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--- arrogance [2024/03/17 13:39] – ultracomfy
+++ arrogance [2025/04/09 20:02] (current) – ultracomfy
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 <fs xx-large>Arrogance</fs> is a type of extreme or foolish pride in which someone feels much superior to another. I have been accused of arrogance many more times in my life than I am willing to count, and my assessment of whether I really //am// arrogant is still ongoing. As a person who takes feedback from others (especially the destructive form) way too serious, calling me arrogant is an extremely effective way to make me doubt myself and my personality. What //I// see, from //my// perspective is, if anything, overconfidence in ignorance, but not arrogance. However, I am unable to make any reasonably informed conclusion on this question, which means I need to contend with not knowing. Until then I try my best to control myself to the best of my abilities to //not// be arrogant.
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 Anyway, the problem I have that makes me unsure whether I really am arrogant or not is because I do not believe to be smug about it. While I will - with confidence, sometimes warranted, sometimes not - demand explanation or justification from people who think they should not have to explain or justify things to me, I don't think I am smug about it. I do not attack people, raise doubts over someone's competence or degrade them. From my perspective, I try to make a rational point, raise an issue or point out flaws in suggested courses of actions and then, when the people whose claims I just pulled into question inevitably try to defend their claims, deliberate over the issue at hand.
-From //my// perspective, the people who call me 'arrogant' are usually people that just did not want to have to explain or justify things. People who think they don't have to explain their ways because they have [[Authority]] or [[Life Experience]].
+Remember that in any 1-on-1 debate, you are [[50|about 50% likely]] to be right. Of course, this is influenced by certain factors, especially expertise/proficiency, experience and temperament in that moment. More general claims, ie. vague and unspecific, like [[Communism|"Communism is better than capitalism"]] tend to be wrong more often than claims about individual aspects of a matter, like "Saying that greed is in [[human nature]] is barely a defensible claim because most behaviors are acquired, not innate((In fact, we humans are very special in that we acquire most of our behaviors, and therefore develop immense diversity within our population.))". Bonus points for not trying to use this fact as "proof" that communism can work, because it's not proof.\\
+Anyhow, 50% will be barely measurable in a one-on-one that only happens once, but becomes measurable quite well indeed when one talks to the same person several times and finds out that they //never// cede a point, //never// admit to be wrong on something, //always// make major, generalized claims. Negative bonus points for people who refuse to defend their beliefs in the first place and instead use their "authority" and "life experience" to squash deliberation before it could ever happen. See, I don't tend to dislike authority because of capitalism or the system, but because authority tends to refuse to be accountable or doubtable.
+From //my// perspective, the people who call me 'arrogant' are usually people that are in positions of authority, the kinds of positions that generally like to think of themselves as unaccountable, undoubtable. Now, keep in mind that I am not saying that I //know// that these people don't want to be doubted/questioned, but it is this one trait every person, who ever called me "arrogant", shares. People who think they don't have to explain their ways because they have [[Authority]] or [[Life Experience]] (which assumably gives you //implied// authority on matters). Every single one of these people held a position of authority. //Peers// that called me arrogant? Ie. people that consider themselves to be on my level, who know they are answerable to the people around them. None, not a single one. Maybe they haven't told me because they don't think they are in the position to tell me about my arrogance? Not impossible, but still. The people who call me arrogant are all connected by this one feature: That they believe to have authority.
 ===== I believe I deserve special treatment ======
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 ====== Things that ARE arrogant ======
 ===== Claiming that everyone is stupid =====
-No. On average, people are of average intelligence. This applies even to the nuttiest conspiracy theorist, and claiming that someone is [[Stupidity|stupid]] really only makes //the aggressor// look stupid((//Look// stupid. Not saying that they are. They are probably just being emotional in that moment.)). To think of yourself as possessing the kind of knowledge and understanding to comprehend a topic as multifaceted and complicated as human intelligence and going on to make sweeping judgements on a person you barely know (you don't even know yourself enough to make definitive claims on your intelligence) - THAT is arrogant.
+[[Stupidity#Illusory Superiority|No. On average, people are of average intelligence.]] This applies even to the nuttiest conspiracy theorist, and claiming that someone is [[Stupidity|stupid]] really only makes //the aggressor// look stupid((//Look// stupid. Not saying that they are. They are probably just being emotional in that moment.)). To think of yourself as possessing the kind of knowledge and understanding to comprehend a topic as multifaceted and complicated as human intelligence and going on to make sweeping judgements on a person you barely know (you don't even know yourself enough to make definitive claims on your intelligence) - THAT is arrogant.
 This ALSO includes //calling// people arrogant. When someone says that someone else "is" arrogant, the truth is that they probably mean "that person //is acting in a way//, //right now// that //appears// arrogant //to me//". To claim that one truly knows a person well enough to affirmatively be able to state such a thing should be beyond the ability of most people, myself included. That's why the heading of this section talks about "things" that are arrogant, not whether committing these things makes the individual committing them arrogant. An action can be arrogant, and everyone will engage in arrogant acitivities at some point in their life, but whether that person is inherently arrogant is a whole different question.
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 This is particularly painful for me - I am a younger person, and since childhood I have essentially always been wrong. It is getting better over time, but people still see the need to continually educate me on the nature of things, using statements that indicate //they// are in fact the ones whose penetration of the subject at hand is extremely shallow. Treat me like an adult, will you?
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 <wrap lo>In general it seems like most of the criticism against my perceived "arrogance" seems to be coming from people who 1) don't know me very much and 2) aren't the kind of people who like to have their values pulled into question. Those who call me arrogant all have in common that it is often the most opinionated people and also seem to like to insist on their "[[authority]]", that they don't have to/don't want to justify their views.\\
 Why is this relevant? Because nothing is holy to me. If I see something that I consider wrong, I call it out. Be it the most socially conforming things to call out, or the weirdest things, like calling out the bollock taboos around [[incest]], I //will// address things and try to make cases. It's the kind of demographic that likes to go "I have life experience" and "I am an adult, I don't have to justify myself" (both appeals to authority). Life is very easy when you don't have to think about what you're doing, and I am making people think, whether they want it or not. Figure out what you want, run it full steam and then suppress the dissenters. (Outdated position, changed on Feb 12, 2024)</wrap>