Smart people saying stupid things

[000Ronald]

I'd like to preface this by saying that my father is the most intelligent person I've ever met. Ever. He's just strongly opinionated

I was talking to my father yesterday, when the topic of Star Wars came up. Which led to him saying, "Ronald, I hate Star Wars. Hate it."

"That's an odd standpoint to have." I replied. "Why is that."

"Because, Ronald," My father said. "It's a blantant rip-off of Dune."

Anyone familiar with Hero With A Thousand Faces will realize the flaw in this logic[footnote]Familiarity with the works of Issac Asimov helps, too.[/footnote]. Yet this is the biggest reason for his not liking it. And it's stupid Don't get me wrong, he's entitled to his opinion, but that doesn't make it any less stupid.

So, topic? Even the most intelligent of people are prone to great, great errors, and I think it might be cathartic to post those errs here. Think of the smartest person you know, then think of the stupidest thing they've ever said. Then post it. Have fun.

 

[Verlander]

Damn, Christopher Hitchens comes out with loads, then afterwards makes some half assed apology, but manages to confuse the reporter to the point where he seems to absolve himself from any sort of responsibility.

 

[Rylot]

I'm definitely not the smartest person I know but still; While taking a bus from the airport to our hotel in Sydney Australia I asked a friend of mine how far above sea level we were. When she responded with: "I'd guess about ten feet" I remembered that Sydney is a port. Christ I felt like an idiot that day.

 

[Naturality]

Looking back at history, it's easy to see thousands of examples of people we remember as intelligent being painfully wrong. For example, Philipp von Jolly, Max Planck's Physics professor said "in this field, almost everything is already discovered, and all that remains is to fill a few holes". Planck then went on to found quantum theory and demolish all 'known' physics of the time.

Regarding your Father, no he is not stupid. That is an intelligent standpoint to have, so you are the one who is not seeing the whole issue. While Dune, Star Wars, Hero of a Thousand Faces, Hidden Fortress and a thousand other examples all have a similar main theme, Star Wars still owes a great, great deal to Dune. The visual style, design and specifics of the characters are almost directly copied from Dune (and 2001: A Space Odyssey). Almost no new imagination went into it at all. On another note (of dubious authenticity), I have heard that the original scripts used the terms 'Spice', 'Sandworm', 'Fremen' (for the Sand people) and some of the character names from Dune and that the studio could not accept it due to plagiarism. Then again, I have no firm proof of that, so you can take it or leave it. But what is undoubtedly true is that Frank Herbert felt that his work was plagiarised, but could not take legal action because Lucas' lawyers would make the court battle far more expensive than the potential gains.

Also, those films just suck.

[/rant]