• When do you consider a person to be stupid?
    38 replies, posted
I was pondering about this over the past couple weeks - just a little something at the back of my mind as I went through my day. It's hard for me to say. I've talked about it with a friend tonight, but it's still something that seems a little weird to me. I don't think that I can say that a lot of people are stupid with the Google provided definition, which reads "lacking intelligence or common sense". If that's the real definition that everyone's going to go by, I'd have to fit a shit ton of people in there. Socially awkward people, for instance, lack social common sense, but aren't stupid - they're inexperienced. Someone who doesn't know how to use a band saw isn't stupid, they just lack the knowhow of operating a band saw. Someone who has a learning disability isn't stupid, they just have problems learning. That's when I thought about voluntarily preventing yourself from learning, or completely lacking the self awareness of how your lack of knowledge might affect others, but I'm pretty sure there are narcissists out there that are smart enough to do things like start cults, or people who are unethical but are extremely fluent in business, math, or whatever practice you can think of. My friend had this to say: [quote]I guess it kind of boils down to, being knowledgeable about something isn't being stupid, that's a separate topic. Being stupid is when you lack the ability to think. An extreme example being someone standing on a train track while a train approaches blaring its horn, and they don't get the hint that they should get off the track. You don't require knowledge of trains or horns to understand that one, it's a big fucking object moving quickly towards you. If you don't move, you're stupid. For the most part I don't think you meet a lot of truly stupid people out there, just people that don't know what you know, which isn't really stupidity.[/quote] But even then, is it just that they're doing a stupid thing, or are they stupid? Where's the threshold for when a person should be outright labeled as stupid? It's something I've been thinking about because I like paying attention to how people talk. Some people are quick to say people are stupid, while others are quick to say what people do are stupid. And I think that the people who judge the actions and not so much the person are the ones that usually give more consideration and think that they can get better, while people who say that people are stupid are quicker to dismiss the person. DUNNO, I OBSESS OVER DUMB QUESTIONS.
The best thing of being a human is that we don't need clear, logical definitions like computers do (neural networks are a whole another field tho). The "who is the stupid" is mostly a feel, a fluid social construct where the individual is doing what's not considered normal. He/She is considered stupid when you don't really know his/her background, like he's inexperienced or she has learning disability. Otherwise, it's a sticker, a sign for everyone else for what not to do, claimed by who calls the other stupid.
When they prove to me they are
[QUOTE=Butthurter;50401097]when they enjoy an adam sandler movie[/QUOTE] When they have a thought to even pick up an adam sandler movie.
When they fail to realize their own ineptitude.
When they aren't me, duh stupidity for me is acting before thinking over consequences i. e. taking the breaks off a car on a downhill road
Knowledge and intelligence are two very different things, and common sense is a lowest common denominator type of thing, restricted only to what a vast majority of people should be able to conclude on their own. That's the way I look at it, anyways, so the Google definition looks fine to me.
Let [I]K[/I]([I]P[/I]) be the set of all things known by person [I]P[/I], and let [I]En[/I]([I]P[/I]) be set of all things that can be known about the environment that [I]P[/I] is in. The stupidity of person [I]P[/I], [I]St[/I]([I]P[/I]) can be defined as [I]St[/I]([I]P[/I]) = |[I]En[/I]([I]P[/I])| / |[I]K[/I]([I]P[/I]) ∩ [I]En[/I]([I]P[/I])|. That is, the stupidity of a person is equal to the ratio of the size of [I]En[/I]([I]P[/I]) and the size of the intersection of [I]K[/I]([I]P[/I]) and [I]En[/I]([I]P[/I]). Simply, it's what a person doesn't know about his environment. [editline]27th May 2016[/editline] I'm pulling most of this out of my ass.
