How to tell if someone is a midwit?

[AMHOLIO]

Followed by "how do I know I am a midwit?" I know I'm retarded, I post on KF and in the Q&A section.

 

[analrapist]

If you're asking about Mario, including Luigi and Peach in the explanation is reasonable. When clarity is a search away, and the source is explicit, ignorance is a choice that you're defending.

 

[Jewthulhu]

Midwit is basically slang for "they disagree with me but I can't really call them retarded"

 

[Tablet County]

If you're asking about Mario, including Luigi and Peach in the explanation is reasonable.

Difference is most people know what Mario is. They know who Luigi and Peach are. They probably know Yoshi and Toad and Bowser. There's also very little nuance to the Mario franchise as a whole, so there's no real complex jargon to decipher.
Most people's exposure to the Greek Alphabet of Males are in douchebags (Vox Day) and grifters (Vox Day) so they're less likely to look it up because it sounds like the sociologist's answer to the Flat Earth. Which it arguably is.

When clarity is a search away, and the source is explicit, ignorance is a choice that you're defending.

Saying shit like this isn't a good way to beat the midwit accusations.

 

[analrapist]

"Not being a midwit is when you're so condescending and self-absorbed that you don't believe people can look up the terms you use if they have any further interest." -- Tablet Country and his faggot lover.

 

[Tablet County]

"Not being a midwit is when you're so condescending and self-absorbed that you don't believe people can look up the terms you use if they have any further interest."

I just think it's nice to share with the class. I could talk about how the S2 Engine and the Fruit of Knowledge are both of key importance to the Human Instrumentality Project as described in the Dead Sea Scrolls but you'd probably have no idea what I was talking about. And if I told you to look it up on the Evangelion wiki you probably wouldn't do that and you'd both say and think that I'm a gigantic faggot.

Besides, by that token all you need to do to not be a midwit is to tell other people to look up all the obscure words you're using to make yourself sound smart.

-- Tablet Country and his faggot lover.

I feel you're getting overly upset over this. Though I am flattered that you think I have the rizz to pull a significant other.

 

[Wild at Heart]

Music and Media as a whole : do they just do what everyone else is doing and chase trends. In this day and age, are they a House of the Dragon viewer? (unironic) Do they listen to I <3 Radio pop hits with vacuous lyrics?

Are you able to ask them an abstract question and have them reply in kind, or do conversations always seem to gravitate towards their baseline interests or surface thoughts?

I think interests are a tell all. Eventually people need to grow up and realize the popslop they consume is beneath them, and pick something that speaks to them. If they never grow out of this and still listen to Maroon 5 and watch Shit Movies, it is midwit behavior.

Lastly, in debates or any kind of political talk, assuming they want to be involved in the discussion, does it seem like they just regurgitate vague talking points? Some people just repeat the emotionally charged backwash they were fed and it made them feel good so they use that rhetoric to try and maneuver out of taking a hard stance or finding a real solution to political shit. "We are all just the same!"

 

[Tablet County]

Are you able to ask them an abstract question and have them reply in kind, or do conversations always seem to gravitate towards their baseline interests or surface thoughts?

Isn't it normal for people to prefer to talk about things that interest them? I can't say I've ever noticed someone answering "what is the meaning of life?" with "I love Star Wars" unless they're turbo autistic.
Does finding a way to tie zionism and niggatry into any given subject count? Because I see that a lot around here.

 

[Wild at Heart]

Isn't it normal for people to prefer to talk about things that interest them? I can't say I've ever noticed someone answering "what is the meaning of life?" with "I love Star Wars".
Does finding a way to tie zionism and niggatry into any given subject count? Because I see that a lot around here.

Of course it is normal. But if you know someone for a long time either through work or social circles, and you can never break through the surface discussions into something deeper, they are a midwit. Men often have these deep talks near the end of a long work shift or if they manage to be chilling by themselves at a party. The realistic scenario would be you asking something abstract "What do you think life is all about?" and they say "Damn I don't really know man but that's a crazy question." and just rebuffing any attempt to go deeper.

Also the reason people rope those subjects into everything is usually because of the large social impact these things have, and the fact that we can openly discuss them here as opposed to other places.

 

[Penis Drager 2.0]

The biggest tell that someone overestimates their own intelligence is their lack of respect for yours.
They'll spend 10 minutes explaining something that you'd understand in 10 seconds because: "well if this is a deep and nuanced topic to me, it must be almost insurmountable to everyone else."

 

[Tablet County]

Men often have these deep talks near the end of a long work shift or if they manage to be chilling by themselves at a party. The realistic scenario would be you asking something abstract "What do you think life is all about?" and they say "Damn I don't really know man but that's a crazy question." and just rebuffing any attempt to go deeper.

I can't say I've ever experienced that sort of scenario, but I'm also an unsociable freak so I tend to keep philosophical discussions either online or within the family.

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

The term "midwit" was something Vox Day coined and slipped into common vocabulary like "sigma male". Vox's usual correlate with "midwit" was "gamma male". You can search for his Substack blog "Sigma Game" to read more about gamma tells. The worst midwits are midwits because of their gamma tendencies. If they're sensible enough to target either delta or bravo (depending on their actual intellect), they can stop being such a retarded midwit and start acting like a real human bean.

