Vet Your "Facts"

At the end of the day, I don't care what people believe. In general, so long as their beliefs don't negatively impact me, I figure they can feel free to think what they want.

Unfortunately, a non-trivial percentage of "believers" seem to want to convince everyone else of the "rightness" of their beliefs. In principal, I don't have a problem with this, either. I like to explore new ideas. So long as people are respectful in how they seek to push those ideas, then "cool." Unfortunately, so many "believers" try to convince me of their "rightness" using dubious, and often easily-refutable, facts.

I take it as somewhat disrespectful to try to push your beliefs using factual errors. I take it as you saying to me, "I think you're too dumb or too lazy to verify this information." I also take it as them lying to me. I don't tolerate lying very well.

The other option is to believe that they're simply in error. However, if an error is easily corrected by referencing a cardinal document, a few Google searches or whatever, I have to wonder why they're in error. Is it stupidity? Is it laziness? Is it willful ignorance? None of these are good options. None of them leave me any good avenues for preserving any respect for their arguments.

Shut Up and Play

If there's one thing that rankles me, it's being told what to do. It's particularly irksome when the someone doing the telling isn't someone I respect.

That said, respect for people is situational. If someone is an expert in a field, I'm a lot more likely to respect their opinions as it applies to that field.

That said, unlike many in western culture (or, at least as those higher up the food chain would like to believe), I don't believe that fame is an acceptable substitute for expertise. Just because you're good at playing a musical instrument or look good on the big screen, it doesn't mean you're suddenly an expert in other fields. You might be highly interested in that field, but, if you haven't truly invested yourself in earning expertise, I don't think you have a right to tell me how I should act in that context.

So, rather than railing at me about how I should be living my life to support your pet theories or projects, how about you just shut up and do what I paid to see you do. Just shut up and play.