I consider someone stupid when they can't follow simple instructions, or has no problem taking over experienced on something they know nothing about. I work a lot with computers and when win8 came out I had to teach my sister how to login and go to the desktop, after I told her to click on the tile that says "desktop" on it, she immediately screamed about how she didn't see any tile with desktop on it, she didn't even bother taking a second glance she just straight said there isn't one. to me that's idiocy, being unable to attempt to follow instructions and just straight up dismissing the problem on something else, not even attempting to try again, or trying another solution. the other thing I consider stupidity is people who talk confidently about things they know nothing about and think they can preach about it to everyone else. A family friend was talking about how she called in a favour to have her laptop formatted and upgraded to win 10, my dad interjected and he offered to have me do it, since I've formatted and upgraded our house PC's in the past, her response was, and I shit you not, "but he doesn't have a computer science degree". now I don't wanna sound like an elitist, but this isn't the first time she spewed bull shit and blatantly incorrect information, this is just a case that hit particularly close to home.
Rockeiro, consider that people who struggle with simple tasks may in fact be overthinking them or prone to daydreaming and not necessarily stupid. Your sister sounds a lot like my partner with the whole getting angry quickly when you're only trying to help. What you need to do is be the bigger person, remain calm, cheery, and most importantly keep rephrasing your instruction/explanation until they get it. Try and stay compassionate for your own sake as much as hers. As I'm sure you know, Windows usually has a multitude of ways of doing the same thing, so you can tell the person all of them and one will stick due to their 'unique' way of thinking. As for snobby laptop bitch, it's her loss. She's down a favour and you're not roped into being her IT minion forevermore. Getting ones self-affirmation and esteem from others makes one prey for people who like to control other people.
Anyone thats stupid considers another person stupid. Everyones a genius in their own way.
If you can't follow simple instructions and keep repeating the same mistakes/poor choices you've previously made despite ample time to consider alternatives, I consider those people to be stupid.
My girl just dressed up nicely before me, before going out with 2 friends to get laid. It turns out she's been cheating on me for ages. I feel pretty stupid.
[QUOTE=Tools;50401956]My girl just dressed up nicely before me, before going out with 2 friends to get laid. It turns out she's been cheating on me for ages. I feel pretty stupid.[/QUOTE] You have no reason to feel that way. It's completely normal to expect your girl friend not to cheat on you. Life will go on, friend.
Bitches ain't shit but hoes and tricks. Don't let her undermine your trust in the decency of people. It's her weakness that she's immoral and lacks empathy and not yours. x
[QUOTE=BeAR!);50401996]When they cannot listen, or simply refuse to embrace new ideas with an open mind is a big one for me[/QUOTE] Pretty much if they have a "well if it ain't broke, don't fix it" Doesn't mean it can't be improved! That's why we still don't drive fucking horse drawn buggies still.
I see it like this, ignorance is simply doing your best with information that needs completion, but stupidity means having said information and not doing anything with it. I have understanding for the former, a lack of respect for the latter.
When they justify their weird fetishes.
[QUOTE=varg666;50403106]When they justify their weird fetishes.[/QUOTE] I don't think people's weird fetishes matter. Someone who gets off on BDSM or whatever doesn't bother me - it's their thing. As long as they aren't pushing it onto anyone else it's not an issue. There's some people that view blowjobs as a weird fetish, and that anything that isn't the missionary position is out of line. I've also got some very attractive and seemingly normal female friends that have told me all kinds of things like how they have hentai collections or how they like dominating anal, and that's never really bothered me. It's not like they're pushing that shit onto me. I think it's more stupid to be concerned with how other people get off.
to me, it's okay if they don't know something or aren't fully aware of what something is. Stupidity is when they refuse to learn and understand. In my opinion, at least... It's hard for me to call someone stupid unless they are stubborn assholes who can't talk civilly, or keep making the same mistakes on purpose and justifying it for whatever retarded reason.
Stupidity is relative to what you know.
