I've pretty much stopped worrying if people think I'm the stereotypical elitist, arrogant liberal. I've stopped denying (to myself more than anyone else) that I am actually something that most people consider elitist or arrogant. I've stopped automatically dumbing down my opinions to another person's level, respecting theirs with an equal weight as my own better-researched, more-reasoned beliefs. I'm just sick of not refuting backwards nonsense out of fear of looking like a smug asshat. I'm sick of treating opposing opinions as "equal" no matter how utterly divorced from reality they may be. Most of all, I'm sick of bothering to help others not feel "dumb" when they're willfully ignorant and misinformed.
When I form opinions—especially about political and controversial issues—I put a lot of thought and research into them—and I mean real research. I gather information from direct sources instead of relying on another person's opinion because they're "smart" and agree with my preconceived notions. I actually read laws, academic papers, and research studies. I actually look at opposing points of view and acknowledge what's right about them. I mentally prepare a list of facts and reputable sources to back my arguments with. And I don't stop until I am reasonably sure I can "win" a debate against someone of the other "side" whose conclusions are equally well researched. If I don't reach that point, then I don't try to engage someone else in debate. Instead, I keep my mouth shut, lest I make a fool of myself. More importantly, I don't treat my opinions as equal (much less superior) to theirs, even if I mentally find the other person's thinking twelve kinds of backwards because of my own personal bias which leans quite heavily to the left.
As a result, I easily "win" twenty-four out of twenty-five debates, and I rarely make myself look like an ignorant tool. Thing is, I honestly don't think this is because I'm intellectually superior or anything like that. It's simply because most people don't bother putting much critical thought or genuine research into their opinions, and because of that, they're shaky at best (and laughably disconnected from reality at worst). What's more, most people don't think less of their positions if they're uninformed and lack sufficient evidence to properly defend. They don't admit defeat to themselves or acknowledge to themselves that they were a total jackass for trying to defend their opinion on something they're ridiculously ignorant about.
And, omfg, that really pisses me off to no end.
I have never done that, like ever. I'm dead serious. I never did that. Sure, I'm wrong and uninformed sometimes, and my opinions evolve and even radically shift directions over time, but I always openly admit defeat, and I always feel extremely stupid and like a jackass-times-ten for "losing". I learn from my mistakes and go back to the drawing board. Due to my inferiority complex, I learned to regard my opinions as worthless and wrong by default unless I can absolutely for certain "win" a debate by leaps and bounds. Even though I grew out of my inferiority complex for the most part, that tendency has stayed.
In fact, my critical inner voice is the reason I almost never lose a debate anymore. That voice not overly harsh or hatefully bitter anymore, but it still guides me to keep my mouth shut until I can adequately hone my reasoning skills and research enough to hold my own in a debate. I've mostly tamed it to the point that it usually doesn't make me feel like a useless waste of oxygen. Instead, I'm channeling its anger and venom into something useful instead of self-destructive. In short, I'm learning to transform my critical inner voice into an asset instead of a liability. It's not easy—but I'm seriously digressing here.
Point is, I got sick of letting that voice berate me instead of others' nonsense. I got sick of holding myself to a significantly higher standard than others, looking down on myself instead of people less informed and more ignorant than me. I got sick of letting people spout misinformation and total BS amongst themselves, staying silent because I am on a higher plane of reasoning to the point that there's no way I can refute them without looking like a compete jerk. I got sick of helping others feel better when they fail to adequately research their opinions and get their head handed to them as a result. I got sick of resisting the urge to laugh in someone's face when they use blatant logical fallacies and petty arguments regurgitated verbatim from Glenn Beck or Sean Hannity, arguments so silly and ignorant that nobody who does a modicum of fact-checking would take even half seriously. I got sick of listening to wingnuts call everything that goes against their beliefs "biased" and whining about the "liberal" media and academic establishment. If everyone has a liberal bias to you, then maybe—just maybe—they're not the ones with a bias.
And, yeah, I got sick of not pointing that out.
Apparently that makes me arrogant. But I don't care anymore. I'm an arrogant liberal. Get over it.
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