Are there no stupid people anymore?

[IOwnTheSpire]

Not sure if trolling or stupid. We've seen that phrase around, right? Nowadays, it seems like very few people believe stupid people exist anymore. Every stupid or ridiculous thing said is now considered trolling, because apparently saying something so stupid, they have to be just trolling, right?

Well, the truth is they can exist and do exist, and I feel like we need to stop assuming that everytime someone posts some Illuminati crap or fake moon landing bull or flat earth nonsense or whatever that they're just trying to troll or rile people up.

Yes, there are genuine trolls out there, but some people really believe in this stuff, and I think the world 'troll' is one that gets thrown out there way too casually that the word doesn't mean much anymore.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

 

[tippy2k2]

There are plenty of stupid people around. For example, my uncle believes that President Obama has been sending in crews to murder Americans (9/11 was an inside job, Sandy Hook and similar school shootings are either fake or perpetrated by government black-op groups) in order to weaken America for his Muslim brothers (oh, Obama is a Muslim here btw and if it wasn't clear, all Muslims are evil) by eroding our infrastructure and scaring people into allowing the government to literally go door to door in order to strip people of their guns so that we can't fight back when we are invaded by the Muslims. When I asked him how he can view the government and O'Bummer (I get it! My uncle is so clever!) as BOTH incredibly incompetent AND sophisticated and smart enough to pull off all these killings of American citizens without anyone being able to find out about it, I found out that there is a secret government behind the scenes that pulls all the strings. Whether this is the Illuminati, The Lizard People, or the LGBT I have yet to be able to discover.

Not one of those things I said up there was made up and he loves to spout his dribble on Facebook. Stupid people do indeed exist unless he is the greatest troll known to man and has been spouting that bullshit this entire time for the lulz.

 

[DementedSheep]

For the most part calling something "trolling" is just an excuse to ignore it and if it's a widespread sentiment pretend there is no issue. "Oh they don't REALLY mean that so this isn't a problem".

 

[Lufia Erim]

There are plenty of stupid people around. For example, my uncle believes that President Obama has been sending in crews to murder Americans (9/11 was an inside job, Sandy Hook and similar school shootings are either fake or perpetrated by government black-op groups) in order to weaken America for his Muslim brothers (oh, Obama is a Muslim here btw and if it wasn't clear, all Muslims are evil) by eroding our infrastructure and scaring people into allowing the government to literally go door to door in order to strip people of their guns so that we can't fight back when we are invaded by the Muslims. When I asked him how he can view the government and O'Bummer (I get it! My uncle is so clever!) as BOTH incredibly incompetent AND sophisticated and smart enough to pull off all these killings of American citizens without anyone being able to find out about it, I found out that there is a secret government behind the scenes that pulls all the strings. Whether this is the Illuminati, The Lizard People, or the LGBT I have yet to be able to discover.

Not one of those things I said up there was made up and he loves to spout his dribble on Facebook. Stupid people do indeed exist unless he is the greatest troll known to man and has been spouting that bullshit this entire time for the lulz.

That was the funniest thing i read this week. Man you should videotape him saying all that at once and play it back during parties.

OT: Trolls are the ones that say those things on the internet, stupid people are the ones who say those things in real life.

 

[DefunctTheory]

I don't think I have ever seen anyone say there are no stupid people. In fact, its frequently the opposite - That all or most of the people they encounter are dumb.

People call other people trolls for a multitude of reasons:

1. It is less depressing to think your in the presence of an asshole then someone who is truly mentally deficient
2. To trivialize the opposition
3. Because they honestly feel like their being trolled
4. Most places of argument, particularly on the internet today, are actually pretty shitty places for the exchanging of ideas. Forums like the Escapist are fine, but Tumblr, Twitter, Youtube, Facebook... it's really hard to have a real discussion there. So everyone's stuff is diluted in content and quality, and then regardless of the strength of the opinions being voiced, it all looks like gibberish and trolling.

Did you have a specific beef? Like racist getting called trolls, or global warming people, or just in general?

