"Educate yourself"

[MiriMollyMartha]

AIBU to hate this phrase? It seems to be everywhere recently as another way of saying "You are ignorant and uneducated unless you totally agree with me, and until you agree with me you will continue to be uneducated."

I hate it. It's rude and obnoxious and no-one would ever use that phrase in a civil face-to-face conversation. It's also totally ineffective, I can guarantee that no-one in the history of the phrase "educate yourself" has ever thought, "yes, I should indeed go and do some research on this subject and increase my knowledge with an open mind"

Yes that one is really irritating - "everyone" thinks this so you have to fall into line.

Well it's rare I'll admit, but occasionally the rest of the world IS wrong and I AM right - or it's perfectly acceptable to take a different view on something. I think nuance is often lost.

I wouldn't have said that "educate yourself" was the "gammon" motto though. I think of gammons being racist Brexiteers - they seem the wrong category of people to use the phrase. More the recipients of it!

YANBU

It is always used in an aggressive way

I was told to educate myself during a conversation about sex based performance differences. It was in real life so I was able to post a link to the peer reviewed textbook with my chapter on that topic in it 🙂

Sadly that doesn't work on Twitter.

Also the phrase "I'll wait" usually said by the same type of person who uses "educate yourself". For example, "find me an instance of XYZ". I'll wait". As in "you won't find it, I have, by my superiority declared it so". Very patronising.

Yes, “I’ll wait” is another annoying one.

🙄

I’ve said this to my mother quite a few times. She reads and firmly believes everything she reads on Facebook, she’s quite a silly woman. So Yabu!

When someone says that I feel it gives me carte blanche to just tell them to piss off.

Ironically, educate means to lead out, or to rear, or bring up. It really isn't something you're supposed to do for yourself, more to have someone else guide you towards.

Its an irritating phrase , when people say ‘educate yourself’ what they actually mean is ‘My opinion on this is the correct and morally superior one, and I will not engage with people unless they agree with my exact viewpoint’

'Educate yourself' up there with 'Do better' - both highly patronising

Almost always said by virtue signallers, such as Gary Lineker.

Its right up there with 'but you already knew that, didn't you?' (a phrase which used to be rife on MN but thankfully seems to be less common these days)
Both are incredibly condescending.

People who say it generally are incapable of explaining what they think in a coherent way. It's a distraction to take off any pressure to do so.

It is pompous but some people deserve to be on the receiving end of it. Such as people who think it’s beneath them to learn or understand correct terms because they don’t care who they hurt.

Agreed .

If the person found the subject interesting enough to ' educate themselves ' they would have done .

Are you seriously bringing race into this..? This reads as “I’ve said something racist and been called out on it”.

I can't decide whether I hate it more than "check your privilege"

I would use it if someone shows an embarrassing ignorance and comes out with a bigoted remark. The response is correctly used when it's a lot more than just disagreeing with someone.

It needs saying to a lot of people who "speak as they find" or "tell it like it is". Which means they will parrot a lot of ignorant claptrap and have strong opinions when they know fuck all about what they are talking about.

Agree totally with you, OP. It’s really patronising. Such a meaningless, throwaway comment.

In my experience people who say this use it as a insult and 'final statement' in an argument (that they are losing).

Generally they are being rude, ignorant, and offensive and have been called out on it. Ironically their own education is often severely lacking.

Also like many others of these one liners not to mention roastings people seem to take a lot of pleasure in giving for people who do things like use the "wrong" words I wonder does any good tend to come out of this approach. Does it really encourage people to learn and think about whatever issue in a way that leads to positive change or is it just an ego trip?

It’s part of a tedious online sound bite bingo card. Shite imported from the US.

The gender woo lot love it.