Urox's Journal: better than thou...

Is condescension nature or nurture? I've certainly run into it a lot lately.

Experience 1: Watching anime with acquaintances. Remarked that the episode just seen was one of the most depressing ever. Someone else quipped that Evangelion was more depressing. I asked why he thought that because I certainly couldn't remember anything comparable to what I'd just seen. His answer: "If you don't think it was less depressing, then you didn't understand it."

What did I do to get such a snobby response? This retort didn't give episode nor theme example. Maybe he could have been right, but after a comment like that, I'm hardly likely to bother with his opinion again. Good quote to summarize my feelings by Jane Austin:

"Elinor agreed to it all, for she did not think he deserved the compliment of rational opposition."

Experience 2: I commented recently that I stopped reading CNN a long time ago not only for their lack of good news, but the fact that they didn't even appear to run their articles through a spell checker. Not a grammar checker, a spell checker. We're talking words split randomly and letters reversed at will of typing and this is a professional site. No sane checker would get through that. Yes, I'm OC enough that I bothered to check.

The actual comment is here:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=45829&cid=4736240

I guess some people feel that their typing is professional and get uptight about any comment as to such.

Experience 3+: I get a lot of people thinking I'm a guy due to my nick. Little do they realize it is just my actual name hashed through the Speak 'n' Spell code. And you'd think they'd look a little further and wonder why a guy would choose to have an email with the name "Luthien" in it as well (maybe they haven't actually read LOTR). Because of the masculine sounding handle (or so I'm told.. I disagree, but I've had the nick since age 6 so I'm biased) I get a lot of "male" attacks when someone disagrees that ran along genitalia size. At least it is better than the RU hot come ons when I use some other nicks. But some of the slashdot comments reflect someone thinking they are obviously in the superior, especially with a comment directed toward me along the lines of, "You'll understand when you hit puberty." For Christ's sake, mapping their age to mine, I not only hit it before them genetically, but I seem to still be ahead if they're going to spout that crap.

So I'm curious about what other slashdot women do (and on more than just slashdot): do you inform them of their fuckwit status or do you take Jane Austin's route?

On a more disturbed note, I find politicians doing the "I'm in command so my paid information on this topic is better than your college education," route. And this is after it takes them 6 months to get back to my letters.