What makes people think there's a best martial art?

I would have to agree with you on the belief that people are in pursuit of immediate gratification... as well as being popular or within the lines of the social norm. I tend to lean more towards the social acceptance as being the biggest pull for this. People who want to be liked through intimidation as opposed to being liked for being who they genuinely are. It's something that I believe to be brought about by the internet and television. I'm not generally a person to say that TV and internet is going to make people behave a certain way. Especially since I have been exposed to that while in bad schools and neighborhoods while growing up. I turned out pretty... OK, so there's the other side to that argument and why I generally steer clear. However, in light of growing trends I have to say that I am becoming a believer of the negative influences of these two sources and their content. This is seen as an obvious issue with videos posted often on sites such as youtube. I think that the persona of the fighters from UFC, K1, Elite, etc is seen as something to follow in reality by the impressionable youth; because of the over-confidence and fear that the fighters instill in the self-conscious youngins. That's why I think they search for the best, and those that say what the "best" is... Well, they do just as we think, live as a heard of cows, blindly following the bull. They want to be liked by fitting in and just say whatever is the hot topic of the moment.

yeah i agree. i think a lot of people watch UFC etc and then instantly think MMA, Mauy Thai and BJJ are the best because they are on TV. i would really like to blame MMA being on TV for causing a lot of people to think there is a best martial art.

I think it is a combination of things thatadd up. First i would say people that actually train, especially beginers, feel that their style is definetly the best, and heaven forbid that there is another style out there that is better, because that can't possibly be because they don't take it. The UFC fans that don't train and the posers/wannabe's that insist that if a style is not predominant in the UFC or other fighting leagues that it can't be any good. The people that watch tv and have seen fight quest and human weapon, or seen something on here and accept it as gospil. I mean befor eit aired on Human weapon most people had never heard of kyokoshin karate, yet now that's all anybody recomends when they recomend a karate style. I think a huge portion of it is gulibility, another part is ego, and the last part is ignorence.

Damn it, THIS IS MY QUESTION!!!!: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Aln8vfw3IJRaAM35ECdWuXnty6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20080301074001AAEgQqZ

It's mostly being ignorant and the fact that the people who say "<enter martial art> is the best" don't actually do any martial arts lol. All they know is from TV and Online. To me this is like the media, people believe everything they are told.