder so they can tell everyone's attention isn't quite on them.

Edit: Also when they tell you to stop deny all knowledge of what they're talking about, and give the hand a "get a load of this guy" look. One of the key parts is that you don't need to worry about how to respond or falling over your words, you're just mocking them with the worst, lowest effort ventriloquist act ever conceived, while making completely implausible denials. It's basically being stonewalled by an actual clown.

know-it-all nerds

I mean you've been handling this site alright.

Is just being straight up with them about how theyre making you feel not an option? Like if you cant point at anything specifically it doesnt really matter, theyre still making you feel like shit.

Do you have to be around this person?

I guess you can't avoid them... (that'd be my first line of defense).

(This feels like a very silly thing to ask) Have you ever straight up confronted them about it? Like, when they do the schtick have you ever just dead-eye stared at them for a solid 30 seconds before pointing out that they're being a flaming poo bag for no reason?

If you want to go rrrreeaaalllyyy dark... if you've got some friends who can keep their cool and don't mind breaking a person's brain... pick one of the asshat know-it-all-nerds and find some one thing and just work together to gaslight the shit of them.

Know more then them on a particular subject and embatrass them.

I like sandbagging any little facts they have. "That's cool" "that's nice" or "don't care". If they say anything especially heinous, i like to pull the "no one will remember you when you're gone.".