Do you know people who expound on things they know nothing about?

[skygazer]

We went out to eat last night with a bunch of friends and one of the guys is like that. It's like he can't admit he doesn't know something or isn't well versed in the subject so he talks as if he knows what he's talking about but ends up sounding stupid because he doesn't.

Why can't people ever just say, "Gee, I really don't know enough about that to have an opinion?" To me, that's more a sign of intelligence than babbling like an idiot. :P

[UTUSN]

1. Besides myself? That said, they are the most inFURiating!!1

When you absolutely KNOW something and somebody is contradicting!!1 (& I'm not talking opinions here.) Sputter, sputter.

[EFerrari]

11. So, it's a Bad Thing?

:rofl:

[UTUSN]

15. Now, this thread does NOT APPLY to you-know-who!!1 (my arch nemesis) n/t

[EFerrari]

16. LOL!

:pals:

[maxsolomon]

2. MAS: Male Answer Syndrome

it will be the downfall of this nation. just ask *.

[skygazer]

4. I don't know - I know women who do it too

There's a woman at work who thinks she knows everything on the planet. And no, I don't think I do but a lot of times, the things she comes out with are things I know she's completely whacked about. I think she was the one who said something about someone back in the old days making cloth "on a spinet." So I gently pointed out that, "I think you mean a spinning wheel," (though that was used for making thread, not cloth, technically) - "isn't a spinet similar to a piano?" (worded that way so as not to sound like I was totally correcting her).

But undaunted, she launched into an explanation of what a spinet actually was and much to my surprise, I "learned" from her that it was some sort of item that miraculously made cloth out of sheep's wool. :eyes:

[EstimatedProphet]

10. I knew a woman like that myself

And in her case, not only did she know everything, she took personal offense to anyone saying anything that she didn't agree with. She considered herself to be arbiter of all human knowledge. This is how bad she was: there were 3 of us in the car, trying to get on the highway. I was in the back seat, with a map of the town. So, I said that we were on a certain street, and if we went south we would get to the highway. Having not been in the town ever before, and knowing nothing about it whatsoever, she started giving directions afterwards that were clearly wrong. I repeated what I said, and she got mad. I pointed out that I had a map, and she said that that didn't matter because what she said was right. So the driver follows her directions, gets lost, and she complains about it.

So yeah, I've seen women who do that too. It isn't a sex thing, it's a need to be pushy thing.

And, sometimes I do it myself. I am not usually hostile though.

[EFerrari]

12. I've been catching myself being very cranky and it really concerns me.

I need to start, I don't know, chopping wood or making soup (which also involves choppping) or something. It isn't a gender thing. Imho, it's a burnout symptom. :shrug:

[EstimatedProphet]

14. 6 1/2 years of Bush will do that to you.

[EFerrari]

17. 682 days to go. n/t

[1monster]

3. My son.

He's only fifteen, but he has to be an expert on everything... so he makes it up as he goes along.

Drives me crazy.

(I think people like that tend to be a little OCD, at least my son is.)

[skygazer]

5. Yeah, well, I guess almost any teenager falls under that category

I don't miss those days. :rofl:

[Jade Fox]

6. Reminds me of a bumper sticker I saw....

"Hire teen-agers while they still know everything."

[Orsino]

7. A lot.

But I still love it here on DU.

[skygazer]

8. ....

:rofl:

Best answer!

[joneschick]

9. I once found myself in one of those WTF? conversations

the guy actually tried to correct me on which of my brothers was the eldest!!!! He apparently knew better than I did. :hi:

edited for odd typo. :hi:

[EFerrari]

13. Now, that's funny.

lol

[Le Taz Hot]

23. I can probably match that.

My REAL name is actually a nickname for another name. I was not only told that my real name was not my real name, but a nickname, but I spell the nickname (my name) wrong. Oy vey!

[SPKrazy]

18. Oh shit yes!

and I won't expound on it more than to say they are too close for comfort sometimes :P

[Rabrrrrrr]

19. I have an uncle like that. Usually whatever it is he links to the Illuminati.

It's fucking bizarre.

"Well, you know why cars didn't go fully metric? The fuckin' Illuminati. They control it all, you know." and then he gives a nod like, yeah, of course, this is common fucking knowledge that everyone should know the Illuminati control everything.

It's funny in its way, but it's also fucking annoying.

It goes like this:

"Oprah? You know the only reason she's on TV? Back when Truman was president, the Mafia started pressuring him to get more Italians into the government. Well, that pissed off the unions, and they started pressing for more blacks because that gave 'em more money. Truman knew that, but he couldn't say anything because he knew the FBI would shut him up if he did anything, so he started the Civil Rights movement down south, financing Martin Luther King through the CIA to fight back against the unions. {Okay - that was the set up. Now, here's one of his classic non sequitor segues directly into a conclusion} But that made everybody rich, and they needed a place to hide the money they were making so they wouldn't get caught cuz the CIA, they were watching everything back then, because they didn't have anything to do after WWII ended. Truman, being president, was part of the Illuminati so the money went to Switzerland, but to keep the blacks from getting to agitated, they put Oprah on TV".

[Toasterlad]

25. I Would LOVE to Pound Some Beer With Your Uncle

He sounds hilarious!

[no name no slogan]

20. My soon-to-be-ex-boss

He opens his mouth, and digs the hole deeper. Unfortunately for him, it's coming back to bite him in the ass.

[GirlinContempt]

21. Yeah

I don't know what's more annoying, though. People who do what you're talking about, or people who think their opinions are sacrosanct and any contradiction amounts to being an idiot. The first is idiocy. The second is idiocy mixed with an inability to even defend an opinion, and base hubris.

[Le Taz Hot]

22. Goddess help me I just spent the weekend with one.

This is a friend I've known for 30 years and I swear he gets WORSE as he gets older. This weekend he expounded on probably 50 different subjects, all with only partial knowledge and fill in the blanks for the rest. Among some of his pearls:

- England doesn't have any more trees -- they cut all of them down over the years to be used as firewood.
- England also doesn't have any wild animals left -- they were poached to extinction long ago.
- We have more reserve troops than we know what to do with -- just waiting to go to Iraq.
- When selling merchandise, venue and type of clientele doesn't figure into marketing plans.
- The Crusades' sole purpose was to kill Jews.

There were many more but after a point, you just REALLY aren't listening anymore.

[joneschick]

24. *head spins*

you need a hug! :hug: :hi:

[Oeditpus Rex]

26. Sure

I wish people would stop voting for them. :grr:

[Toasterlad]

27. Besides Me?

Actually, I really and truly try not to do that. But what I do find myself guilty of all the time is "validating" statements other people make. Like, my buddy will be telling someone else that he has four sisters, and I'll find myself saying, "That's right, you do." Like it's not true until I confirm it! I KNOW it's aggravating, but I can't seem to stop! :crazy:

[skygazer]

29. That's funny

:rofl:

Some people just have verbal tics they have to use - my boyfriend says, "Is that so?" whenever someone tells him something. I always kind of think to myself, "Well, yeah, I just told you that" but it's not really aggravating. It's just a filler.

[Alexander]

28. Reminds me of a wacky creationist roommate my friend has.

He's an "expert" on everything, and apart from being a creationist, thinks cats are evil, pot smokers are idiots (even though he smokes, and I beat his ass at chess while stoned silly) and that dinosaurs/pre-historic evidence is all fake, planted by God to "test" humanity. :eyes:

So he loves to cut in on virtually every subject and deliver "God's" version of whatever we're talking about.

He apparently didn't used to be like this. I'm tempted to ask him if he ate the brown acid.

Most people I've noticed like this are men who can't get a date.