Naked Science Forum
General Science => General Science => Topic started by: BabyDoll on 09/11/2008 11:22:34
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How does one generalise stupidity?
Is being oblivious stupid?
Lack of common sense - stupid?
I cant do Trivia - am I stupid?
Mod edit - formatted the subject as a question - please do this to help keep the forum tidy and easy to navigate - thanks!
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I think stupidity is more to do with attitude than ability.
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I think stupidity is more to do with attitude than ability.
Well said.
I would say the trait of stupidity that annoys me most is ignorance
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There are lots of human traits as well as stupidity - generosity, compassion, genius ....
They all have their limits though, stupidity doesn't.
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The Darwin award nominees are examples of world-class stupidity, e.g. ...
NOMINEE 16 - Associated Press, Kincaid, W. VA:
Blasting Cap Explodes in Man's Mouth at Party. A man at a party popped a blasting cap into his mouth and bit down, triggering an explosion that blew off his lips, teeth and tongue, state police said Wednesday. Jerry Stromyer, 24, of Kincaid, bit the blasting cap as a prank during a party late Tuesday night, said Cpl. M.D. Payne. "Another man had it in an aquarium, hooked to a battery, and was trying to explode it," Payne said. "It wouldn't go off and this guy said, 'I'll show you how to set it off.' I just can't imagine anyone doing something like that," Payne said.
NOMINEE #17 - Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 1-1-93:
In December near Mineral Wells, Tex., three men who were attempting to steal copper wire off live electrical lines for resale were electrocuted. Copper wiring is a valuable scrap metal in Texas but is usually stolen from electric cables that are not being used.
Low Blow for Gunman VANCOUVER (CP)
From The Calgary Sun Saturday, December 28, 1996:
A man arguing over a love triangle accidentally shot himself in the groin, taking off his testicles and part of his penis. Police said the man was waving a .357 Magnum revolver around during the shouting match early yesterday. But when he stuffed it back in his pants the gun went off. Police were called to the hospital after the man in his 20's was brought in by friends. Charges are pending against the victim, who is expected to survive.
http://wilk4.com/humor/humorm12.htm
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Strange that most of the nominees are from the Americas, or is it!
"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
and we will make them stupid" [:P]
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Brits are proportionally represented in the Darwin Awards, e.g this death-by-fairycake Brummie...
A mature student choked to death after an "impromptu" challenge by a friend to see who could eat the most fairy cakes...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/7545002.stm
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I'm broadly with the 'attitude' camp of thinking, although I think it can be taken a bit deeper - why would people want to adopt a stupid attitude?
My best hypotheses is that it comes down to fear of failure. The reasoning behind this is that knowledge and understanding of something brings with it a degree of responsibility. For example, if you see a bad situation that you understand, but which others don't, you will feel that there is an onus upon you to correct it even if the bad situation wasn't caused by you. The alternative is to do nothing and let the bad situation continue. This sounds straightforward enough - if you're selfless you fix it and if you're selfish you don't, but tied in with this is the fact that just about everyone will have had the experience of believing that they understood something only to find out later that they were wrong. This means that people can be reluctant to do the right thing when they are right because they're not confident enough that they're right and fear the embarrassment of being wrong.
In short, people can be scared of being intelligent in case they're not as intelligent as they think they are. Being stupid, on the other hand is something that's regarded as being beyond personal control - it's not my fault I'm not smart.
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I'm broadly with the 'attitude' camp of thinking, although I think it can be taken a bit deeper - why would people want to adopt a stupid attitude?
My best hypotheses is that it comes down to fear of failure. The reasoning behind this is that knowledge and understanding of something brings with it a degree of responsibility. For example, if you see a bad situation that you understand, but which others don't, you will feel that there is an onus upon you to correct it even if the bad situation wasn't caused by you. The alternative is to do nothing and let the bad situation continue. This sounds straightforward enough - if you're selfless you fix it and if you're selfish you don't, but tied in with this is the fact that just about everyone will have had the experience of believing that they understood something only to find out later that they were wrong. This means that people can be reluctant to do the right thing when they are right because they're not confident enough that they're right and fear the embarrassment of being wrong.
In short, people can be scared of being intelligent in case they're not as intelligent as they think they are. Being stupid, on the other hand is something that's regarded as being beyond personal control - it's not my fault I'm not smart.
Interesting. So what you are saying is its a "perception". And perception (of stupidity) is fear induced. So, a conceited person will never "think" he is stupid.
But let me just add that its all relative. "Smartness" to one person is different to another. Say if I am sales person and have no clue about IT, I would probably think the engineer who can fix my computer as being smart whereas for an IT specialist will just think that engineer as being mediocre.
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Here's a real life example. I used to work with a "moron". This guy doesnt know his elbow from his rectum but he is good in talking and fluffing things up. Hence he got to his senior position. I had a discussion with him once and we were discussing market knowledge where he didnt have any. He started to argue with my facts and he kept comparing apples to oranges. Obviously his method was incorrect and but he refused to back down. Finally he pulled the "I'm the boss" ranking and I had to follow his moronic instruction. Obviously it was a waste of time because the end result knocked us back to square one.
How do you deal with stupidity and an argumentative one!!
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Yeah I know the type you mean, its like they build a wall which is impervious to reason. I hate that.
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I think you've already dealt with it
I used to work with a "moron"
(my empathises)
You either put up with it or remove yourself from it.
I think this might be another aspect of fear of failure, although in these cases the person is so scared of being shown to be wrong that they'll enter denial over it, to the extent of irrationality. This phenomenon seems to be especially common, if not ubiquitous amongst politicians.
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I think you've already dealt with it
I used to work with a "moron"
(my empathises)
You either put up with it or remove yourself from it.
I think this might be another aspect of fear of failure, although in these cases the person is so scared of being shown to be wrong that they'll enter denial over it, to the extent of irrationality. This phenomenon seems to be especially common, if not ubiquitous amongst politicians.
Definitely. Most people like that are either scared of failure, been hurt badly or very insecure. Hence the retortion via being condescending, conceiting, bullying.
Unfortunate part is people like that are everywhere.
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I used to work with a "moron".
You can move but sadly they end up getting promoted to their next level of incompetence - so, no action needed.
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And here is my take: Stupidity is defined by one's inability to avoid intellectual intercourse with someone incapable of such. Sort of lake rape in a social sense.
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I'll go with Sophie:)
Attitude rules.
And Ignorance.
Being poor it's difficult not to be ignorant, and the attitude you meet will more have to do with surviving than reading.
But being rich, attitude is your way of telling others what a remarkable person you are.
Although one could expect less ignorance here, one probably will see as much, if not more.
But people using their minds exist everywhere, in all strata of society.
But there are a lot of poor people in the States too.
And 6.7 million unemployed.