Sugar does not cause Diabetes .
It's true we of the safely above-average IQ are almost all guilty of entrenching ourselves in a position purely out of a visceral defensive need to assert our own intelligence in the face of those who might, just might have an equal - or god forbid - stronger claim to it. But boy does it aggravate me when i can't say a single well-meaning point-of-information without it being contradicted and then pissily contested by someone who thinks they know what they're talking about.
I don't go around spouting opinions about the chemical structures of complex artificially produced sugar substitutes. Why? because i have limited knowledge on that subject. I don't enmesh myself in arguments about the viability of string theory; the ethics of minor variations of hinduism in the sub-continent; pre-viking scandanavian tribal rituals, or a whole host of other topic that, regardless of whether or not they actually qualify as Topics in popular consciousness, I quite comfortably know next nothing about.
however much it seems like I pull statements about subjects out of my ass - I usually have in mind some qualified, non-anecdotal source in memory that get triggered when someone makes a comment that registers as false in my mind.
take the dunkin' donuts exchange last night. obnoxious arrogant boy 1 (oab1) makes a response to some mundane comment which has the general meaning of
"i don't want a donut because i don't want to get diabetes"
i casually respond
"sugar doesn't cause diabetes"
oab1, continuing what appears to be a very deeply engrained and automatic recourse on his part, attempts to wield the hammer of authority, saying
"prevailing medical opinion would say otherwise"
"Endocrinologist wouldn't"
"Huh?"
"Nevermind"
"Oh yeah. How many people in your family have diabetes"
"A few. And more of them treat it"
something challenging and snotty in response.
"you know, the whole medical training/specialization thing."
snide conclusion of the oab1: "apparently it didn't rub off"
sorry my good friend who enjoys the company of this person; i find him tiring. i find all people who deliberately combat knowledge instead of considering presenting and comparing sources in a collaborative way tiring. they bring out the worst in me. they drag up know-it-all in me and switch my motives from the pursuit of knowledge to the desire to instill a smidgen of humility and self-awareness in the current embodiment of arrogance.

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