John lacks social skills, so he spends most of his free time on the Internet.
by Voz June 13, 2012
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A new cultural emphasis designed to replace the ability to do one's job well. Since industrial talent distrubutes unevenly across certain gender and racial bounderies, the disparity creates an opportunity for unscrupulous politicians to manipuate the situation emotionally (demagoguery) and take power. The approach relies on research such as Dunbar's "Social Brain Hypothesis," in which the scientist shows that the human brain evolved to be larger in order to have greater "Machiavellian Intelligence," or to be able to better manipulate social situations.

It's all about conniving and fucking people to get to the top. The foil of someone with bad "social skills" is the clumsy engineer. However, people tend to forget that the engineer works exceptionally hard, is brilliant at constructing civilizations, and does not become a military dictator easily. Politicians with great "social skills" are the usual suspects.

People who promote social skills, things like "EQ," nearly always come at it from a humanitarian angle. They will try to claim that people without social skills are insensitive, mean, or have no "common sense." While this might have some merit, it neglects a critical piece of information. Empathy is not a one-way highway. It allows a mother to take care of a child. It also allows a slick used car salesman to take advantage of an elderly person.

It also allows Joseph Stalin to murder 100 million Russian peasants.
Nerd: "Wow! I just studied really hard and got a 98 on my math test"

Politician: "I went out and had fun. Then I found the answers online. Me and all my friends got 100's. You have bad social skills."

Nerd: " :( . That's not fair. "
by UniVeritas September 18, 2011
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A shallow expression with little real meaning which in reality simply describes the ability of dumb talking apes to mindfuck other dumb talking apes, and/or the lack of scruples to do so, in an attempt to materialize some sort of worth and meaning to their repetitive, disposable lives.
Ape: Your a loser, get some social skills. (My only contribution to humanity is chortling like a monkey with other monkeys and fornicating to make more monkeys and then bragging about it as if other animals aren't able to do these very things except overpopulating the planet and diminishing the quality of life).
Homo Sapien: Fuck off, numbnuts.
Ape: Oh, you wouldn't be so brave saying that to my face.
Homo Sapien: Why would I bother saying anything to your fat face full of lead, assfuck?
by godiesomewhere December 10, 2006
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Social skills-

A term that loosely means the ability to navigate social situations/social networks as fitting one's needs. However, the phrase, when used, covers an umbrella of different factors and skills. These include, but are not limited to, the ability to feel at ease in social situations or make those around you feel at ease, the ability to relate to those around you, the ability to converse fluidly, or the ability to grasp social "rituals" (such as what to do or say in certain situations). It is a very broad term that in and of itself has minimal literal definition, but is commonly used as an insult. Examples:

"Dude, how could you say that to her! Learn some fucking social skills!"

or

"I hear that guy's smart, but I bet he has really bad social skills."

It is usually taken as a given that the greater a person's intelligence, the worse their "social skills". However, this is contested, as intelligent people are often better at manipulating those around them, and are likely to have a better "theory of mind"- which means the ability to figure out what is going on in the heads of other people. (Which is a separate skill itself).
A star football player may have great "social skills" among his teammates and fans, but might become very awkward around a group of research scientists, authors, or professional dancers.

"Social skills", like "emotional intelligence", is a word often thrown around with no one stopping to figure out what it actually means.
by st. steve August 13, 2008
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Iam "Hey, I have another question. Are social skills real? Or is that all just trait extroversion? Cuz I'm really low in extroversion."

Hym "I guess we were wrong about that."

Iam "You're right. I guess we can't be one if we're too low in extroversion."
by Hym Iam May 14, 2022
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Turnips have no social skills, there for someone with the "social skills of a turnip" have no social skills.

Awkward with people. Poor social skills
Edward doesn't work well with others, he has the social skills of a turnip.
by cyberhomie July 1, 2021
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