Intellectual Masturbation: Are you a victim or culpable?

Hello Steemians!

Did you know there was such a thing as intellectual masturbation?

You didn’t? Great! It not only means I was not alone in my ignorance, it also means that I can be of help to you and boy, am I happy about that?

Here’s how I came to find out.

I like intelligent people. Do you? I love to make friends and strike up conversations with them. Most times at the end of a conversation, I may have learnt a new thing or two. To cut it short, I found out about intellectual masturbation through an intelligent friend of mine. To the best of my knowledge, he is not an intellectual masturbator, he only told me about it.

Take a Breather; Think!

Think on these questions. They will help you understand better what intelligence masturbation is.

Have you ever been in a conversation with a person who likes to show off his ‘super’ intelligence?

What was his speech pattern like? Did he use ambiguous vocabulary even most intelligent people would not use?

Did he look or sound really self-absorbed; more interested in hearing himself speak than in your understanding what he was saying or getting at?

How much interruption did his choice of ambiguous and uncommon vocabulary cause to your understanding of his words? Did you have to run to the dictionary or Google to know the meaning of a good number of words he said/used?

Any intelligent person should know that communication is ineffective if the receiver of a message does not understand it, right?

Well, did your friend care whether or not you understood what he was going on about?

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Intellectual masturbation is not limited to verbal communication alone.

Think of those times when you, being smart or intelligent yourself, could not make sense of an article you read for various reasons. There may have been too many ambiguous words contained in it for a start.

Trust me; you could literally get a headache from reading one of such articles.

Of course, I am not talking of those articles which use a register that is specific to a field which you are unfamiliar with.
I refer to those articles and speeches which you ordinarily ought to understand but could not because something or someone decided to get in your way of doing so.

I found the culprit!

Guess what?

Intellectual masturbation.

It’s about time we saw what it is, right?

Intellectual Masturbation

Intellectual masturbation is generally used as a pejorative expression with the following meanings:

• The act of satisfying one’s ego through statements intended only to show off one’s intelligence.

• Acting like a know-it-all jerk that no one likes to listen to and everyone wishes would just shut up.
Think of it as a simile for mentally pleasuring oneself in public without regard for others.

source

Noun:

Mental masturbation (uncountable)

• (slang) Engaging in intellectually stimulating conversation with little or no practical purpose.

• (slang) Thought processes that only serve to satisfy oneself.

source: Wikitionary

My lecturer of philosophy used to tell plagiarists that what they were doing was intellectual masturbation.

From that, I have coined this definition: any conscious abuse of intellect or rationality through repetitive silly or nonsensical arguments can be called 'intellectual masturbation'. What is your opinion?

source

There you are!

I’m certain you now understand what intellectual masturbation is.

Allow me quickly add that; just as the genitals are stimulated when one masturbates for sexual pleasure, the brain is what gets stimulated in intellectual masturbation.

The purpose of ‘committing’ intellectual masturbation most often has more to do with massaging one’s ego than giving information or informing.

You can refer to one who is guilty of intellectual masturbation as an intellectual or mental masturbator.

Lastly, people who commit intellectual masturbation mostly do so to make others intellectually submissive.

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I hope you recognize the signs when you converse with or read an article written by an intellectual masturbator. Then you will know not to sweat it. He is more about massaging his ego than informing you.

Tell me the much or little you know about intellectual masturbation in the comments, will you?

It is an open floor for discussion.

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Original article authored by @stellarr

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Images were obtained from pixabay