 

[Chessrook44]

If you think there's no stupid people, clearly you've never spent time working in the Retail or Customer Support Industries.

 

[TheVampwizimp_v1legacy]

For me, its just less depressing to believe that most of the lunatic things people say on the internet are intentionally bogus. Because if I really lived in a world where the constant tidal wave of idiocy and ineptitude that crashes over us at all times is not, in fact, an illusion... Well, then I might just be tempted to strip down and join the slavering horde.

 

[mardocOz]

Just out of curiosity, how are we defining "stupid" here? Are we judging people as "stupid" based on their political beliefs being different to ours? Or are we simply saying anyone who isn't a member of Mensa is a gibbering moron?

I see plenty of people I would refer to as stupid whenever I put the news on and see people at Donald Trump rallies. I see the evidence of what I consider stupidity whenever people start talking about sexism on the Internet (and I am not weighing in on that debate, I see evidence of stupidity from all comers there, I'm staying the hell out). My point is simply if we are going to judge whether or not people are stupid, perhaps we should clarify exactly what "being stupid" actually means?

 

[MysticSlayer]

Poe's Law basically sums it up. It's hard to tell when someone is being serious or not on the Internet unless they explicitly indicate that they aren't being serious. And for every extreme view, there's probably people that accept it just like there are people that are just spouting it all out for laughs.

And with that said, it is a lot more comforting to imagine that the person is laughing along with us. If the person is laughing along with us, we can feel reasonably safe that they aren't going to push those ideas. If they're serious, there's the potential for them to contribute (or attempt to contribute) to some serious problems in the name of their ideas.

But considering there are people that apparently think Obama is the antichrist, Oprah is the whore of Babylon, and that the world will end in the next few years and are giving people a lot of money to preach this nonsense, the more worrying situation probably is the case more often than we wish to be.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

I work in retail--in returns. Stupid people exist. Enough said.

If you think there's no stupid people, clearly you've never spent time working in the Retail or Customer Support Industries.

Hey, imagine that. Someone shares my feelings--and probably my pain.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

100% of humanity are stupid. All of us. All the time. Every single person in all of human history, from Brian White of '67 Boston to Gandhi, Sarah Palin to Ramesses, Leonidas to Sarah and even Einstein.

All of us, stupid. Especially that one dude! you know, him...

 

[Zontar]

If you think there's no stupid people, clearly you've never spent time working in the Retail or Customer Support Industries.

Oh god can I vouch for this after working a 3 month contract as a pharmacy clerk (owner knew my father and needed help while he looked for full time employees). There was a grown woman who thought the hour and minute hands where reversed.

Also, at the factory I work at in the summer one of the other student workers was a guy who couldn't follow the plot of Jurassic World because it went over his head.

 

[Guffe]

I work in retail--in returns. Stupid people exist. Enough said.

If you think there's no stupid people, clearly you've never spent time working in the Retail or Customer Support Industries.

Hey, imagine that. Someone shares my feelings--and probably my pain.

Not anymore, but used to work in a grocery store, I know the pain also.

My current job doesn't have lack of stupid in it either.
So yes, they still are out there.

 

[davidmc1158_v1legacy]

100% of humanity are stupid. All of us. All the time. Every single person in all of human history, from Brian White of '67 Boston to Gandhi, Sarah Palin to Ramesses, Leonidas to Sarah and even Einstein.

This is so very true. Every last one of us has the capacity to be stupid and we all seem to exercise that power on a regular basis. I've always assumed it was one of the basic aspects of being human.

As for an example, I have one that stands out in my memory. A fairly young (19 or so) person I used to work with was a very nice and friendly person, but not very quick on the uptake. One day I told her the world's oldest bad joke: "Three men walk into a bar. The Fourth one ducked."


A week later this person came back to ask me to explain the joke as they still hadn't figured it out.

So sad

 

[Kolby Jack]

By definition, half the human population has a below average intelligence. However a lot of time people are accused of being stupid, it's because they have just done something stupid by mistake. That's hardly a good impression of someone's intelligence.

