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Old 07-24-2009, 05:44 AM
 
4,379 posts, read 5,373,194 times
Reputation: 1612

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Quote:
Originally Posted by virgode View Post
Samston, you started a thread in Health and Wellness asking posters
if you were retarded. The thread got locked!!
i know i am retarded. but i still have knowledge that surpasses most in my peer group.
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Old 07-24-2009, 07:38 AM
 
4,482 posts, read 5,320,059 times
Reputation: 2966
Quote:
Originally Posted by UrbanBlasphemy View Post
That's the point right there; if your "friends" don't have enough respect for you to partake in a decent conversation, I wouldn't think that they were really "friends" at all. I'll get called an idiot sometimes, but then within the same sentence, there'll be a "but I understand what ya mean".. I know they're messing around, but to me, it just sounds like these guys have no respect for you or where you're coming from at all. Maybe I'm wrong, but man, I'd be looking for better friends..
There's about 4 guys in this "group" and of these 1 is a good, close friend, but at the same time, I've somewhat distanced myself from him in recent time for reasons OTHER than the topic I started this thread with. Suffice it to say I don't approve of some of the things he finds acceptable to do in terms of "entertainment" given the fact he's a married man with children.

The 3 others: 2 are acquaintances (and 1 of them is Guy 1's brother in law) and Guy 4 I went to college with and was close with but have drifted away for other reasons. Guy 4, IMO, is the least intelligent and most closed-minded of all the 4 guys.

Guys 2 and 3 I don't have much of a problem with, but on occasions I've said things I know, Guy 2 says "oh yeah?" almost with a condescending or skeptical tone, as if I couldn't possibly know what I'm talking about. Guy 3 takes the humorous route, but he at least does it in a playful, harmless way. One time he saw I can write in a foreign language and he jokingly said, "you're smarter than you look!" We all laughed because it was understood he was just kidding.

It took Guy 1, who knows me well, to tell Guy 2 and his wife (a foreigner who doesn't know me and who until recently didn't like me because I dated and dumped her GF years ago), that "Sprawling doesn't speak our ancestral language as well as we do, but he knows the culture and history of our ancestral homeland better than all of us put together. Go to his house and you'll see an ever-growing bookshelf. The man reads."

Guy 1 told me that Guy 2 and his wife were surprised; in particular, Guy 2's wife appeared particularly surprised that I'd have this kind of knowledge.

I'm finding that even people who are more than acquaintances and who have some exposure to you at the same time end up with a very incorrect impression of you. People either don't pay attention or believe what they want to believe based on judgments they make without really getting to know you.
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Old 07-28-2009, 02:48 PM
 
3,486 posts, read 5,675,989 times
Reputation: 3868
I think as far as friendship compatibility is concerned, curiosity and intelligence are of primary importance, rather than knowledge. The person you are having a conversation with may not have read this week's Wall Street Journal, but still be able to discuss its contents once you relay them.

That said, I've always found intellectual dullness very unattractive, both in dating and in friendship.
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Old 07-28-2009, 04:27 PM
 
Location: Wherever women are
19,012 posts, read 29,665,791 times
Reputation: 11309
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sprawling_Homeowner View Post
Please don't flame me for this. I'm not trying to be stuck-up.

I am aware that there are many people with more degrees, more intelligence, and more life experience & wisdom than I have. I've met folks who went to Harvard Law, Harvard JFK School of Government, MIT and MIT grad, etc... so I know smart people.

However, I try to stay informed. I read the news a lot, and in more than one language. I take a particular interest in current events, and subscribe and read Time, Foreign Affairs, and Foreign Policy. that in addition to various bloggers on issues I particularly find interesting.

So what happens is that w/ some of the friends and acquaintances I have, I've spoken on issues that we are all aware of and I come up with what some may deem as "unusual facts," but they are unusual precisely because one wouldn't know them unless one follows the news closely. I've been met w/ snickers (sometimes in good fun and sometimes, I believe, in arrogant condescension)... but the many instances of interaction I've had with them clearly shows to me that they not read that much - which means they could not possibly know better.

One or two have openly said, "don't argue w/ Sprawling on this kind of stuff, he knows what he's talking about." But by and large, it's as if some people cannot accept that their peers would have extensive knowledge on certain things - and also as if one should only talk if one has advanced degrees, which I don't. I've even wondered if this kind of conduct may stem from them resenting me, in that they may internally recognize I know my stuff and that I'm smart, but that openly, they would never admit it.

I don't know if I'm making sense, and again, I'm not trying to appear superior to anybody. But more often than not, the people I come across act this way.
I am thoroughly educated in arts and sciences.

But I hardly use them in real life.

Much of my useful knowledge came from newspapers, books, religion, other people, experience and traveling

There's a saying in my line of work. Even if you possess 10 harvard MBA's, you must sniff someone's bum and only an idiot signs your paycheque. It's true. Noone on earth has full control
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