The choice of stupidity

[Sky Dancer]

Plenty of stupid people already have the legal right to marry. Just look at the divorce rate.

 

[Valerie]

Plenty of stupid people already have the legal right to marry. Just look at the divorce rate.

I know, right?

Just think of what having both parents work two full time jobs and still not being able to afford their mortgage...What does that do for the destruction of marriages, I wonder?


You know, I'm starting to wonder whether the politicians might actually have an interest in keeping the people stupid.

 

[Sky Dancer]

Fundamentalism keeps people stupid. It's always the 'holier than thou' types that are wagging their fingers at someone else's bedroom privacy while bragging about making it with six guys at one party.

 

[Ravi]

Ravi, I try to take people at face value and give them the benefit of the doubt, but you seem to be trying to communicate to me that I shouldn't take you seriously. Is that the case, or am I misreading your signals?

I'm always deadly serious, Amanda.

Since you couldn't, or wouldn't, tell us your motive in posing your question about homosexuals I decided to try to put myself in your mindset.

There are many groups of people that I think don't benefit society, or at the very least, annoy me. Fundamentalist religious groups of any type. Republicans. Heck, even black people sometimes annoy me because I swear they purposely walk slower when I stop my car to let pedestrians pass. But I decided to pick stupid people as the subject because I think stupidity is a non-partisan, non-racial and non-denominational group. And I also have this nebulous theory that no one is limited by their stupidity...stupid people can always work to improve their intelligence level.

So stupid people...do they benefit society or not? I could argue on either side of the issue. If they don't benefit society, should we care? Should we do something about it? Is the individual's right less important than the well being of society...even among a group that doesn't purposely harm anyone? Should we force stupid people to stop acting like stupid people? It all sounds vaguely communistic to me, but I'm not always correct.

So mocking me is actually your way of trying to start a meaningful discussion?

Do you feel mocked? How sad that makes me. Is mocking gays your way of trying to start a meaningful discussion?

 

[Amanda]

I truly am naive. When I started this experiment I thought that liberals would be nice to me. I thought they were supposed to be the kinder, gentler people. I'd never really known any so I didn't have any way to know better. I really am shocked at the obvious glee that some seem to derive from trying to hurt my feelings.

It must be frustrating tho... not that it isn't working, it's not, but that personal attacks are the best you've got. I'm dumb remember? Shouldn't it be easy to outwit me? But no, nothing of any substance, just mocking and name calling.

I'd be embarrassed to be sitting back acting morally and intellectually superior and having to resort to these kinds of tactics. Heck, I don't think I'm morally and intellectually superior to anyone and I'd still be embarrassed.... that's why I don't do it. It would make me feel like a small person to try to hurt someone just because I disagreed with them or didn't like them for whatever reasons you've dreamed up to not like me. It's funny, you don't even know me and you put such energy into me. Ironically, I like all of you. I really do. I think about the things you've posted and pray for your families when you're in some kind of distress. I try to send love and light to all of you every day.

I just wish I knew a way to make you happy.

 

[jillian]

why do you think "liberals" should tolerate intolerance? I find that strange. I don't think it's anyone's job to be nice or not nice. There are people we connect with and people we don't. If someone thinks your point is bogus, they are going to tell you. It doesn't mean they "don't like [you]". If you look around, you're playing to a tough audience. So I'm not sure why you'd expect anyone to not call you on being wrong... or inconsistent... or hypocritial... or whatever.

I'm not sure you really want to take posts on a messageboard to heart in any event.

 

[Amanda]

why do you think "liberals" should tolerate intolerance? I find that strange. I don't think it's anyone's job to be nice or not nice. There are people we connect with and people we don't. If someone thinks your point is bogus, they are going to tell you. It doesn't mean they "don't like [you]". If you look around, you're playing to a tough audience. So I'm not sure why you'd expect anyone to not call you on being wrong... or inconsistent... or hypocritial... or whatever.

I'm not sure you really want to take posts on a messageboard to heart in any event.

Calling me on what you think I've said is wrong is one thing, calling me names is another.

 

[Ravi]

I truly am naive. When I started this experiment I thought that liberals would be nice to me. I thought they were supposed to be the kinder, gentler people. I'd never really known any so I didn't have any way to know better. I really am shocked at the obvious glee that some seem to derive from trying to hurt my feelings.

It must be frustrating tho... not that it isn't working, it's not, but that personal attacks are the best you've got. I'm dumb remember? Shouldn't it be easy to outwit me? But no, nothing of any substance, just mocking and name calling.

I'd be embarrassed to be sitting back acting morally and intellectually superior and having to resort to these kinds of tactics. Heck, I don't think I'm morally and intellectually superior to anyone and I'd still be embarrassed.... that's why I don't do it. It would make me feel like a small person to try to hurt someone just because I disagreed with them or didn't like them for whatever reasons you've dreamed up to not like me. It's funny, you don't even know me and you put such energy into me. Ironically, I like all of you. I really do. I think about the things you've posted and pray for your families when you're in some kind of distress. I try to send love and light to all of you every day.

