What's worse- Pseudo intellectuals or smart people who dumb themselves down?

Which do you find more annoying? People who act a lot smarter than they are, or people who dumb themselves down to fit in? Basically a dumb-ass that thinks they're a young Stephen Fry, or a girl that's clever but acts dumb to get guys attention?

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Reply 1

cocacola2

Neither. I'm not judgemental, each to their own; as long as the person wasn't changing their persona for me I couldn't really give a ****.

Reply 2

Bobifier

I know someone who is a pseudo intellectual who tries to dumb himself down. It's actually not annoying due to being so hilarious.

Reply 3

PendulumBoB

Pseudo intellectuals.

Reply 4

PendulumBoB

Original post by Bobifier

I know someone who is a pseudo intellectual who tries to dumb himself down. It's actually not annoying due to being so hilarious.

How does that work? Does he pretend to be a clever person, pretending to be a stupid person?

Reply 5

Stratos

But I like acting stupid, makes people share more secrets with me. :biggrin:

Reply 6

You Failed

Original post by Bobifier

I know someone who is a pseudo intellectual who tries to dumb himself down. It's actually not annoying due to being so hilarious.

This is hilarious.

Anyway, I don't think I'm very intelligent but I do definitely act a lot dumber than I actually am, I make a lot of very stupid jokes and I think people who don't actually know me that well misinterpret that as me actually being serious. It's just easier and more fun to make stupid jokes that are still funny albeit ridiculous and not take yourself so seriously, instead of always trying to maintain an intellectual persona. Not that I have one, I mean, more intellectual compared to how stupid I act some of the time.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 7

cambio wechsel

Original post by PendulumBoB

How does that work? Does he pretend to be a clever person, pretending to be a stupid person?

he's having an existenshull crisis.

Reply 8

coca

Pseudo intellectuals.

Reply 9

GoonerTom

I used to be picked on for being a bit of a nerd, and being quite insecure at 11/12 I used to 'dumb myself down' in order to fit in more but ultimately it's pathetic and luckily I snapped myself out of it with the confidence I began to gain. I don't think there's anything wrong with trying to sound intelligent so I find those who dumb themselves down far worse.

Reply 10

miser

For me it's not a case of dumbing myself down, it's just about being selective over conversation topics in order to better involve the people I'm talking to. Honestly, where I'm living right now, I just don't have access to people to have a good discussion of more intellectual subjects like philosophy, politics, literature or art.

If I didn't "dumb myself down to fit in", I'd have a harder time. Everyone needs to be malleable to a certain degree or else they'll just grate with everyone.

Reply 11

Ascendansy

I google'd "Pseudo Intellectuals"

1. One who attempts to flex intellect that does not exist within his or her own mind.

2. Can probably be found with a thesaurus in hand, while in a chat room, looking up new insults that are synonymous with "stupid" in order to boost his or her own undeserved ego.

3. Typical cases of pseudo-intellectualism involve pre-pubescent 15 year olds that think they have everything figured out, including, but not limited to: life, religion, politics, education, and sex. Ironically, they have never quite experienced either of the aforementioned.

4. Pretends he or she has an opinion.

5. Posseses a severe tendency to blindly and wholeheartedly believe any bull**** they hear, only to subsequently regurgitate the misinformation to anyone they see in an asinine attempt to appear more intelligent than a used, broken condom.

6. Should the victim of the verbal onslaught happen to have a differing opinion, the pseudo-intellectual will revert to his or her thesaurus and insult the opposition with words he or she never knew existed, and probably cannot even pronounce.

7. Annoyingly and constantly refers to the word antidisestablishmentarianism, as if knowledge of said word defined his or her illegitimately high intelligence quotient.

8. Typically a hypocrite; creates many, many contradictions. Most online grammar/spelling Nazis can relate.

9. Always ends a bull**** "argument" with, "I win, so stfu." Win what, dip****s? Your opinions weren't fact in the first place.

Lol'd.

Reply 12

najinaji

They're both quite bad, but it is very irritating trying to speak to someone who refuses to listen to anyone else's opinion on anything and constantly gets the hump when it doesn't actually make any sense. I'll give you an example:

P.I: Gay marriage shouldn't be allowed because gay people are more promiscuous.

Me: What on earth are you talking about? :lolwut:

Where'd you hear this?

P.I: (Quickly gets the hump) There've been studies.

Me: What if they'd taken that survey outside a seedy gay bar or something?

P.I: (Very angry now) Oh, it doesn't matter!

Reply 13

Jtking3000

Pseudo intellectuals, Nothing worse than someone who likes to mentally masturbate in front of you by thinking up a weird unorthodox opinion then being really arsey if you criticise them.

Reply 14

myNameHere

Pseudo intellectuals, definitely. I can understand wanting to dumb yourself down a bit, out of modesty, or not wanting to look like you're a pseudo intellectual (hah), or maybe because you just enjoy being a bit silly et c. Pseudo intellectuals, on the other hand, always just across across as pompous and desperate people.

Although, worse for the actual person is probably dumbing yourself down - it might be more likely to result in you feeling a bit less confident about yourself. At least the pseudo intellectuals are happy in their own way (maybe?).

EDIT: after writing that post I'm already sick of the word intellectual. But not pseudo. That's a nice word.

Reply 15

PendulumBoB

Original post by ralphieinker90

But Stephen Fry tries to be a contemporary Oscar Wilde, so where does it end :eek:

...

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 16

Spam666

'Smart people,' may not not be dumbing themselves down.

Perhaps they're so sick of absorbing all this information, thinking about these questions no one else seems to notice, they could be absorbing themselves in this 'dumb' conversation/behavior as a form of escapism to stop them feeling like their brain could implode.

Reply 17

PendulumBoB

Original post by Jtking3000

Pseudo intellectuals, Nothing worse than someone who likes to mentally masturbate in front of you by thinking up a weird unorthodox opinion then being really arsey if you criticise them.

That reminds me of someone at school :rolleyes:

-(Not you by the way)

Reply 18

tinywings

Pseudo intellectuals probably. It really depends how far they take it though.

Reply 19

ralphieinker90

Original post by Jtking3000

Pseudo intellectuals, Nothing worse than someone who likes to mentally masturbate in front of you by thinking up a weird unorthodox opinion then being really arsey if you criticise them.

I'd say the most annoying thing about Pseudo intellectuals is that hanging around with them is like watching an episode of Frasier, which in my opinion is **** and unfunny. They say things that aren't that witty but because no one else bothered to say it, because it was obvious and therefore unfunny, they think they're hilarious. It's like my favourite show on TV is probably It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, which is about idiots but is actually a really clever show, which is kind of why it's funner to hang around with people who are intelligent but act a bit stupid, it's much more entertaining.