Comment on What is the most common stupid question you hear/see?
FinjaminPoach@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
I see this recurring attitude among several different people essentially showing off how bad they are at maths. Like they really really want me to know how crap they are at basic mental addition or multiplication.
“3 times 9, so that’s, uh… 67??”
Then they quickly go “no, that isn’t it!” to themselves and derail the conversation to talk about how hard maths is for them like it’s some cute trait. Le sigh.
I think this feeds in to the fact that the most common types of stupid question i observe are where people try to show off how much they know about a topic by asking a clarifying question, but they get it completely wrong. “Liechtenstein, so that’s next to Russia, right?”
jaycifer@lemmy.world 7 hours ago
Maybe it doesn’t come through in text, but that Liechtenstein question gives me zero impression that they’re trying to show off. It just seems like how someone would ask if they think they might know something but aren’t sure. What am I missing here?
FinjaminPoach@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
You’re right, its all stuff i would express through voice and action when explaining it in person.
Basically i just mean active dunning-kruger effect; there are people i talk to who will interrupt my discussions (regardless of topic) to interject some “fun fact” or demonstrate that they know at-least-as-much-as-me about the topic; so if i was talking about a historical event in a foreign country, e/g poland, they’ll interject or say at the end of my piece “and poland is next to france, right?”
But this makes it sound like it’s just a geographically curious person seeking tutelage. I also experience people doing this to boastfully show off that they know some science concept, “mansplain” it to everyone around, but usually explain it really badly and it really irks me because i’d seem like a fusspot for correcting them and explaining it properly, they’ll probably go. “Uh, that doesn’t sound any different to how I explained it! haha.”
The liectenstein equivalent of this would be: “Liectenstein - that’s next to Hungary, right?” “No it’s actually between switzerland and austria” “…and Austria used to be unified with Hungary, so I’m right.”
at risk of sounding too bitchy, the people i have experienced this the most with are my sibling when we meet with our mom, and in my ex-friend-group from 2 years ago.