I am working on a new character and want to use a trait of a person I know. Here is a run down of it She has a habit of telling a person her opinion or an assumption but she will state it as a fact. As in she will think that a certain person is for or against something ( goths, being gay, life choices, what ever...) there is no evidence to support her opinion, no pattern of habits that might be a basis for an educated assumption but she will still state her opinion to another person as a 100% true fact. instead of I think this person is ______ she will at, at times, say He is ______. Does anyone know someone like this? how ave you delt with it? I ask because I think a person with a trait like this could cause a lot of trouble for someone else or created conflict between others.
One of our members has a tagline of (something like) "87% of all internet quotes are made up on the spot". Your character sounds a lot like this and, yes, I have met people like this. It's hard to argue with them, because their viewpoint is SO definite, and so stated as a fact - and often very belligerently, as if to bully you into agreeing with them. Truth be told, I do tend to not disagree. Call it cowardice on my part, but I know I'm not going to change their point of view (Don't confuse me with facts, my mind's made up!) so I take the easy way out. And just don't talk to them again.
Yeah, I know a couple of people like this (or at least I did once but don't any more), and there are plenty of them on the internet- neckbeards generally. They will antagonise others into debates and proceed to relentlessly and belligerently argue their point until everyone else has left the room; and because everyone else has left the room they will assume that they have won the argument rather than recognising that people just don't want to be near them. They are also usually astonishingly hypocritical. I think it is a form of deflection that they will identify faults in others that clearly exist in themselves.
I know someone like this. They're very pessimistic, always thinking the worst about everything, and then stating it like there is no other possible explanation or outcome or situation etc. I used to argue with them, asking for proof, things like that, but I've found the best way is to just shut up and let them say it and get it out of their system. Getting into an argument just makes both parties involved more angry and frustrated, and likely the person I try to argue with is so hard headed they won't ever admit to being wrong, even if you prove it to them. And who knows, they may actually be right on occasion.
Well, my mum's prone to making general assumptions about a whole host of things based on a single experience she's had before - and said experience, even if nothing else ever occurred afterwards to confirm what's happened is even the norm, could have happened 20 years ago, and she'd still use it as evidence, her only piece of evidence, to support her opinion. And yeah, she states them as facts. She doesn't know she's doing it though - and arguing with her only mkaes her feel like she's misunderstood. These days, unless it's something quite important, I just let it go. Usually if either my sister or dad is in the same room, we might share a little smile and shake our heads when mum isn't looking.
My mum does similar things. I was staying with my parent's for a while before I buggered off to New Zealand. We were watching a dramatisation of some event and she kept talking about parts that were clearly fictional as if they were fact. At first I said 'its a dramatisation, that probably didn't happen' but this simply wasn't computing so I gave up. I'll also regularly get told some absurd version of an event in her village that is probably loosely based in truth, and the evidence will always be 'everyone is saying it', to which I used to ask 'Who's everybody?', 'the whole village'. I just smile and nod now. I wonder if talking shit is just part and parcel of getting older.
Lol. I guess in my mum's case, often she might be still expressing the hurt she felt at the time of the experience and she's speaking from that hurt, rather than any rationale. However, I would certainly not say "talking shit is just part and parcel of getting older". I have two friends who are both in their 60s and a colleague also in her 60s - they're all lovely people. Especially my two friends, one of them from this forum - they're some of the warmest, wisest people with the richest experiences I've known. My mum does spout nonsense from time to time but she's keenly aware of how to take care of people, always wanting to make you happy because she cares - and for that, I can forgive her nonsense. My dad's obviously around my mum's age and he's always been the one I turned to for advice, even back when I was 14-16 at the stage when I was in my rebellion phase - I can always trust him to give calm, impartial advice that has my wellbeing as priority. In all our youthful wisdom, we might be the ones spouting the nonsense, really (not speaking into your mother's case, however - only you know the situation!)
I wasn't entirely serious. My mum has always been a bit inept at discerning the truth of a situation from the nonsense orbiting around it. I don't think that age (ignoring very advanced age) impacts these faculties particularly.
