Favorite Quote of the Year

I'm more or less paraphrasing, and I won't give my source, so that no one is embarrassed, but I have to say, this sums up a great number of interactions I have with people, and certainly captures the idiocy of many of the anonymous comments on this very blog. Everyone is free, of course, to leave snarky anonymous posts: but remember, idiocy is truly its own reward.

Before I get to my quote (which will, I assure you, be a letdown), an anecdote. When you are biking on the one-way avenues in Manhattan, you will notice a curious thing that people do in midtown, while they are crossing the street: they look the other direction, as if they were checking traffic, but in fact turning their heads away from traffic to check that "the coast is clear" from a direction where no traffic conceivably could be coming. If I may extend this into an analogy, this is the aim of the kind of moronic readings which are so prevalent today--and which this little corner of the earth, this blog, is also subject to. For, this style of reading, which looks the other direction, acts as if it were arguing with me, but rather than dismantling my argument logically--or even anecdotally--such readings appear to have no comprehension of even the general drift of my claims, instead preferring to ad hominem attacks, or fixating on aspects of my argument which they see as "faults," without then reading the next sentence which explains or admits this, or making wild assumptions about my argument without any familiarity with it at all--but a great familiarity in tone!

Anyways, I don't take it personally--and certainly I am not the only person who is thus besieged by incomprehension. But I don't see why anyone would waste their time flailing about arguments which I have, in fact, never made. Why even go through the pretense of grappling with my opinions, if you disregard their substance?! Why not just invent them! And then you could argue with an invented argument of mine, in the privacy of your own home, without presenting me with such distortions, and wasting both of our time.

Anyways, here's the quote, and if it is a bit late for a new year's resolution, the resolution which everyone should have this year is: READ MORE CLOSELY. without further ado, my favorite quote of last year:
If that is what you think I am saying, how stupid must you think I am? At least, more stupid than you.

I have a favorite personal application of this in my life right now, but it is ongoing, so I won't disclose the person it would refer to, but suffice it to say, sometimes I wonder, because I don't imagine anyone thinks that I am (unqualifiedly) a moron--although I'm sure there are people out there nodding to themselves, and saying, "Not a moron at school, but surely Ben has no clue about certain intangibles--things you can't learn in school!", to which I could only nod MY head and say, again, how completely you have missed the point of everything I am saying. Again, really this time, though--idiocy is its own reward.

And no, dear reader, none of this applies to you.