Someone on reddit asked for signs that someone is a pseudo-intellectual and the internet came through.
Let's back up. What is a pseudo-intellectual. It's basically someone who pretends to know everything. They're "a person who wants to be thought of as having a lot of intelligence and knowledge but who is not really intelligent or knowledgeable," according to Merriam-Webster Dictionary.
Some of the red flags that was given on the reddit thread include:
- "They like to 'debate,' but shut down and get angry the second they get an unexpected question or have to think about their answer." —u/verysleepymama
- "They debate and don't let anyone else speak, and when someone does try to speak, the other person just talks louder and faster." —u/usedxtampon
- "In internet debates, the trend in the past few years was just to just say, 'I'm not reading all that' when they encounter an argument they can't counter." —u/Anianna
- "They also talk endlessly, using word salad. True experts are direct and to the point. They summarize initially and then can dive into details as needed." —u/SnooCats5701
- "I guess it depends on how you define intellect, but some of the smartest people I know have a very narrow band of knowledge, such as a friend who got his Ph.D. in theoretical math and works in cryptography but he knows nothing about other fields. Psuedo-intellectuals will pretend they know it all." —u/69tank69
- "Really intelligent people are very secure in their intelligence but fakers will most likely be trying to put others down to seem smarter." —u/prettiergenghis
- "They absolutely cannot fess up to their own mistakes." —u/Sorvick
- "They repeat what you already said, in a slightly different way, and act as if they're adding to the discussion."—u/Kancer420
- "They refuse or are unable to explain something in an easier, more digestible, and understandable way when asked about it."—u/ctortan
- "They will never say they don't know something." —u/chton
Source: Reddit// Buzzfeed