Last week I went to a meeting of professional scholars, students and professors at a large university.
I was appalled at the pettiness. I tend to think that intelligent, thoughtful people should be able to talk about a subject (especially a subject they all profess to enjoy) without nastiness. Apparently, I was wrong.

I was also surprised with how little they presented in the way of evidence or argument to back up their positions. It's like they just thought to themselves, I'm an expert in this field, I don't need to present a meaningful argument, my position and experience as a scholar is enough to justify my opinion. (I suspect that when they write on a subject, they actually do use arguments and evidence.)