Michael Lorton
Jul 21, 2017 · 1 min read

I am often misinformed, but when I am, people say things like, “I think you may have misspoken. Unless I am very far off, the correct answer is [whatever].”

I was once on a bus sitting next to a gentleman who mentioned that he worked in biotechnology. I made some (grossly wrong) observation about genetic engineering, and he spent the rest of the ride, politely but thoroughly, explaining the state of current technology. I later found out that he didn’t just “work” in biotech, but had been a senior executive at UCLA’s med school and was now CEO of a large company that specialized in exactly the area I had misrepresented. As I said, he was polite and thorough, and he never made any reference to just how ignorant I obviously was on the subject.

Almost universally, when someone “rebuts” a statement of mine with a bare “You’re wrong”, it’s because he has no reason, other than his own biases, to think I am wrong. When that person goes on to speculate that since I’m wrong, I must be stupid, and since I am stupid, I must belong to some particular political or ethnic group he dislikes, it’s because he knows I’m probably right but cannot admit it.

)
    Michael Lorton

    Written by