This is just me talking straight out of my head.... I am not educated in this matter so this is just a theory of mine. We learn from information, and information comes from parents, friends and the environment in generall (and everything else that the brain recieves). When a person is stupid (lack of knowledge, un-logical actions/thoughts) it's because they haven't learned it; because they haven't retrieved that information. They may be stupid, but that's because of other factors, like lack of education, bad environment, people that won't even socialize with them (isolated/excluded/outcasted). [U]In my opinion we're all stupid[/U], because we have not formed a stable and suitable environment in order to properly develop these individuals. That's why we inform others, like schools. It's not age that increase wisdom, it's the experience. A french baby does not speak french at birth, we teach it. A New York gangster stays a criminal because he socialize with other New York Gangsters. City districts with crimes and low-economical classes tend to fall in the same position as the people around them. In the 19th century, a person was highly intellectual because he could switch a light bulb, now we must know quantom physics. It is "our own little truths (meta-level)" that tells us what's stupid, untill we learn ourself new reasons; It is constanly evolving (like culture and sub-culture). Instead of moving criminals in one sector, we spread them out in areas that has low criminal rates, and these people adapt very quickly to become less criminal. Even the mother's situation changes the unborn child's future genetics and psychological strenghts and weaknesses. Here's an example: There's a big lake where people fish everyday because they want food. The next day the government bans fishing in all lakes. People will follow those orders at first, but the problem is: people aren't getting food and they will do it anyway. In the mind of the government and rich people, these "criminals" are stupid, but in the "criminals" minds, they're smart because they're trying to survive. What I'm trying to say is that there's always a reason to a stupid act, or even thousands of reasons that strengthens each other to a main reason. Another example: A boy likes to draw dicks on public walls. Why? Because he doesn't care, and that's when we should look deeper on this "doesn't care" emotion; why does it exist? The reason could be many. The process can be miles long, from reason to reason, like this order: The boy's family lost the house to the bank > Hates the bank > Later realise that the government do nothing against it > Hates the government > Therefore disrespects public property. Or maybe he's just an artist that grew up in New Zealand's beautiful landscape that inspired him beauty? (the beauty of the cock). Humans like jewelry because it glitters, and we have an instinct to find water that is glittering. A person wouldn't like communism during the WW2 because of the danger of the color red, may not be a major factor, but if combined by several others, it becomes a major one. Third example: We have 1 million citizens that believe in 2 solutions: One, kill the guy --- Two, release the guy. It was untill afterwards some scientist had the brilliant idea to rehabilitate him, so people became aware of a new option. Imagine all the options we're not aware of, there could unlimited solutions that would prevent us from doing something stupid. I don't blame the person, I blame our lack of responsibility to improve our society that affects others. Because there's reason why people are different, and why they're different in other parts of the world. We're an evolved specie because of our self-awareness, so be aware of your own knowledge and where you got it from. Everything you believe could be a lie, untill at 10 years later, you'd be a completely new person with a whole different world view. In 1000 years (if we survive) the people will look back and think we're all stupid, like we think of cave men.
[QUOTE=Zonesylvania;50401851]If you can't follow simple instructions and keep repeating the same mistakes/poor choices you've previously made despite ample time to consider alternatives, I consider those people to be stupid.[/QUOTE] eh, some people learn different ways though ( depends of what you're teaching though like if it some very basic shit )
When they think KEEMSTAR is a good Youtuber :v:.
I thought I was smart. It turns out that's when I became stupid.
To me stupidity has always been the rejection of knowledge. It's fine to be ignorant, but if you have the opportunity to learn and refuse, then I believe you are stupid. And I don't mean like you have the option to take art history in college but you decide not to, I mean if someone is directly and explicitly conveying information to you that is or could be to your benefit and you refuse to listen, you are stupid.
[QUOTE=varg666;50403106]When they justify their weird fetishes.[/QUOTE] This post is my answer Sex taste and intelligence aren't connected. Getting pissy about people's sex taste however...
when ur wickedplayer494
In a way for me it's people who get pissed off/offended when they are given any sort of criticism.
[QUOTE=Honson;50401553]Anyone thats stupid considers another person stupid. Everyones a genius in their own way.[/QUOTE] Fuck this special snowflake shit. There are some genuine dumbasses in this world. Politicians around the world strive to prove this every day.
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