Wit & Attitude Quote by Harlan Ellison

Ellison’s line is a small, sharpened blade: it separates private contempt from public disrespect, and it dares you to notice the difference. “I don’t mind you thinking I’m stupid” is bait. It grants the other person the one liberty everyone takes anyway - their internal judgment. But the second clause snaps the trap shut. “Don’t talk to me like I’m stupid” isn’t a plea for approval; it’s a demand for baseline dignity and an insistence on equal footing in the conversation.

The intent is tactical. Ellison, famously pugnacious and allergic to condescension, isn’t litigating intelligence so much as policing power. Talking “like I’m stupid” is about tone: slow, patronizing explanations; the smug over-clarification; the rhetorical pat on the head. The subtext is that condescension isn’t merely impolite - it’s a control move. It tries to set the terms of discourse by lowering the other person’s status, making disagreement seem like confusion rather than dissent.

It also works because it’s disarmingly self-aware. Ellison concedes fallibility without surrendering authority. You can believe whatever you want about me, he implies, but you don’t get to launder that belief into a style of speech that erases my agency. In a culture that often confuses “having an opinion” with “having a license,” he draws a hard boundary: thoughts are yours; the way you treat me is a choice. That’s Ellison’s ethic in miniature - fewer manners, more accountability.