How it is to be in a discussion with "self-proclaimed experts"

Now every once in a while, you might find yourself in a discussion with someone who I would classify as a "self-proclaimed expert". Now who is this self-proclaimed expert that I talk about? I define them as someone having the following characteristics:

• They are very strongly opinionated
• They are absolutely certain that what they believe in is correct
• And lastly, and perhaps most important of all, they will treat any statement going against their own personal opinions as a personal attack on them and they will lash out aggressively towards anyone suggesting they could be wrong.

If you see yourself in an argument with one of the self-proclaimed experts, remember this, regardless of the fact that you are right or wrong, you will never win the argument against them. It is simple as that. And here is why that is so.

More often than not, the self-proclaimed expert would give tremendous degree of importance to matters that would seem truly trivial to you. While the self-proclaimed expert would be rambling about why "x" is better than "y" over and over again, you would be silently nodding but thinking the whole time as to why in the hell's name should anyone even care about that. So somehow, for some reason, even if you find yourself thinking that "y" is better, you'd rather keep that to yourself than share it would your expert friend because it doesn't matter to you which is better. And you know if you accidentally say that "y" is better than "x", they will not rest until you change your stance. For example, your friend (who is the self-proclaimed expert) is on a rant about why a certain movie is SO much better than another one, while the whole time you would be thinking: "who cares! i had a fun time watching both of them!"

Another thing to pivot off from here is that since the self-proclaimed experts would be convinced that they are correct, any discussion they go into will not be for intellectual pursuit or purpose, but rather to prove to other that they are correct. For this they will even be willing to play "dirty". They will shout and hurl angry statement ( and in extreme cases, perhaps even abuses) at you. They will passionately claim things like "are you out of your mind? how can you even say that!?" Now assuming you are a typical average person, you will not be willing to go down at their level and play dirty. You would rather avoid any unpleasant, so you will most likely simply back down. Sometimes even the backing down will not stop them, and they will keep attacking (for that thing you once said) ... all you can do is bide your time in silence. Unfortunately, your silence or backing down will only convince the expert further that they are correct and they will probably walk out of discussion with smug satisfaction and perhaps a bit high blood pressure from all the passionate arguing. 

Also remember, there might be times you would be utterly clueless as to what might trigger a volcano-reaction from these experts. Since by now you know the expert, every time you bring a new subject you will make very careful statements ... careful so that in case something you claim makes them going you can quickly back down and let them ramble without any attacks on you.

Sadly, if you do find yourself in one of such situations, all you can hope to do (if your plan is not to ruin the evening) would be to let them ramble and let them live with the inflated ego. Meanwhile, you should live with the satisfaction that no one besides them really cares if they are right or wrong.

Note: I might have (sadly) at times been one of these "experts" and at other times been the "victim". This, however, is solely from the victim's perspective.