I really doubt Vox Day coined "midwit." I mean, I don't have evidence against that, but I SWEAR that word has been used forever.

 

[Tiny Chinaman]

Vax or nor vax its really that simple

 

[Johnny Dipp]

"I don't understand this, therefore it must be wrong"

I enjoyed this post on midwits.

 

[analrapist]

I really doubt Vox Day coined "midwit." I mean, I don't have evidence against that, but I SWEAR that word has been used forever.

If you can find published use of the term before February 17, 2012, I will cede this point happily.

Here's Vox's first use of the neologism: https://voxday.net/2012/02/17/tragedy-of-mid-witted/

Vox recently discussed other people talking about the term: https://voxday.net/2024/01/09/the-coining-of-the-term-midwit/

The Spectator attributes it to 4chan circa 2013, but again, Vox's blog history demonstrates that to be false.

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

If you can find published use of the term before February 17, 2012, I will cede this point happily.

Here's Vox's first use of the neologism: https://voxday.net/2012/02/17/tragedy-of-mid-witted/

Vox recently discussed other people talking about the term: https://voxday.net/2024/01/09/the-coining-of-the-term-midwit/

The Spectator attributes it to 4chan circa 2013, but again, Vox's blog history demonstrates that to be false.

i think what’s going on here is that it just sounded like an old word that I imagined it being around forever.

Really surprising to me

 

[Local Farmer]

My experience has been that you never have to request a midwit to either identify as or relegate themselves to being one: Intellectual vanity is something they're compelled to broadcast like the distress signal that it is, under the belief that their rightful place above others in the pecking order must be asserted immediately. And they convey these sentiments along what they perceive to be the path of least resistance:

They can express an opinion, but cannot elaborate on it.
Debating is a favorite past time (pass time? Idk)
I like to debate on stuff with friends, and it becomes extremely obvious once you ask them to explain what brought them to a conclusion.
Most people just watch the news or more likely a YouTube video on a subject, and see themselves as experts but ask them any specific questions on the subject and it falls apart.

Spoiler: An example

So I had this friend that was super into conspiracy theories, and I'm talking about some really crazy shit.
I could tell he was used to people just listening to his crap and just going "yeah yeah, that's sooo interesting" because as soon as I asked him for specifics, his arguments started to fall apart.
I loved that guy (no homo) but unfortunately had to move away.

I’ve thought about this for a long time and I have concluded that there are three definitive factors into what makes someone a midwit, no matter their IQ score.

Firstly, a midwit is conjecture of both of these posts as defining characteristic of a midwit is that they have enough arrogance to assume that their beliefs are the general default beliefs of everyone else and can’t comprehend why someone wouldn’t follow their own. Being able to comprehend that other people have separate first principles and ethics takes extraordinary patience and even humility. They are only a couple steps up from answering the breakfast question, but they don’t have the wisdom to become a truly well rounded person.

The other trait of the midwit is that they assume that a conclusion of an argument is strong enough to be the argument itself. This is wrong. To be a truly smart person you need to understand the grounding of your own personal beliefs and experiences. Being able to formulate an argument for why you believe something to be true is actually pretty fucking difficult when you have to face the fact that you might be wrong altogether. However, if you wish to fully appreciate the human experience and understanding real knowledge then you have to take this difficult path. The midwit refuses to accept this responsibility. The midwit usually just reads the articles, headlines, YouTube videos whatever and see the facts presented as black and white.

If it’s apart of my opinion, then it must be true

This is why when questioned on something that they believe in and going backwards through their arguing points they will usually fall apart or contradict themselves. This is why argumentative structures like the Socratic Method or playing devils advocate(which should only be reserved when you argue with someone you already agree with) is a good way to test if someone you know is a midwit. You can easily make them sperg out and nail them to the wall by using either of these methods and rooting them out of your life if you can.

Thirdly, a midwit is looking to win an argument, not seek out truth. Theirs probably a better word for this but let’s say an argument for the time being is assuming your opponent does not possess the knowledge that you have and can be easily proven wrong if you present new data to them. This is different from a good spirited debate because in a debate you assume your opponent has the knowledge but their argumentation is flawed. As I stated before the midwit can’t comprehend that other people have separate first principles and lines of reasonings that might be true, that is why when they are in an argument and are presented with clear evidence that their conclusion or reasoning is wrong, they generally sperg out or just outright deny reality because they don’t have the humility or grace to accept that they may be wrong. The midwit will try to spew as many one liners or “dunks” out of nowhere, even if you think the conversation was going good before.

You see this a lot with breadtubers who argue almost exclusively on the premises that socialism=good, but get nailed to the fucking cross when actually asked to explain their reasonings and make a complete fool of themselves.

This is a perfect example of what that looks like in action

In this video you have the philosophy professor effortlessly explaining his points on a level that Vaush could understand and you Vaush trying to make the counter argument that his argument is true because progressivism.

Sorry for long post, I wanted to write this as concisely as I could

tl;dr: A midwit is an arrogant retard