Where are all these "stupid people" that supposedly exist?

[Blood Brain Barrier]

People in my college class don't know Europe.

They were asked to point out Portugal. They pointed to Ireland.

Switzerland went to Poland.

I was one of two who knew what a "Lithuania" was.

That's just knowledge, most likely the locations of the European countries isn't something they need to focus on much in their daily lives? Could you find all the African countries on a map?

I don't know about where you live, but World War 2 is something that has been covered extensively in schools where people in my class came from. Like, every year. They just forgot where Germany was. That's a failure of retention of knowledge.

People who forget easily are often better thinkers. Since they can't rely on their memory they have to work many things out ab initio.

You can call that stupid if you like, but on the reverse I don't think it's particularly smart to be able to remember stuff.

 

[Pink Gregory]

As one random instance, I was asked if we sold napalm. At a grocery store.
I was going on lunch so I just sent him to general merchandise.

I don't know, didn't you used to be able to buy ammunition at Walmart?
(I'm English, I don't know that for sure, I watched Bowling for Columbine, basically)

It's only a leap of admittedly bizarre logic to go from that to napalm.

In fact, that's what I usually see, rather than stupidity, some things makes sense if the reasoning one uses to get there is completely whacko bananas.

 

[Blood Brain Barrier]

In my art class, there is a Freshman. In Highschool. WHO CAN'T DO DIVISION.
No, he doesn't have a mental disability. He is just that stupid.

I bet he's better at art than you

Actually, he is always behind because, unlike everyone else, he can't talk and work at the same time.

Behind what? In class? You really think Monet would be thought of as a bad artist if he wanted to paint in silence?

 

[Moderated]

In my art class, there is a Freshman. In Highschool. WHO CAN'T DO DIVISION.
No, he doesn't have a mental disability. He is just that stupid.

I bet he's better at art than you

Actually, he is always behind because, unlike everyone else, he can't talk and work at the same time.

Behind what? In class? You really think Monet would be thought of as a bad artist if he wanted to paint in silence?

He's a shitty artist.
We're shitty artists too, but we at least can finish the work.
He is going into the military, he isn't going to do anything like become an artist or musician.

 

[Waffle_Man]

As of now, there are about 360,000,000 people using the internet.

Let's say that you've interacted with or witnessed the actions or thoughts of 100,000 people that you would deem stupid. This number is probably way over being realistic, but at least it shouldn't be a point of argument.

That would mean that you've only witnessed approixmately .0278 percent of the internet being stupid.

Is it rational to conclude that the rest of the world is therefore stupid?

 

[Xanadu84]

This is explained by 2 phenomena.

1) Smart people believe stupid things all the time. just because you are an expert in one thing doesn't mean that you are an expert in something else. A wizened old sage who speaks 20 languages may also be the guy who calls into tech support complaining that his wireless mouse shouldn't need batteries because it is wireless. People arn't stupid, its just that the world is so complex that the number of skill sets that compromise basic competency are absolutely massive. Learning all the basic skills that would;d make you not look stupid to everyone else with basic working knowledge of an area would take multiple lifetimes.

2) In all likelihood, every one of us believes something that is absolutely stupid. Yes, to someone, somewhere, we believe something that is as face-palm-worthy as, "The internet is a series of tubes".

 

[DoomyMcDoom]

When you don't count those who were born with or inflicted with a mental disease or brain damage, there isn't a such thing as stupid people, just people of a personality you don't like.

I'm of the opposite opinion. I think we are all as a race retarded beyond most forms of hope, there's a glimmer, but not a big one...

We all have our opinions, we all think what we see is what is real, even though when you think about it, EVERYTHING we percieve we percieve due to our brain's interpretation of outside stimuli we cannot truly know what is really going on, we may all be seeing someting completely different, but due to growing up being subjected to teaching telling us what we are seeing is something specific, we may all just believe we see everything the same way, when really your understanding of what purple is could be what you see as turquoise to someone else, and you'll never really know...
Hell that speculation in itself is a piece of stupidity and ignorance, as I have no possible way of propperly proving anything, hell NONE of us do, everything we experience is a construct of our own personal reality.


And as such I believe us all to be stupid.

 

[axlryder]

It's difficult to define "stupid", as it tends to be a subjective term. I mean, there are so many facets of intelligence, and so many people who have certain aspects either underdeveloped or just not developed at all. For instance, I'm a terrible driver when I don't know where I'm going. That's just how it is. I'd say I do a lot of "stupid" things when I'm lost. I don't consider myself, "stupid" however. Yet I'd understand someone feeling I was when they saw me driving that way. There are many other instances like that. We all have moments or situations where we seem to perform below what is generally expected of people, and it's at those times that we are called stupid and may refer to others as similarly stupid. That's just my thoughts on the matter anyway.

 

[CrimsonBlaze]

Yes, there are stupid people around; some might be closer than you think.

If you do not see or meet these people, it is likely that your life revolves around enthralling or intellectually stimulating activities, events, or areas. That's not to say that people who are around these activities, events, or areas are incapable of stupid behavior, but that they likely exhibit a more rational judgment and control over their own emotions and thoughts.

 

[Vegosiux]

Well, "stupid". I'll twist a little quote to better suit my needs here.

Being ignorant is a temporary problem that can promptly be solved by getting infromed. But if you're refusing to fix that problem for yourself, you're just being stupid.

 

[Jared Jeanquart]

Here's a bunch of rambling thoughts. feel free to tell me I'm wrong.

I would posit that not all that many people are stupid. BUT, I'd like to point out that everyone here is posting on the forums of a highbrow gaming website, on the internet, and doing so with more-or-less proper grammar and punctuation, sharing our experiences regarding stupid and not-stupid people.

Most people don't do this. There's more to "seeming smart" than just being clever and quick when faced with a problem. Most of us are probably nerds of one stripe or another; intellectuals by default. We have the patience to READ things. We're interested in stuff.

What's more, we have centuries of records that reveal the inmost thoughts of smart people, and thus other smart people can begin to see the inside of other smart people's heads. We don't know what its like to be stupid, because stupid people don't/can't write very well.

(Now, to be fair, I know many people who are by no means stupid, but type terribly. It makes them SEEM stupid unless you talk to them in person.)



Sometimes I wonder what it's like to be stupid. The best I can come up with is that the world must be very boring. (this is partially based on a job I used to have working with the mentally what-not-ed, most of whom weren't "retarded," but did have stunted intellects in addition to their other problems/disorders.) The world moves by without a handle to grab on to. You can flip through the tv channels and pass by 30 rock or Carl Sagan's Cosmos because those are "boring." They're boring because you don't understand them, and thus must default to Dog the Bounty Hunter. The bookshelf is a massive stack of boring paper full of unfamiliar words and situations that are hard to visualize. Everything goes over your head, apart from the simplest, easiest, lowest-common-denominator media. When faced with "nothing to do," you're not capable of entertaining yourself. You can't write, or think about things, or build anything. Nothing interests you, and you lack the imagination to seek out something that does.

I myself am easily bored, but because I've had to live with that my whole life, I take steps to make sure I'm never trapped with nothing to do. When I was young, I ALWAYS had a book on me. Now I've always got a smartphone handy with audiobooks or a podcast or SOMETHING. At the very least, I can work on some "mental project" or other. Right now, as I type this, I'm listening to a youtube video of an interview with christopher hitchens. But my boredom problem would be much, much worse if I was incapable of understanding, say, Evolutionary Biology or was otherwise constitutionally incapable of enjoying reading about it.

 

[Weaver]

As one random instance, I was asked if we sold napalm. At a grocery store.
I was going on lunch so I just sent him to general merchandise.

I don't know, didn't you used to be able to buy ammunition at Walmart?
(I'm English, I don't know that for sure, I watched Bowling for Columbine, basically)

It's only a leap of admittedly bizarre logic to go from that to napalm.

In fact, that's what I usually see, rather than stupidity, some things makes sense if the reasoning one uses to get there is completely whacko bananas.

Not sure if you can at walmart here in Canada. Napalm is even banned in use in warfare under the "United Nations Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW)" created in 1980. Not sure why this guy thought he could just purchase Napalm.

I should note, I also worked in produce. This conversation took place beside a pile of red and green peppers.

 

[repeating integers]

Yes, there are stupid people. Every single one of them is on FSTDT [http://www.fstdt.com/QuoteArchives.aspx?Archive=1].

 

[370999]

As a general rule if you know someone well enough they might do stupid things, but they aren't a stupid person. It's when the only thinbg you have ever heard from someone is a stupid staement that you can brand them as a moron.

Also if you live in an area where people have different political beliefs then you, expect to be much more aware of stupidity. Hell look how this forum gleefully delights in any stupid statement from Fox news, but are much less likely to pick up examples of idiocy from media more favourable to their viewpoint.

 

[Substitute Troll]

The reason you say "most people are stupid" is not because you think they have an IQ equal to that of a sea slug, but because there are many different people. Different people think and reason in different ways, meaning that if you are 100% certain that you're factually right in a particular subject, then there's a good chance that a majority will still disagree with you. Hence, most people are stupid.

 

[Jared Jeanquart]

Check out the latest voting map of the United States. The states that are colored in red should have an abundance of said stupid people in them.

See, that's funny, but I know many Republicans that aren't stupid. I also know many liberally-inclined people who are blithering idiots or literally retarded. My own dad is a very intelligent person, but is ideologically wedded to the republican party circa 1985.

But, being stereotypically republican (especially NOW), is statistically associated with being dumber or less educated. Probably.

 

[370999]

Check out the latest voting map of the United States. The states that are colored in red should have an abundance of said stupid people in them.

See, that's funny, but I know many Republicans that aren't stupid. I also know many liberally-inclined people who are blithering idiots or literally retarded. My own dad is a very intelligent person, but is ideologically wedded to the republican party circa 1985.

But, being stereotypically republican (especially NOW), is statistically associated with being dumber or less educated. Probably.

I'm going to have to voice my support for Jared here. Political belifs don't have a cuasation on the level of intellect. Think of how much of the academic left was salvating at the mouth over the Soviet Union, before the horrors and ineffeciencies of that regime became clear.

Perfectly intelligent people can beleive stupid things.

Which is not to liken being a Republican to being a supporter of a tryanny.

 

[Karfroogle]

I know only one person that I and others can't stand because their absolute stupidity. And this is coming from someone who has a hard time disliking people for any reason besides murder or something along those lines.

 

[Jared Jeanquart]

I'm going to have to voice my support for Jared here. Political belifs don't have a cuasation on the level of intellect. Think of how much of the academic left was salvating at the mouth over the Soviet Union, before the horrors and ineffeciencies of that regime became clear.

Perfectly intelligent people can beleive stupid things.

Which is not to liken being a Republican to being a supporter of a tryanny.

Well, Political beliefs can be mixed up in/hold a similar mental status to religion; they're formed before you're fully informed/educated, or dictated to you by your family/community, and are never, EVER questioned or re-examined, because of COURSE all the demycrats are courrupt bleeding-heart incompetent hippies who just want to give all your money to the blacks, EVERYONE knows THAT, DUR!