We all know the feeling.
Imagine this: You get caught up in an argument with someone. It's all going well until you realize you've been going with circles. And you've been going in circles because the person is a moron.
IT'S FRUSTRATING.
Redditor whatadamyt asked the online community,
"What is your example of 'It's hard to argue with a genius, it's impossible to argue with an idiot'?"
"When I tell people..."
When I tell people to just reboot your computer and it will fix all their problems and yet they wont because they said if you wait long enough it will shut down, when in reality it only goes to sleep. Then when I tell them they have to completely shut it down they look at me like I'm an idiot and say they did. I tell them it seems like it but it only went to sleep. They argue back.
"Once I was trying..."
I'm Nicaraguan. Once I was trying to explain to an Ortega (president/dictator) supporter why it was illegal for Ortega to pick his wife as a vice-president.
Yours truly: If you read the Constitution...
Her: I don't read anti-government propaganda.
"Not my story..."
GiphyNot my story but once my friend (friend A) was having a friendly (turned sour) debate with another friend (friend B) about how sometimes people just don't have a choice, in the context of, they can't just choose to live a frivolous life because of their family background etc.
Friend A proceeds to say, "what about starving children born in Africa, it's not like they had a choice." To which Friend B answered...."WHO ASKED THEM TO BE BORN IN AFRICA? JUST DON'T BE BORN THERE."
That's when we knew...
"I've learned..."
My dad likes to say things like "if you did the research you'd see...". Trouble is, his research is whatever FOX reports, and he doesn't consider mine valid.
I see FOX as the propaganda wing of the Republican party, and he sees anything that doesn't mesh with FOX as fake news and liberal bias.
I've learned not to bother arguing with him. The last time, he went on a 4 hour rant and I couldn't get a word in edgewise. He only stopped because he followed me into my room and I started changing into my pajamas just after midnight.
"While walking my dog..."
While walking my dog in my neighborhood park, I observed another dog owner not picking up his dog's poop. So I scolded him (and he complied). We encounter each other infrequently and it always ruins my day because I get an angry tirade about how I'm a huge jerk n' stuff.
Like, he seems to legitimately feel like I crossed some kind of boundary and have victimized him.
"A person from my high school..."
A person from my high school said in a class that poor people are the only people who should to pay taxes because they are the "biggest burden to society." That was his justification to why people who are not in poverty should not pay taxes. Same guy said I was "too much of a liberal" because I didn't want to use a plastic straw.
"It took over an hour..."
My ex, who believes himself to be a genius. It took over an hour to convince him that tea leaves naturally have caffeine, and I'm pretty sure he still believes that there is no tea in traditional chai tea, despite it literally being in the name.
"I'm a professor..."
Lewis County in the Adirondacks of New York has a total population of 26,000 people. It's unbelievably poor.
I'm a professor and have watched Lewis County locals explain to a college professor (in political science) that "All their taxes goes to welfare queens in New York City."
"I've had better conversations..."
Every time I meet an essential-oils-wielding anti-vaxxer. I argue with science and points that the typical person who is just concerned would listen to. They offer no points, no facts, and dismiss everything I say.
I've had better conversations with devout Mormons about scientific fact than devout anti-vaxxers. This only changes when someone dies (which is too late in my opinion).
"There was a long silence."
In a remedial community college algebra course, we had to learn how calculate a temperature in F and C, and convert back and forth. For whatever reason the example was water/ice. The professor came to an example of 10 degrees F.
Girl raises her hand and said "Ice doesn't get colder than 32 degrees. That's frozen" with amazing authority.
There was a long silence. The professor finally said "Just convert the 10 degrees F into Celsius."