This reminds me of a bad experience I had with a pharmacist.

I was there filling a prescription for someone else. From the moment I showed up to get a prescription filled, the pharmacist was an arrogant dismissive prick. That I could let slide. It’s just how many people are.

But when I handed him my ID, that’s when things went south. He said, “This is a military ID. And you’re not in the military. I should confiscate this from you. In fact I think I just won’t give it back.” I was in the military, actually, but had just returned from a deployment where my hair was longer and I looked more unkempt than usual. How he thought pharmacists had the authority to confiscate anything from anyone remains a complete mystery to me.

He wasn’t joking, though. As I mentioned above: arrogant dismissive prick.

I said calmly, almost cheerily, “You’d be surprised how fast I can jump this counter and make you regret that course of action.”

He waited a moment to see if I would flinch or walk my statement back. I just stared at him. The moment passed and then he realized nothing good was going to occur. There’s a particular look that bullies get when they realize they are in over their heads. I’ve seen it many times. It’s confusion, fear and resentful anger all mixed up together. I saw it on the pharmacist’s face as he handed me back my ID.

“I was just joking,” he said. They usually say that.

“I wasn’t,” I replied. “Now either fill my prescription or not. I don’t care.”

He filled my prescription and didn’t say another word to me. Never went back there again, though.

Are all pharmacists such dickheads? All the ones I’ve met have been — but that was the worst I’ve ever experienced.

So much that people have told me didn’t matter at all has turned out to matter incredibly much over the years. These are all concerns that I’ve brought up in places and was either outright banned, dismissed, or laughed at for attempting to discuss:

1) Ownership of information — DRM, copyright, and related topics. Roundly told it was just a “nerd distraction” from the “real issues.” Turns out it will be an epoch-defining issue for this century.

2) Inequality and wealth consolidation. Was told by both Dems and Repubs during the late 90s and through the oughts that this was irrelevant, unchangeable, a “natural feature” of capitalism and most people didn’t care about it. Probably led to the election of Trump and more importantly worsening lives for millions.

3) More than a year before the election, noticed that Hillary Clinton was the most disliked major candidate ever (likely to be) nominated by the Democrats. Well, see above.

4) Was advocating focusing research on solar and renewables in the early 2000s. Was told that solar and renewables would never amount to anything, were technologically impossible, and were too expensive to ever use anywhere.

5) I’d long been worried about the fragility of the financial system. Was told that a meltdown of the stock markets and the financial system similar to the 1930s was completely impossible — we’d solved that. Then 2008 occurred.

There are many more reasons, but those five are some major reasons I don’t trust experts even if I do listen to them in an advisory capacity.

Too often, their input information is erroneous, their incentives skewed to pilfering your wallet, and their conclusions therefore tailored to doing just that.