-zero writes:

However, you're not THAT smart, and others are not THAT stupid.

In some ways, I agree. On certain technical topics, there is THAT much
of a gulf between wisdom and folly.

The modern egalitarian culture is that IQ doesn't really matter, because
not all have it equally. Smart guys who know calculus, physics,
chemistry, etc., on a sophisticated level are just nerds who have no
social capacity. This notion is supported by the recent explosion of
unintelligent people who acquire a little arcane knowledge about this or
that latest computer gadget, and impress people as somehow smart, like
children with video games that baffle adults.

And supported by the fallacies of public education, which hold that we
are all created equally intelligent (for some mushy definition of
"intelligent") and that the average child can learn math and science.
Since the average person does well to even approach algebra, much less
calculus, "math and science" must therefore be defined down to trivial
concepts with no practical use in genuine engineering and real-world
problems, like looking at gee-whiz stuff in "science" museums. If we
can't disprove the bell curve, then we'll say the bell curve doesn't
matter.

So if you're gonna run down those on the upper tail of the bell curve,
then just make fun of their pocket protectors or whatever, not their
genuine contributions that make your modern life possible.