insufferable know it all

I have encountered two people online that I would considered as a "know it all" guy. At least I can only recall two at the moment.

One guy that I was chatting with once questioned me with convicted disbelief when I told him it is kind of hard being a gay asian guy here in Chicago to date. At least from my experience. He argued that with Chicago's population and ethnic diversity, it should be easy for an ethnic guy like me to date other guys even outside of my ethnicity. When I explained that the odds might make it seem plausible, in reality things can be different. He just simply won't accept it to be the case. So I asked if he has lived or visited Chicago. And he has neither lived here or let alone visited Chicago ever. And yet he argued with conviction that he knows how it is for a gay asian guy to date in Chicago. Insufferable know it all indeed. Yeah his logic may be sound but if someone who has lived it tells you otherwise, be at least open minded enough to question what you think you know.

Another guy once told me that he would rather drown than take a gay cruise. He added than he much prefer a regular cruise. When I asked him why so, he proceed to outline that gay cruises as nothing more but a big orgy with drag queens prancing around in mass number. So I asked what gay cruise he has been to and he said none. So I asked how did he know that gay cruises are all just orgies and drag queens all over? He said he got it from stories his friends told him. I have been to one gay cruise and it is true that you will see drag queens but hardly the majority. In fact it was only the performers who were dressed in drag. There were no drag queen guests prancing around the boat that I could remember. And it was true that sex may happen more in places you would not normally see it happen but it is not the majority who does it. I explained to him that the sex and drag queens are not what gay cruises are all about. You also get superb entertainers like Charo, Marty Thomas and Deborah Cox. You get fun bingo, piano bar acts, comedy acts and tupperware parties. There are more to a gay cruise than sex and drag queens. It took a lot of arguing before he finally conceded that he could be wrong. I do not know if he meant what he said. He was a know it all too but at least he was open minded enough to admit that he could be wrong.

My philosophy is simply. Unless one has experience something himself, one should be open minded to question what we know to be the case. Because there is nothing more concise about something than experiencing it oneself. I am not advocating that one should experience everything, including the bad ones, to have an opinion about it. All I am saying is that thing you know to be the truth may possibly be wrong unless you have lived to say it to be the truth.