Stories of stupidity also get propagated throughout the internet because it's easy to judge people that you'll never meet anonymously and feel better about yourself even though the observation is petty and mean. The world is full of people who get enraged when anyone insinuates they're better than them (whether they actually did or not), but those same people often laugh at those they feel are beneath them because they're gullible, or illiterate, or disenfranchised, or scared.

And you know what? That's fine. The world is a cruel place, your anonymous sneering likely won't tip the scales, and we all need to feel a little better about ourselves every now and then. But don't mock someone out of hatred for what they are; mock them because it's funny, and then mock yourself, because you're a god damn idiot.

 

[wolfyrik]

100% of humanity are stupid. All of us. All the time. Every single person in all of human history, from Brian White of '67 Boston to Gandhi, Sarah Palin to Ramesses, Leonidas to Sarah and even Einstein.

All of us, stupid. Especially that one dude! you know, him...

I tend to agree with the sentiment but would put it a different way. It's not that people are stupid, it's that we're too lazy too think about what we believe and why, which means we believe the most stupid things. Ben Carson is a prime example, the guy is clearly intellgient in his job, when it comes to his capcity to learn and yet he believes in the most ridiculous crap which makes him look incredibly stupid. If Ben Carson were to post on forums everyone would think he was the dumbest fuck on the face of the Earth. Here's a guy so backwards, so stupid that he believes the pyramids were grain silos for a fictional biblical character....yet can tell you which parts of your brain do precisely what and whip out tumors to keep you alive.

Joshua feuerstein appears to beone chicken fuck away from a Darwin Award, but is he really so stupid? How much money has he made from creationists over the last few years?

People aren't stupid they just believe stupid things. Trolls are just people with nothing better to do. Some people I, suspect, appear to be stupid in order to gain something from people who believe stupid things.

 

[09philj]

Visit the Facebook page of any far right political party and you will find there are many, many stupid people.

 

[Thaluikhain]

There are plenty of stupid people around. For example, my uncle believes that President Obama has been sending in crews to murder Americans (9/11 was an inside job, Sandy Hook and similar school shootings are either fake or perpetrated by government black-op groups) in order to weaken America for his Muslim brothers (oh, Obama is a Muslim here btw and if it wasn't clear, all Muslims are evil) by eroding our infrastructure and scaring people into allowing the government to literally go door to door in order to strip people of their guns so that we can't fight back when we are invaded by the Muslims. When I asked him how he can view the government and O'Bummer (I get it! My uncle is so clever!) as BOTH incredibly incompetent AND sophisticated and smart enough to pull off all these killings of American citizens without anyone being able to find out about it, I found out that there is a secret government behind the scenes that pulls all the strings. Whether this is the Illuminati, The Lizard People, or the LGBT I have yet to be able to discover.

Well...IMHO, that's not stupidity, that's not a mistake someone makes by accident, that's a belief they hold in teh face of all evidence because they want to.

 

[BlindTom]

If you think there's no stupid people, clearly you've never spent time working in the Retail or Customer Support Industries.

I've worked in Customer Service a lot and in a way it's brought me round to a different viewpoint. To begin with I though "Wow most of these people are cripplingly stupid. Like constantly dribbling and wearing one of those caps with a propeller on it stupid." These days I realise that being illiterate in a first world county, and speaking only one language but with the skill of someone who is newly bilingual can't possibly be a sign of stupidity. If these people had a hard cap on their processing ability- and this was causing them to appear stupid- then they wouldn't be able to find the toilet before they shit themselves. (Then again there was that guy who got so angry he did actually shit. I had to talk to his mother..).

The fact that people can look too stupid to live but still actually function without killing themselves with the toaster or something is terrifying. There are no stupid people, there are only people who are woefully undereqipped to deal with vast swathes of adult existence. It could be you and you wouldn't even know.

There are no stupid people, only people lacking practice in things that come natural to well rounded adults. Then there also people with genuine learning difficulties, but the borderline between that and what's being described in this thread is a terrifying minefield.