I had the experience of not knowing whether it was more polite to correct a person’s false claims or to let him go on displaying his ignorance at the risk of further embarrassment:
A guy told me potassium was a large protein with “lots of grabbers” to transport other molecules throughout the body for clotting (This is totally wrong and he meant vitamin K). He said he was an O positive blood donor, “the universal donor” (It’s actually O negative). He then went on a lengthy rant about how one’s phone is the dirtiest thing one touches all day because “lots of things are cultured from it” (But is there any evidence those bacteria cause disease?).
I have no problem with ignorance (the ignorance of the human race, of all of us) when accompanied by a little humility. This “papier-mâché Mephistopheles” was only annoying to me because of the way he told me, unbidden, that he used to be the director of the Children’s Hospital lab, and then reminded me of this again a week later. People who go around wowing and silencing others with credentials and technical terms should be aware that an informed listener might be present to call out their bullshit and point out that they are literally a goddamn idiatic.
Ultimately it seemed most polite just to smile and nod.
Included: icy Lake Nokomis. Today I learned a lot about the wetland and oak savanna restoration efforts underway there. Also a frog.
pseudoisaac 