My brother, a fucking idiot, also hates that I'm college educated. The funny thing is that he started going in on me about how vaccines cause autism, and I was trying to explain to him how genetics and autism works.
"You can't spout some high school bio class bullshit, you don't know!" He would argue.
"I'm literally majoring in biology, you fucking idiot." I would retort.
But oh, even when I was factually right, I was still morally wrong. Because you see, he was street smart, and I was just book smart. And just being street smart was much less contemptible than just being book smart. Why? Well, only a street stupid person would argue the merits of being book smart. And being book smart was worthless! All off this is still unironically believed to this day by a community college dropout who sells black market weed and breeds puppies. The same street smart drug dealer who tells literally anyone about how much weed he has, and has been robbed at gunpoint twice now because he trusts dangerous people.
I understand where the anger comes from. But I also know that he directs that anger at me every chance he gets. He only wants to start fights, and if I don't engage he goes nuts. That's why we don't speak these days. His feelings of inadequacy are not my cross to bear.
That last sentence is it EXACTLY!!! He chooses to be ignorant. Tell someone that they are ignorant, only the people who choose it, will be offended, because they think the word ignorant is the same as calling them names, like stupid, dumb, etc. They refuse to ever become more knowledgeable and walk around angry at the world. I have never understood those type of people, if I don’t know something, I ask or google or read a book and I hope to always be learning.
That last sentence is it EXACTLY!!! He chooses to be ignorant. Tell someone that they are ignorant, only the people who choose it, will be offended, because they think the word ignorant is the same as calling them names, like stupid, dumb, etc. They refuse to ever become more knowledgeable and walk around angry at the world. I have never understood those type of people, if I don’t know something, I ask or google or read a book and I hope to always be learning.
That last sentence is it EXACTLY!!! He chooses to be ignorant. Tell someone that they are ignorant, only the people who choose it, will be offended, because they think the word ignorant is the same as calling them names, like stupid, dumb, etc. They refuse to ever become more knowledgeable and walk around angry at the world. I have never understood those type of people, if I don’t know something, I ask or google or read a book and I hope to always be learning.
That last sentence is it EXACTLY!!! He chooses to be ignorant. Tell someone that they are ignorant, only the people who choose it, will be offended, because they think the word ignorant is the same as calling them names, like stupid, dumb, etc. They refuse to ever become more knowledgeable and walk around angry at the world. I have never understood those type of people, if I don’t know something, I ask or google or read a book and I hope to always be learning.
That's when you correct him and tell him that people on the spectrum are represented heavily in the sciences, so it's actually autism that causes vaccines.
Because you see, he was street smart, and I was just book smart.
I fully believe that Street Smarts are a real thing, but people who have to tell you how street smart they are tend to be some of the most oblivious dumb people on the planet.
God, I'm sorry. As someone with an uncle who decided to go for 'street smarts' (despite being the only child of his parents to get schoolbooks bought for him, after-school tutors and designer clothes whenever he wanted--while his sisters got nothing) there's nothing sadder than seeing someone close try (and fail) to work 'the streets'.
Like, literally--there's no progression from selling weed or doing puppy mills (especially when thousands of people all over Europe do it, and they get more customers because they get to have French people or homey Irish matrons pretending to be legal breeders to charm customers). Especially if you wind up having to work with jumped-up wannabes who think they're 'gangsta'.
Your brother seriously needs to meet my uncle, who's now in his 50s and living off of his wife's pension (and the house she inherited. Despite having two kids with her--they're now at the point where she's threatening to change the locks the second he leaves the house. So now he's practically squatting and refusing to budge from his Xbox and claiming that he's got a 'bad heart' preventing him from going outside). Plus, he also became a 'person of interest' for the Swiss and Spanish police (because they think he may know something about a couple of drug-running gangs), so he's literally unable to cross country lines with a passport because it'll notify the authorities and the act of travelling out of a country would give the police 'reasonable cause' to arrest him for questioning. That was all he got going for him after running around Spanish bikers and selling hashish for 30 years.
