Weaponized indifference. The opposite of love isn’t hate, but indifference. A gray stretch of brick wall as far as the mind’s eye can envision; that’s all you ever give them until they shelve the asshole.
Ok, after this post and the last one, I’m thinking it’s storytime, so, what prompted these posts?
Lol, I know some people who are very smart but are full of themselves and treat others like a joke. Imagine someone like Dr. House kind of person, but without the humor, just pure jerk.
Recognize that they’re probably driven by some kind of narcissism and that responding to them in any way gives them narcissistic supply.
If you agree with them, you pad their ego. If you disagree with them, then they can feed themselves by “humbling” you.
The best way to engage is to disengage because you don’t actually fill any of your needs by engaging with them so just move on with your life, if possible. Don’t feed them and recognize your power in the situation is that you are in control of the attention supply, which is what they crave so turn that tap off and deny them what they want.
Being denied attention will hurt them more than anything because that’s how a narcissistic ego feeds and becomes validated.
My advice would be not to worry about it. I don’t know how old you are but that “I’m smarter than you so that makes me better than you.” attitude gets unpopular quickly outside of high school and college. No one likes a smug asshole who has to be right all the time. And they won’t be right all the time anyway, no one is a genius expert in everything, they might know math or physics or medicine or whatever, but that doesn’t mean shit in fields they know nothing about. I would recommend not wasting time with them if possible. If you have to work with them or something, try to keep it in a professional context, when they rant about how much Rick and Morty they watch or whatever, just tell them you need to focus on the job at hand. Make it clear that you don’t want to hear them brag about how much smarter they are than everyone else, in a very detached and professional way.
Call them “bazinga boys” and “redditors”…
By being a smarter asshole.
This is my preferred approach too. I have a policy of stooping to their level after which they invariably run off crying.
Just tell them to fuck off. It is really that easy to push away people who are not worth being around.
Are they pro-america?
Call them aparthied clyde and move on with my day.
No, in fact they are Marxist.
Tell them in accordance with the principle “to each according to their need” the party would give them a good bahing every day.
Really late response, I work as a cashier deal with them all the time, I lay it on extra thick and play super slow and see if I can short circuit something. 99pct of the time it works, they may snap, just as a warning. This doesn’t work if they know you or assume any competence, in that case being super curt and tuning them out when they speak works great.
