Calling my statement A, and yours B, both are true. A is probabilistically true (i.e., in most cases) iff the majority of people are idiots (and assuming a normal distribution of "impact someone can have on you"), B is 'strictly' true, well as far as strictly holds in social dynamics.
If you are a really good idiot oracle, i.e. if you're adept at quickly discerning someone's idiot attribute (or the lack thereof), you should follow B (which is a subset of A , "forall X ..." versus "forall X where P(X)"). If you're not, you should follow A, excepting special cases and, as mentioned, actually undesirable consequences (e.g. professional). For example, there are select people on LW whose approval I covet. So I'm not stringently following A (it's hard to follow one's own advice anyways), but I suppose I'm closer to A than to B, which gives me a better worst-case-scenario in terms of "power idiots exert over you".
A is probabilistically true (i.e., in most cases) iff the majority of people are idiots)
Given that people aren't really good idiot oracles, and in particular that if you care about the respect other show you in general then on some level you will also often be bothered by disrespect from idiots, I think A can very well be true even if most people aren't idiots.
Another month, another rationality quotes thread. The rules are: