We've made life too easy for stupid people.

[Yavin4]

Last edited Fri Nov 22, 2024, 04:41 PM - Edit history (1)

In America, you can be dumb, completely uninformed, badly educated, a conspiracy theorist, and be just fine. Nothing truly bad will happen to you. There's no real downside risk to being stupid. For a lot of jobs, you don't have to be smart, just show up on time and follow instructions, and if something goes wrong, call over someone to fix it or get an outside vendor to fix it.

People watch Joe Rogan over mainstream news because they want to be entertained, not informed. People believe in conspiracy theories because you don't need evidence to support your claim. All you need is someone willing to support your claim, esp. a celebrity. The whole vaccine causes autism is a prime example. There was no evidence supporting the thesis, but heck, a former Playboy model gave credence to it, and now some people believe it.

We cannot lead the world with so many stupid people. Soon, the world will just move on without us.

--On edit--
Please read doc03's post at #11 in this thread for a perfect illustration of what I am talking about.

[Klarkashton]

1. This is all true.

[Elessar Zappa]

2. What do you mean exactly?

Stupid people have the same rights as all of us. And besides, most of it isn’t innate stupidity, it’s ignorance and brainwashing.

[Yavin4]

3. When we had the draft, people paid attention to legitimate news sources.

Now, they just want to be entertained by the news. This is why Fox News has so many blonde news anchors.

[Elessar Zappa]

5. I'm not disagreeing, but what can you do?

People are free to believe what they want. The left needs a similar media ecosystem that the right wing has.

[Mariana]

8. When we had the draft, what were the non-legitimate news sources?

There was no such thing as Fox News or its clones. There was no hate radio. There was certainly no internet. The churches mostly stayed out of politics. How would someone go about getting brainwashed the way right-wingers are today?

[Yavin4]

12. There were extreme sources, but they were identified as fringe.

No self-respecting person would go near them.

[Mariana]

16. They tended to be stuff like monthly newsletters.

It was pretty near impossible to immerse yourself in crap like that, short of actually joining a cult.

[Midwestern Democrat]

55. The Internet probably generates more intellectual pollution in a single day than was generated in the entire first 550+

years following Gutenberg's invention of the printing press. This was the inevitable result of amateurs with no professional credentials whatsoever suddenly being able to share their inane, ill-informed thoughts with a mass audience.

[japple]

39. When we had the draft, radio was in its infancy and print news was predominant.

Now we've got tic-tack and Faux snooze. People have to make an effort to find a source of nonbiased reporting but most wouldn't know a good source if they found it.

[Maggiemayhem]

43. My parents used to laugh at the Holy Rollers

We had trusted network news and our news was controlled by Americans. Now a network run by an Australian with daddy issues and a South African Uber wealthy dude run the country.

[brush]

15. With trump in charge it's called Kakistocracy...

government run by the worst, least qualified, or most unscrupulous citizens.

Do not try to tell us it's ignorance and unfair to the unscrupulous.

A nation can not long survive under such rule.

And that's what we've got...witness the clown car of his potential appointments.

[Elessar Zappa]

30. I'm not defending their ignorance.

They’re lazy and/or vicious in temperament so they’re easy marks for Trump.

[TheKentuckian]

50. What is the alternative reading?

[brush]

51. Seems it's too late. We've got a dictator now witn total immunity for 'official acts'.

Thanks, SCOTUS 6.

[TheKentuckian]

49. It seems they have more rights and fewer consequences to me.

See the President-Elect and his dumbass cult.

The excuses are tiresome.

[Elessar Zappa]

54. I'm not trying to defend MAGAts in any way.

My point was that yes, we have an ignorant, gullible, cruel, brainwashed electorate. But what to do? They vote. So we have to find a way to neutralize them.

[The Wizard]

56. When Nixon nominated

Harold Carswell to the Supreme Court the critics said Carswell wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer. One senator said stupid people need representation on the Supreme Court too .

[Irish_Dem]

4. It is not just low intelligence, it is a lack of character and no moral core.

Greatest moral collapse and lack of civic duty in US history.

Lazy, self-centered, immature adults who function like bad children.

[Initech]

6. Like Marjorie Shit For Brains meets all of this.

She's an immature POS who gets away with it because she plays the god card. I'm convinced Marjorie is the school bully who shoved kids in lockers, then got away with it by looking cute and going to church.

[Irish_Dem]

7. And a rich daddy who indulged, spoiled and covered for her.

[Haggard Celine]

10. I think drugs are a factor regarding Marge Green.

She's just so relentless and so fucking mean. She seems like the sort who hoovers up meth.

[Initech]

18. I'm guessing steroid injections straight to the veins.

Must be taking the Jake Paul dosage.

[Haggard Celine]

23. Yes, I forgot about the steroids.

That's a good possibility. Whatever she's doing to herself is causing shit to be thrown all over the rest of us. I wouldn't call her a bitch. I think she's something way worse. We might have to look at mythology to teach us what she's about.

[ancianita]

37. Well, it's that. But after I donated to two of her Democratic opponents

and they lost, I'm also convinced that she's just in a safe district full of stupids who choose her and her mouth to say what they believe.

Because to the folks of her GA district, the smarter, better disciplined, more caring Democratic military candidates don't say what they believe.

[Haggard Celine]

47. That's the core of the problem.

There's a large number (probably a majority) who are stupid bigots. I guess they're getting the shitty representation that they deserve. It just sucks that innocent people have to be screwed in the process.

[Irish_Dem]

20. People familiar with steroid abuse, see the signs in MTG.

Her appearance and behavior are typical of long time steroid use.
Which fit with her obsession with working out and muscles, etc.
And fit with her pre-existing hatred, anger, raging.

She and Matt Gaetz were an item at one time, so she probably does other drugs like he does.

[meadowlander]

13. The Internet has removed all incentive to change when you are wrong.

It used to be when you went out into the real world and said something stupid, your family, your friends, your coworkers, your teachers might call you out on it. And because you had to deal with them on the regular, most people would then reflect on the stupid thing they said, feel bad about it, and then change.

I've certainly had that experience multiple times in my life.

Now though whenever you get called out, you can just find a group of people who agree with you about anything and start shouting the same stupid thing ten times louder.

What we need is a real conversation about the core values of our country and how we promote them in our various conversations with each other at all levels.

Because we can't function as a country if 51% of the population doesn't fundamentally care about truth, kindness, the law, respect for others, boundaries, etc. And we need to find a way to influence people to care about those things and show them how they are reflected in the issues of the day. It's not the stupidity so much as it is the amorality, lack of curiosity and inflexible, entrenched thinking patterns of too many people many of whom are actually smart enough to know better.

[Sympthsical]

52. Well said. It also allows nursing of grievances

If you say something and get a lot of push back from others, you can find a space to talk about how unfair everyone's being to you.

Think of how many times (it's daily) someone online responds to disagreement with "Stop bullying me!" Genuinely having a disagreement and inserting facts in that disagreement is no longer just a difference of opinion - it's seen as a hostile act. So people scurry into their spaces and talk about how mean and stupid every else is. (But not me, never me).

You nailed it in your reply. I just think of so many older people I knew growing up. They had their opinions that hadn't moved along with society, but at best, they had to grouse to a friend or at the bar or wherever.

Now they can form entire communities and movements on social media.

"No incentive to change." The Internet has become an enabler of worst impulses.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

9. *Should* bad things happen to people who are badly educated or poorly informed?

In my experience, poorly educated people generally face a pretty tough struggle.

[Yavin4]

14. Being educated and being stupid are two different things.

Plenty of stupid people have college degrees, and plenty of smart people didn't go to college at all.

[doc03]

11. The MAGAs and the Red states they come from are more dependant on

government services than Democrats and Blue states. They vote in a president and party with a sole purpose
of cutting the things they depend on. A MAGA I know was dead set against the ACA "Obamacare" in 2016. Since then
he got insurance through the ACA. Last year he was seriously ill and the ACA saved his life. Today he still has MAGA
stickers on his car and a Trump flag in his yard and supports Trump that still wants to gut the ACA. I don't think he knows
ACA is Obamacare.

[Yavin4]

17. That's exactly what I mean.

The ACA saved a stupid person's life which became a vote for Trump.

[doc03]

19. They think Medicare Advantage is Medicare. nt

[roscoeroscoe]

41. Woo boy, that's a big one

Advantage should be called 'Take Advantage,' the way people give away control over their health without any idea....

[Grown2Hate]

35. Welp, he's about to find out. EOM

[BigmanPigman]

44. I wish that only those who voted Dem

would be able to receive healthcare through the ACA and everyone else can fuck off and die...after all, that is what they want to see happen to me/us. If the term "you get what you vote for" is valid, than tRumpers can rot in pain for the rest of their hopefully short lives.

[Meowmee]

48. Exactly

Let them get what they voted for and those of us who are sane get what we voted for.

[Ferryboat]

21. "Life is tough, but if your stupid, its alot tougher".

John Wayne

[Yavin4]

22. Not any more it's not.

At least it's not in America.

[ancianita]

46. True, but only from now until Jan 20 2025 it's not. Because after that we really can't make their lives easy anymore.

After that, the "not anymore" time is gone.

No matter what they're told to think, who to blame, what new "semi-final solution" they (deportation, investigating "enemies within" blah blah) raise their glass to -- they'll go for the tit-for-tat okey-doke and call it MAGA.

They'll be pissed on and told it's rain. In two years or four, no matter what, they'll objectively feel it.

But then we'll stop campaigning to make their lives easier, or clean up their stupidity and unjust messes; Newsom & Jeffries, or Newsom & Pritzker, or Newsom & Whitmer will set new conditions straight down the line to red state governors -- "you do A, we'll do B"; if they refuse "win-win" solutions, they're not at the table.

[sop]

24. Being stupid should cause immediate physical pain, like poking youself in the eye with a sharp stick.

[MadameButterfly]

26. For this to change behavior

they have to understand the relationship between the pain, the stick, and what your hand is doing.

[MadameButterfly]

25. Bad things happen to stupid people

Then life becomes a struggle, they get mad, and vote Trump.
But don't imagine they are voting Trump because everything is going swimmingly in their lives. It's exactly the opposite. When people research life decisions as well as they researched the presidential election, what do you think happens?

It's a bummer that we all get punished for other people being stupid. But never fear, they have already paid.

[Yavin4]

28. They don't pay attention in school.

They take jobs that don't require any skills for shitty pay. They never acquire skills. Instead, they spend most of their time play video games or watching TV or listening to Joe Rogan, and then boom, they lose that shitty job. Now, they're angry, and they vote for Trump bc Democrats aren't doing enough for them.

[MadameButterfly]

59. I worked with someone who was down and out

because of work, unemployment, high rents, and the bureaucracy of the social support system in NY state for helping him get back on his feet. After frustration at some tech jobs where he actually has skills, he found himself at Amazon, discouraged by work conditions, citing miles of walking just doing the work each day for low pay. He is 50+ years old. He is a devout Christian and his faith is what gets him through.

At some point he was talking about moving to Texas where the politics were more aligned with his.

I was so frustrated. I cared about this guy. I wished it wasn't so hard to get back on track when one is on that edge, where you can't get an apt. because you don't have a job but you cant get a job because the last job had unethical practices and you didn't stay long enough. Its really hard for those on the edge. I'm not saying this guy was a saint or good at chess, but he had some skills, was willing to work, wanting just some security and some love, and not a menace to society.

He thought Texas was the solution. My relationship with him barred me from talking politics. Nor would that have been productive. When you care about a human being who is bent on voting against his own self-interest, what do you do?
What can you do?

[usonian]

27. Says the party of "meritocracy"

Their "meritocracy" is fueled by the stupid.

It consists of a massive con job.

[pimpbot]

29. The movie idiocracy

It was supposed to be a comedy but turned out to be a documentary.

I think it comes down to being selfish and a constant need to show off. Thus the rise of influencers and social media.

[orwell]

31. Stupidity is a luxury...

...that can be rewarded in a very rich country like the US. Not so much in poorer countries where the margin for error is much smaller.

The ongoing Climate Collapse will affect the stupid, the smart, everyone who thinks they can whistle past the graveyard.

It has been raining for almost a week in California with another 4 or 5 days to go. They call it an "atmospheric river."

That sounds so benign.

This was after a summer in Northern California (2 hours north of the Bay Area) of 100 degree plus days for months.

At some point, our arrogance and stupidity will take care of itself. "The planet" will be fine. It's stupid human occupants...not so much.

Nature always bats last...

[The Madcap]

32. I think part of it is that people give up on learning

because the world is becoming more and more complex. Many scientists and engineers devote their entire careers to a single specialized discipline, and what they know would fill books no one but themselves would read. Very few people I've ever met have deep knowledge on more than one or two subjects. I know engineers that are brilliant in mathematics but can't write simple sentences in English (as American-born individuals). I know people who can write fantastic stories but can't balance a checkbook. I know people who understand construction techniques like tomorrow's business but can't cope with anything political besides what party someone is with. The list goes on and on.

I have tried through the years to learn things I had not been exposed to in an effort to at least understand partially what drives humanity. I'm not always successful, far from it, but I always make the attempt. I can see based on my own futile efforts why so many people just quit trying.

[VGNonly]

33. The transition from

1984 to Brave New World, we are doomed!

[chouchou]

34. My husband and I are going to take a road trip to the west coast. (Friends) I Also...

..told my husband can we go around Texas? (I don't want to buy gas, drinks ..not shit anything)
He said "Well, take longer but I'll enjoy not spending a dime there...it's bad enough living in Florida but we can stick-it-to-Texas... for fun"

[Emile]

38. I 40 through the Texas panhandle is only 177 miles.

You can do that without stopping.

[chouchou]

53. Ah..Of course. Thanks!

[elocs]

36. I heard the other day from somewhere that half of America has a 6th grade intellect.

I don't know if it's true, but I could believe it, especially among Democrats who if they could only learn to simply vote for the Democratic candidates in Presidential, House and Senate races could graduate to an 8th grade intellect.

[NoMoreRepugs]

42. I believe it's 53% of US adults read at a 6th grade level.

That’s current 6th grade level, not 30 years ago.

[BigmanPigman]

45. I taught both 6th graders and 1st graders

My experience leads me to believe that they are closer to the 1st graders than they are to 6th graders.

As far as tRumpers' maturity level goes, they are below 1st graders in my opinion.

[FakeNoose]

40. Here's another thing: They think buying a "smartphone" makes them smart

Nope! It just gives them access to the idiocracy.

[markodochartaigh]

57. At the risk of being called an apologist

for my people, the slow bosons in the supercollider, I would like to say that I think that the most dangerous problem with our electorate is neither a lack of intelligence nor education. I think that the most dangerous problem is a lack of empathy.
I don't think that it is anything new. In a country with our history of slaughter of the indigenous population, our history of slavery, I think we cannot be said to be new to a lack of empathy.
I think that a lack of empathy is the crux of "saying the quiet part out loud" which we hear so frequently.
Certainly more education often goes with more empathy, but I think that the lack of empathy is the real problem, and that lack should be addressed in childhood.

[FakeNoose]

58. Good point: if parents have no empathy, how can they teach it to their kids?

In my opinion, a person with average or below-average intelligence could have empathy for others. But as you say, it's a thing that usually starts at a very young age.