Dan Luu
patreon
"You just have to be right, don't you?"
🕑 Added 2022-08-12 08:17:14 +0000 UTCA pattern of interaction I had quite frequently when I was younger was that someone would have strong opinions on a topic they know nothing about, as in the kinds of ideas presented in https://danluu.com/cocktail-ideas/, and then I'd explain to them what they were missing.
After this happened a few times with the same person, their frustration at being wrong would build up too much for them to hold in and they'd say something like "you just have to be right, don't you?".
I no longer have many interactions like this because I try to avoid talking to people who spend a lot of time talking about things they don't know anything about, but back when I would reflexively argue with people who feel compelled to frequently state poorly supported opinions, the underlying issue wasn't that I had to be right but that I tried to avoid making strong claims about topics I don't know anything about and would avoid chiming into discussions on topics where I'm uninformed. I'm wrong quite frequently, which is an occupational hazard of being human but, of course, if I'm talking to someone who has opinions on many topics where they have zero background who feels compelling to tell other people how things are, I'm going to be right the overwhelming majority of the time when arguing with that someone.
There are multiple possible interpretations of this, but my feeling is that, implicit in a response like "you just have to be right, don't you?" in response to being repeatedly proven wrong is the fundamental belief that people have a right to be correct regardless of whether or not they're informed about a topic, in much the same way that people have other natural, inalienable, rights.
Comments
I think it's the more banal "you just have to convince us you're right, as opposed to letting the conversation move onto something else."
