There's some good answers here but one of my least favourite gender-nonspecific guys (but tbh they most often turn out to be in the demographic of <30yo white western guys, shockingly) who think that skimming a Wikipedia entry is substitute for actual study and/or serious engagement with a topic. ("Wait, cypress is a country!?" moment.)
These guys reduce everything down to a single cause, often one that is deeply rooted in idealism and great man theory, and they fail to acknowledge the other moving parts of history/society/the environment etc. that influence behaviour and actions and historical events.
It's all deeply moralistic and they just seek out a reaffirmation of their own pre-existing biases.
It's not uncommon for me to encounter these people where they'll literally point to a study or a source which directly disproves the claim that they are making. The worst are the ones who, even when I explain to them how their sources contradict their conclusions, will refuse this and dig their heels in and do the "Nuh-uh, that's just, like, your opinion man..." routine because they cannot possibly fathom that the evidence would run counter to their preconceived ideas so they must be right based on vibes alone.
There's a couple of studies that have been encrusted into mainstream opinion based on terrible pop-science "journalism" that really boil my piss. That one study on how "most of the plastic in the ocean comes from Asia"? Yep, completely misconstrued.
But we've all seen images of rivers filled with plastic from South East Asia and Chiner bad!! so, of course, it's those damn Orientals wrecking up the place for us good, honest westerners again. Typical.
oh yeah, and i know talking about mansplaining and shit is out of fashion, but in my experience it is always men. i'm in a science, i have a masters degree, and yet still constantly men try to explain my field to me (sometimes even men whom i know and thought would be a little smarter and/or less sexist about that sort of thing) because they've read a fucking wiki page or listened to a podcast. there's never any thought put into the idea of sources or biases or just the simple fact that even when wiki pages are right they're still condensing decades of study into one page.
the amount of "dark matter is bullshit", "don't worry, we'll technology our way out of climate change", "you know, scientists are all getting paid to say this stuff", "scientists don't actually know [whatever]" that i have to deal with is insanity inducing. absolute worst guy, and even worse when combined with socioeconomic/political biases
There's some good answers here but one of my least favourite gender-nonspecific guys (but tbh they most often turn out to be in the demographic of <30yo white western guys, shockingly) who think that skimming a Wikipedia entry is substitute for actual study and/or serious engagement with a topic. ("Wait, cypress is a country!?" moment.)
These guys reduce everything down to a single cause, often one that is deeply rooted in idealism and great man theory, and they fail to acknowledge the other moving parts of history/society/the environment etc. that influence behaviour and actions and historical events.
It's all deeply moralistic and they just seek out a reaffirmation of their own pre-existing biases.
It's not uncommon for me to encounter these people where they'll literally point to a study or a source which directly disproves the claim that they are making. The worst are the ones who, even when I explain to them how their sources contradict their conclusions, will refuse this and dig their heels in and do the "Nuh-uh, that's just, like, your opinion man..." routine because they cannot possibly fathom that the evidence would run counter to their preconceived ideas so they must be right based on vibes alone.
There's a couple of studies that have been encrusted into mainstream opinion based on terrible pop-science "journalism" that really boil my piss. That one study on how "most of the plastic in the ocean comes from Asia"? Yep, completely misconstrued.
But we've all seen images of rivers filled with plastic from South East Asia and Chiner bad!! so, of course, it's those damn Orientals wrecking up the place for us good, honest westerners again. Typical.
I really hate it.
Counterpoint: the cause is America or crapitalism
oh yeah, and i know talking about mansplaining and shit is out of fashion, but in my experience it is always men. i'm in a science, i have a masters degree, and yet still constantly men try to explain my field to me (sometimes even men whom i know and thought would be a little smarter and/or less sexist about that sort of thing) because they've read a fucking wiki page or listened to a podcast. there's never any thought put into the idea of sources or biases or just the simple fact that even when wiki pages are right they're still condensing decades of study into one page.
the amount of "dark matter is bullshit", "don't worry, we'll technology our way out of climate change", "you know, scientists are all getting paid to say this stuff", "scientists don't actually know [whatever]" that i have to deal with is insanity inducing. absolute worst guy, and even worse when combined with socioeconomic/political biases