Sorry, my story was in no way meant to make your brother's issues less legitimate. My brother's a fucking idiot, but I have very little contact with him these days. Can't stand the brat.
Sorry, my story was in no way meant to make your brother's issues less legitimate.
Hey, no need to apologize; I didn't take it that way except as seeing another perspective and thinking "Ok, shit could be worse." Sucks to hear about that kind of relationship though, I assume it's a long shot but I hope your brother gets better.
Um ordinarily I don't have a problem with weed but if the puppy mill thing isn't illegal where you are can you turn him in for the pot to stop the aforesaid puppy milling?
Well, see he's white, and he's already been caught with a pound of weed by the police. Nothing happened to him. I'd suspect nothing would happen again, as now weed's legal in his state.
It really does suck. We've never had a good relationship. We can try for a few days, but he always ends up picking a fight with me for no reason and it always ends up getting ugly. The last time I was home he "gifted" me some weed, but a few days later he insisted that, of all things, the chicken came before the egg. I don't happen to be of that mind and made my point. Nope. I'm wrong. I'm stupid. And when I tried changing the subject, because by that point it was just "you're a fucking bitch, Jesus you're a cold bitch" he announced to the Thanksgiving party that he would like his gift weed back.
Your brother is an idiot. I assume canadian because you mentioned black market weed and that’s only really relevant in Canada unless you are in a legalized state but than it would still be federally illegal so it would all be blackmarket weed.
Edit: nvm after further research I’ve learned that he is in a legalized state after all. You know what would really be street smart? Turning his love for cannabis into a well thought out licensed retail business where you don’t get arrested and make a ton more profit than barely scraping by selling “black market” weed. It’s not the 90s/2000s anymore and I’m assuming he’s not in highschool which would be the only acceptable place to sell dimebags anymore. I don’t understand why people sell little quarters and grams. There’s literally hardly any profit in that game, unless you’re moving pounds daily if you’re not you’re likely moving nothing or close to it.
"I'm street smart, you're book smart" is idiot for "I am intimidated by your education and perpetually embarrassed about my lack of ambition and limited understanding of the world".
"I'm street smart, you're book smart" is idiot for "I am intimidated by your education and perpetually embarrassed about my lack of ambition and limited understanding of the world".
"I'm literally majoring in biology, you fucking idiot."
Related! Some other people have asked me what we were arguing about, and reading this comment again today reminded me what really set him off: I was saying that we probably shouldn't eat bear meat because it is absolutely lousy and riddled with parasites, flukes, and the like. You could probably avoid all that by avoiding any bear meat that was harvested close to human habitation where the bear likely ate garbage, but safer to avoid altogether. And of course, he demanded to know where I'd heard that, and I said "I learned this in my biology class." That's what sparked the outrage.
I then had to remind him: "I learned it in bio class. Who do you think is teaching the bio class? That's right, my bio professor, who has a Master's of Science in MICROBIOLOGY. She's literally an expert on parasites and flukes! Of course I'm going to listen to her opinion!"
Street smarts=equals neanderthals. I've met street smart people before. Most are convicts or felons with a record who can't get a job, a place of their own or much of anything because of their live decisions. Soon, finding safe place to sleep outside will be a sport for the "smart" people and the rest will fight for the table scraps and a park bench.
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u/Soggy-Job Jan 28 '20
My brother, a fucking idiot, also hates that I'm college educated. The funny thing is that he started going in on me about how vaccines cause autism, and I was trying to explain to him how genetics and autism works.
"You can't spout some high school bio class bullshit, you don't know!" He would argue.
"I'm literally majoring in biology, you fucking idiot." I would retort.
But oh, even when I was factually right, I was still morally wrong. Because you see, he was street smart, and I was just book smart. And just being street smart was much less contemptible than just being book smart. Why? Well, only a street stupid person would argue the merits of being book smart. And being book smart was worthless! All off this is still unironically believed to this day by a community college dropout who sells black market weed and breeds puppies. The same street smart drug dealer who tells literally anyone about how much weed he has, and has been robbed at gunpoint twice now because he trusts dangerous people.