Keyboard Warriors

   

Never do human beings speculate more, or have more opinions, than about things which they do not understand.—Carl Jung

Has anyone viewed the comments thread on a popular martial arts online forum when a question is posed? There's an axiom that asserts "the best way to get the right answer on the internet is not to ask a question; it's to post the wrong answer." There are no shortages of armchair martial-art luminaries who will provide a guiding light when someone wants to know which style is best suited for street fighting, or fending of multiple attackers, or any other imaginable scenario. As I've witnessed, the wrong answers outnumber the right ones. Everybody's a tenth degree black belt and cross-trains in multiple disciplines. And when a real expert (however you define that term) enters the chat, they are either dismissed or so overwhelmed with misinformation, that their proficient advice fades in the onslaught of stupidity.

 

In his book The Death of Expertise, author Tom Nichols describes a process in our culture that has given rise to cognitive bias by people who have limited competence and overestimate their own knowledge of certain subjects.

 

[T]here's still the problem of at least some people thinking they're bright when in fact they're not very bright at all. We've all been trapped at a party or a dinner when the least-informed person in the room holds court, never doubting his or her own intelligence and confidently lecturing the rest of us with a cascade of mistakes and misinformation. It's not your imagination: people spooling off on subjects about which they know very little and with completely unfounded confidence really happens, and science has finally figured it out.¹

 

What science has figured out is known as the "Dunning-Kruger Effect", named for the pair of social psychologists who concluded in a 1999 report that certain individuals "Not only...reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices, but their incompetence robs them of their ability to realize it."²

In other words, dumb people don't realize how dumb they are—precisely because they're dumb. Whenever I see the question "Which martial art should I study" the typical flood of responses will denigrate certain arts;  Tae kwon do, aikido, wing chun, and certain styles of Japanese jiu-jitsu comes to mind, among others. Beyond the fundamental differences between grappling, striking and non-sportive systems, the best advice to give the seeker is to get off your damn chair and get out and investigate for yourself. Rest assured, there are highly competent instructors in the aforementioned arts that will unequivocally prove the internet trolls wrong. Trolls are experts in incitement and it's important to understand that debating anonymous posters play into what they want. They are not obligated to abide by the rules of decorum. If you're going to "do your own research", do it in the real world, not on the fake landscape of the internet.
 

As Mark Twain once said, "Never argue with fools; they will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience."³


 

1. Tom Nichols 2024. The Death of Expertise: The Campaign against Established Knowledge and Why it Matters. Oxford University Press.

2. Justin Kruger and David Dunning, "Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments", Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 77(6), December 1999, 1121-1122.

 

3. This quote has also been attributed to Steve Jobs. I'm thinking it could've been Bruce Lee. Take your pick.