“Men Explain things to me” moment last night

[somebrightmorning]

I went to a corporate event last night and sat next to a very nice chap.

We do the same job and towards the end he mentioned the difficulty of getting a remedy from the tech giants but that he’d made progress. I asked whether he had sued Amazon and how they had responded.
He then explained the basic law on internet service provider liability to me (I am senior to him).

Anyway, I feel quite chuffed that I instantly recognised this was a METTM moment. In the past I would have felt a vague sense of powerless resentment. But I’m not sure what I can say next time I come across a METTM in the wild. As to last night, how could I have challenged his stream of verbiage?

In you situation I might have laughed and said 'Ah, we're having a Men Explain Things to Me Moment' and then explained it to him.

A feminism literate business coach, what a great idea

How about, 'yes, I think your understanding of that is about right'.

Or for some of us, 'thanks .... good to know nothing's changed since I learned that years/decades ago'

As always, I think in a professional context you have to maintain politeness, and that applies to any combination of women and men. It's usually possible to assert oneself somewhat, without really making a challenge out of it. If it's war, you have to fight, but most of the time there are ways to deflect an arrogant person (or maybe even subtly guide a basically good person who's slipped into arrogance).

I haven't quite got the gist of this conversation, but it might have been possible to say "Whoa, whoa, you're getting that mostly right, but there's no need to review the whole topic. What I'd be interested in would be where someone actually did sue Amazon, and how it worked out. Did that really happen?"

I'd try to get that "mostly right" in there. It's a way to say that he's made a few minor mistakes, and you're sharp enough to catch them. If he wants to respond to that, then you can pitch your knowledge against his, and see how he takes it. It could be an interesting branch in the conversation, if he's a decent person. Or it could be his chance to show that regardless of how much he knows, he's a right twit.