I’m talking about derogatory terms like “nerd,” “geek,” “wise-ass,” and so on, as well as sayings like “nobody likes a smart aleck.”
It seems to me that these terms and expressions are used much more frequently in the business world than derogatory terms like “show-off,” “charlatan,” “fraud,” and so on.
I can’t even think of a commonly used saying for the latter. Only: “Fake it till you make it,” which is really more of a reinforcement of the idea that knowledge isn’t very valuable.
Is it just my impression?
Its something I’ve thought about and experienced myself and I think the reasons are…
- envy (lack of knowledge, skill or intelligence)
- they see it as a threat (often obsessed with dominating others, machismo)
- the answer or solution proposed is correct but detrimental to their objective or goals, even if said goals are incorrect or cause damage
- sometimes they’re too stupid to understand, and it needs to be dumbed down to normie speak
- sometimes smart people are assholes, either intentionally (guilty of this) or unintentionally (not understanding social norms, offering information when its not requested, etc. also guilty of this)
Yep i think there might be, tbh! Good catch.
But one reason we might not have many phrases in english for “people who pretend to know things” is because we simply say “fraud” or “fake.” We can tag these adjectives omto whatever the thing they’re pretending to be is; “fake football fan,” “Fraud Accountant.”
The fact we uae “fraud” and “fake” may indicate a few of these possibilities:
- maybe it was historically only important to accuse someone of fake skill credentials rather than knowledge credentials, since mandatory public education is a recent thing. People can learn from wondering things out loud. Pretending to be a stonemason, however - i.e being a fraud - can get people killed or ruin the task at hand and waste money & resources.
#2
- maybe academics and intellectual people in general are just more accepting, hence don’t insult people for their lack of learning very much / in an academic contdxt anyway you’d be more precise and say “you need tk evidence x y and z or you need to improve kmowledgebase in C and Z areas.”
#3
- Maybe we use ruder words like “moron, r-word, imbecile” when people show up a lack of knowledge in something.
- also when you catch someone out for lying or being inaccurate, you have to prove they’re wrong, stating/demonstrating how they’re wrong. Phrases like “smart alec” come from a place of frustration and embarassment at not knowing the aubject matter as well as the target
By the way, the way i’ve seen it used, smart alec actually means “You’re dismissing the matter at hand to flaunt your intelligence.” It’s not just from a place of insecurity - in fact i’ve rarely seen it used like that.
Are you talking about pseudo-intellectuals?
Whether OP realises it or not, that is definitely a valid way of interpreting “people who pretend to know things” . I think there’s somehow some miscommunication in this thread
Yeah. I’m not sure where they are going with this.
No. It’s just a question.
You seem to see a pseudo-intellectual motive in this, but I don’t quite understand why.
Oh, I read it wrong. My apologies.
I thought you were looking for disparaging sayings about know-it-alls who weren’t actually as smart as they made themselves out to be, not just disparaging statements about actual intellectuals.
In that case, I only hear people grumble about people thinking they know everything.
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I’d have to guess a majority of people know what they are talking about, or they don’t.
Pretending to know something just makes you a liar.
Yeah, sure, but I get the impression that these people are rarely referred to as such. Then again, maybe that’s just my impression.
Just today I had a meeting with a whole delegation of management consultants: three highly paid people, and they all kept throwing out one buzzword after another. When I asked for clarification or rather for detail, however, it quickly became clear that not a single one of them had even a basic understanding of what they were talking about.
