This is where I should make a really catchy word - something like mansplaining - but as an addendum - I am not really good at bon mots so I'll just outline the phenomena so you'll get an idea of what I am getting at; it's that men *know stuff*.
No - there are a lot of men who admit they don't know stuff - and it seems to be associated with the #FakeNews phenomena - or at least it's been around - and a lot longer than we've had fake news. It may even be part of the war on science - and of course it's not restricted to men - some women also *know stuff* too.
Or perhaps I'm just more aware of it - because there have been times in my life I've *known stuff* that was never proven in anyway, it just became a fact for me - and I am a scientist with many years of experience of experimenting, testing, formulating hypotheses, being wrong, checking assumptions...
Let me clue you in on my favorite example of when I *knew stuff* - I knew govt was less efficient than corporations. I have no idea where I learned this *fact* - I didn't - there has been no proof - although I am sure rw-thinktanks have found 'proof' that it's true by now. But I have heard a number of counter examples of govt being far more efficient that I now realize I knew something wrong.
But it's very commonplace for - especially rw men and sometimes women to *know stuff* - the first time I saw this phenomena was a guy spouting off at the time Dr Tiller was murdered, anyway this guy who knew stuff was pronouncing that female vaginas are basically a rubber band that has infinite stretch and so 9 year old girls who were impregnated would be able to stretch so wide to deliver the baby. This guy was no expert obviously yet he *knew* that women were basically elastic. I'm sure he'd never heard of fistula - but hey he *knew* it anyway.
Another example is CO2 isn't a problem - these male experts just know it's plant food - couldn't possibly cause any harm.
But I guess it's a phenomena that by now you're guessing is mostly political - well true - but it's not restricted to politics - even men on the left *know stuff*, and it doesn't even have to be political but it is usually accompanied by a mega dose of ignorance. One guy told me there'd be a singularity and he *knew* that because he'd done a course on ontology!!! I guess he thought I'd be daunted by him doing a philosophical course and would be astounded because he was using big words.
Another male on the left also thought robotics were going to take over the world - because he'd seen a highly edited piece of advertising by a robotics corporations. You can make anyone/thing look good - even actors who can barely string a sentence together, with the appropriate amount of video editing.
There is so much to know and too little time to read everything you might want to talk about online - but before engaging in an argument with someone who possibly might know more on a subject perhaps you might want to do some reading and often it's not hard to find real information. For instance - if you have a web browser type a sentence with the question into your google search bar. Google will tell you things like 'problems with 9 year olds giving birth' this is the first result Google gave me. Yes Google often gets it wrong first time but if you are prepared to wade through some of their results you can usually make a judgment on how political the topic is and the right are very apt to present lies as facts.
Another tactic in dealing with topics is admitting you just don't know. Pro tip: this is what the most knowledgeable scientists admit.
So the catchy buzz words for men who *know stuff* - hmm - let me ask google: and it's third result was 'con men'. Google really does know everything ;) And they even have a picture of the t-shirt for that!
No - there are a lot of men who admit they don't know stuff - and it seems to be associated with the #FakeNews phenomena - or at least it's been around - and a lot longer than we've had fake news. It may even be part of the war on science - and of course it's not restricted to men - some women also *know stuff* too.
Or perhaps I'm just more aware of it - because there have been times in my life I've *known stuff* that was never proven in anyway, it just became a fact for me - and I am a scientist with many years of experience of experimenting, testing, formulating hypotheses, being wrong, checking assumptions...
Let me clue you in on my favorite example of when I *knew stuff* - I knew govt was less efficient than corporations. I have no idea where I learned this *fact* - I didn't - there has been no proof - although I am sure rw-thinktanks have found 'proof' that it's true by now. But I have heard a number of counter examples of govt being far more efficient that I now realize I knew something wrong.
But it's very commonplace for - especially rw men and sometimes women to *know stuff* - the first time I saw this phenomena was a guy spouting off at the time Dr Tiller was murdered, anyway this guy who knew stuff was pronouncing that female vaginas are basically a rubber band that has infinite stretch and so 9 year old girls who were impregnated would be able to stretch so wide to deliver the baby. This guy was no expert obviously yet he *knew* that women were basically elastic. I'm sure he'd never heard of fistula - but hey he *knew* it anyway.
Another example is CO2 isn't a problem - these male experts just know it's plant food - couldn't possibly cause any harm.
But I guess it's a phenomena that by now you're guessing is mostly political - well true - but it's not restricted to politics - even men on the left *know stuff*, and it doesn't even have to be political but it is usually accompanied by a mega dose of ignorance. One guy told me there'd be a singularity and he *knew* that because he'd done a course on ontology!!! I guess he thought I'd be daunted by him doing a philosophical course and would be astounded because he was using big words.
Another male on the left also thought robotics were going to take over the world - because he'd seen a highly edited piece of advertising by a robotics corporations. You can make anyone/thing look good - even actors who can barely string a sentence together, with the appropriate amount of video editing.
There is so much to know and too little time to read everything you might want to talk about online - but before engaging in an argument with someone who possibly might know more on a subject perhaps you might want to do some reading and often it's not hard to find real information. For instance - if you have a web browser type a sentence with the question into your google search bar. Google will tell you things like 'problems with 9 year olds giving birth' this is the first result Google gave me. Yes Google often gets it wrong first time but if you are prepared to wade through some of their results you can usually make a judgment on how political the topic is and the right are very apt to present lies as facts.
Another tactic in dealing with topics is admitting you just don't know. Pro tip: this is what the most knowledgeable scientists admit.
So the catchy buzz words for men who *know stuff* - hmm - let me ask google: and it's third result was 'con men'. Google really does know everything ;) And they even have a picture of the t-shirt for that!
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