Fandango’s Provocative Question #15 Redux
The question of the day is:
“The fundamental cause of the trouble is that, in the modern world, the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubts.”
– Bertrand Russell
Is this really a question? Is there anyone more sure of their facts than someone who doesn’t have any facts? True there are educated people who are obnoxious about their knowledge of whatever they are knowledgeable about, but ignorant people are doubt-free. They just know. Everything.
You can’t argue with stupid people, especially with stupid people who are stupid on purpose. You know, those who chose the road to dim-wittedness because education is too much like work? I used to think that there was more stupidity now than there used to be, but I have spent a lot of time reading American history. I have concluded that the stupid and breathlessly ignorant have always been with us and always will be. What has changed is today, they are all over social media and of course, there’s also Faux News. You can’t escape it. The dumbness seeps through walls. Steel doors are no deterrent. Guns cannot stop it. We are helpless as it slithers towards us.
Would life have been easier had I been a lot dumber? I have no idea how to be stupid. This reminds me of the end of my career when I was told that my bosses didn’t care if I wrote well, only that I should write fast. They felt I was wasting time trying to make the book readable. Garry bumped into the same thing in his job, too.
The problem? I don’t know how to write bad copy. How do you do that? Is there a special format? Do you have to ignore all the rules of grammar and punctuation — or only some of them.
Some abilities in life are a gift. Stupidity is a gift. You’re born with it or you’re not.
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Categories: #American-history, #FPQ, Anecdote, Provocative Questions, stupidity
SERENDIPITY: SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
No, you can’t argue with stupid people. It’s just a waste of time.
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A total waste of time and I to make it worse, I get really angry. It is so NOT worth the effort. The thing is, most people aren’t really quite THAT stupid. They may not be brilliant, but they aren’t as dumb as they pretend. A lot of their stupidity is intentional and intended to prevent anyone from arguing with them.
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Hi Marilyn, I agree with you. It is the intelligent who doubt and question, the ignorant never do. Sometimes I think its better to be just above average than highly intelligent. Highly intelligent people suffer a lot more in life because we don’t understand why others think and react the way they do because it doesn’t make sense to us. I drive my hubby crazy as I’m always saying people’s reactions are strange and I can’t understand them. I also can’t understand how they make the poor and marginalized invisible. That is something I sometimes wish I could do so I didn’t feel so much pain.
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You really sound like me. I can’t understand how anyone can THINK like that. It is incoherent, illogical, and sometimes, just plain weird. It’s why I often feel like I’m not on the same planet as most other humans.
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So well expressed Marilyn
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Thanks Sadje! I used to think stupidity had grown, but it hasn’t. It’s just we can’t avoid it anymore. It never goes away.
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It’s part of us, but more people are embracing it now.
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A lot of those stupid people are acting stupid. They don’t have to be like that. It’s a choice, not genetic.
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Yes, since a certain person has been in the White House, they have released their inner lunatic.
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Sigh. We keep trying to make sense of stuff that basically makes no sense. We are not the right people to make sense of the senseless.
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I understand! 👍🏼🥲
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