It may not be true at all but I’ve come to a conclusion lately that most people, I’d give it an arbitrary 95%, think they’re on a higher intellectual level than the average crowd, including myself. I’m not saying that they think they’re smarter than everyone else; that’s a different kind of delusion altogether; just that they think they’re smarter than most people, the average Joes.
It’s easy to come to this conclusion as it would explain a lot about why people criticize everything all the time; often about things that they don’t fully understand. I’m sure you hear people ranting about things everywhere: the fuel subsidies cut, the raise in taxes, the standard of education in Malaysia etc, football tactics, price of goods and the choices other people make.
The latter is particularly annoying for me because the tone in the criticism says they think they know better, that anybody doing anything contrary to what they perceive is right is an idiot. Now it’s perfectly fine if whatever the critic says makes sense or contributes towards a proper debate but if it doesn’t, then he/she comes off as a massive twat. I have to stress that this is directed towards people who use a self-righteous tone when talking. The “I don’t understand why…… Stupid or what?” tone.
There are many examples but I’ll give a mild one.
Critic: “I don’t understand why people queue up for hours to get an iPhone. Can’t you just wait a few days more and just stroll into a shop to get one.” /self-righteous
.. and then you have people agreeing and sneering away. I’ve witnessed this scene on more than a couple of occasions but there’s a personal satisfaction in refuting this one because I did queue for hours (4 to be exact) on the first day to obtain one (not for me). Probably why I took offence to this particular statement.The simple reasons are early-bird promotions and scarcity in stocks.
There was a free RM89 case and a RM100 rebate for anyone who got it on that particular day. If that wasn’t a good enough incentive, there are also massive shortages in stock throughout the country with Digi adopting a rationing system; selling only 20 units a day per store or something. There is also a scarcity in the total available stock. There are people reporting that the wait is 2 months at certain areas for the new batch to arrive.
So by spending approximately 4 hours to wait on the first day; the bulk of which was spent at a Mcdonald’s reading after getting a queue number, I saved myself the time and hassle of running from store to store trying to locate a place that sells one and I got a nice little RM189 rebate. That’s the reason why people queue for hours on the first day. Because unless you’re lucky or have connections, you *cannot* stroll into a store a few days later to get one. Well, that and they have mad gadget lust.
This particular anecdote, besides getting it off my chest, highlights why when you don’t understand what you’re talking about, it’s better to ditch the self-righteous tone instead of being an empty vessel to seem intelligent. If the subject matter seemed laughably trivial to you, then another example would be the criticism of the government over the cutting of fuel subsidies, and criticizing is a mild way of putting it.
Now this subject matter is particularly tricky. Malaysia, after all, is a net exporter of oil. One side argues that the oil reserves will eventually run out and the subsidies are a huge drain on our resources, the other argues that new drilling sites will always be found and that as a net exporter, fuel should be made cheaper to the people who are already being taxed heavily on vehicles and sold a lower grade of fuel.
Now I don’t claim to be an expert of the matter and I personally feel that the subsidy cut should be done but gradually in small amounts so that an efficient public transport offering a suitable transportation alternative can be put in place. I may be wrong and may be missing out a few points worthy of consideration but the fact that there are so many sides to this argument means it warrants more than a simple “Stupid government, useless, always raise fuel prices, absolutely corrupt”.
This used to bother me when it came to football-related chatter but these days, I don’t care about it much anymore. As for other matters, I try not bother to correct the ignorantly loud nowadays. After all, a wise man once said don’t argue with fools, because people from a distance don’t know who is who.
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