The Preacher

[the_std]

We've all seen this behavior before. For example, you and coworker A are having a random, lighthearted conversation in the break room, perhaps about your favourite vegetables. Coworker B is there as well, but not a part of your conversation. You say that you love carrots. CW A asks why. You say, "They're crunchy and my favourite colour!" CW A laughs and agrees. Coworker B butts in and says, "Actually, carrots are bad for the environment! Their farming method is devestating millions of acres of rainforests and they've been proven to cause dementia in pigs! Carrots are not a lighthearted matter!" Obviously, I'm taking things to a fallacious extreme, but I'm too lazy to research carrots.

Then you have that fun moment, where you and CW A share that look that can only be successfully be attributed to "WTF" and then there's an awkward pause, where you're left with one of two choices in response - "Oh, really? That's interesting." or you turn to your companion and say, "Anyways..." and continue as if nothing happened.

I've encountered this person in many different iterations. CS threads, as they're not necessarily a direct conversation between two people, are rife with this kind of behavior. Things are going along in a lighthearted manner, when all of a sudden, BAM, the Preacher shows up and is a bigger buzz kill than Buzz Killington, answering the questions no one cared to ask.

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

Oh Christ! Been there and done that.

In my case it was over a discussion between a coworker and myself regarding paleontology. We were discussing the various viewpoints of the T-Rex and whether or not it was an apex predator, a scavenger, or a mixture of both.

Our personal Buzz Killington preacher came up and read us the riot act how the history of the world is only 6,000 years old and how the fossil record is a lie planted by Satan to confuse us and to lead us away from Christianity.

I literally patted him on the head and said "That's nice. You go on thinking that and believing what you will and leave us nice armchair paleontologists to our *private* conversation" and went back to talking the thigh to shank ratio of the T-Rex.