I just wish I knew a way to make you happy.

LOL! You're joking, right? I wasn't calling you stupid...I was substituting stupidity for homosexuality as a group of people to claim have a detrimental societal benefit. The topic isn't about you, Amanda, it is about do we as a society have the right to label certain groups of non-criminal people as a detriment to society.

Listen, if you can't have a discussion without your feelings getting hurt or your thinking that someone dislikes you or is out to get you I'll just drop it.

 

[Diuretic]

Don't knock stupidity - if it weren't for stupidity I'd be unemployed

 

[Diuretic]

Fundamentalism keeps people stupid. It's always the 'holier than thou' types that are wagging their fingers at someone else's bedroom privacy while bragging about making it with six guys at one party.

Stupid is honest. Hypocrisy is sickening because hypocrites know exactly what they're on about.

 

[KittenKoder]

Don't knock stupidity - if it weren't for stupidity I'd be unemployed

Same here ...

 

[KittenKoder]

stupid people dont realize how stupid they are...nor how annoying they are...i have always noticed that the more brains the more depression and broodiness...perhays being stupid is really a happy state

If that's true it confirms my theory that I'm dumb as fuck, cos I'm happy almost all the time. And if being smart means I have to be bitter or depressed then no thanks I'll stay stupid.

Actually ... ignorance it bliss ... stupid is dead. So you can't be stupid ...

 

[LiveUninhibited]

I truly am naive. When I started this experiment I thought that liberals would be nice to me. I thought they were supposed to be the kinder, gentler people. I'd never really known any so I didn't have any way to know better. I really am shocked at the obvious glee that some seem to derive from trying to hurt my feelings.

Liberals are not a homogenous group. There are nice and mean ones, just like conservatives. There are ones who critically analyze issues to arrive at liberalism as well as those who do not do a lot of thinking. You assuming all liberals are nice is like assuming all Black people will be criminals or all Chinese people will be good at math.

It must be frustrating tho... not that it isn't working, it's not, but that personal attacks are the best you've got. I'm dumb remember? Shouldn't it be easy to outwit me? But no, nothing of any substance, just mocking and name calling.

You can't actually believe that liberals are the only ones who throw around insults here. I suppose you might think that because it's mostly liberals who insult you, but do you really not notice ad hominems directed at liberals? Indeed, some people seem to be here primarily in order to insult liberals. That shouldn't be surprising because this is a political forum without the same strict guidelines on things like personal attacks that some others have. Your "experiment" is like playing a game on a PVP server and being surprised when people kill you (as opposed to a server where you cannot kill other players, i.e. people who want to kill other players go to PVP servers, and people who want to insult others go to places where you're able to).

If you want to talk about hypocrisy, lets talk about how many people who call themselves conservative Christians act towards people different from them.

I'd be embarrassed to be sitting back acting morally and intellectually superior and having to resort to these kinds of tactics. Heck, I don't think I'm morally and intellectually superior to anyone and I'd still be embarrassed.... that's why I don't do it. It would make me feel like a small person to try to hurt someone just because I disagreed with them or didn't like them for whatever reasons you've dreamed up to not like me. It's funny, you don't even know me and you put such energy into me. Ironically, I like all of you. I really do. I think about the things you've posted and pray for your families when you're in some kind of distress. I try to send love and light to all of you every day.

I just wish I knew a way to make you happy.

I am glad you're one of the few non-hypocritical Christians in that regard. You are also correct that people who engage in ad hominem attacks aren't doing a good job of making their point.

However, you should also try to understand that being happy is largely a matter of attitude of the individual in question. You can't really make somebody happy. Also I'd venture to guess that having a healthy attitude about life and being happy as a result is a type of intelligence that not everybody who is intelligent in other ways has. The idea that stupidity is happiness is a very damaging idea to making the world better for ourselves and others.

The problem with discussing politics is that very few people have any clue on how society works. So they guess based upon how they personally want it to work. This is partly because the sciences surrounding human behavior, especially sociology, are underdeveloped and poorly integrated.

I have this idea that "evil" actions are almost always based upon ignorance, as Jesus suggested (forgive them, they know not what they do). Our ignorance of how society works causes evil policies to prevail among democratic processes. There is, therefore, a moral imperative to try to avoid stupidity and increase knowledge. I don't think all people are capable of being intelligent in all/any way, but I think most people are intelligent in at least some way, and anybody can make a positive contribution to their community or the world.

 

[KittenKoder]

"If you're gonna be a rock, be a rock, don't be a bug. "

 

[LiveUninhibited]

"If you're gonna be a rock, be a rock, don't be a bug. "

What does that mean?

 

[KittenKoder]

"If you're gonna be a rock, be a rock, don't be a bug. "

What does that mean?

Think book and cover.

 

[editec]

Intelligent people do stupid things all the time, folks.

Look at the mess the geniuses at AIG made of things.

They were, one assumes, doing what was very smart for them personally, but what they did was stupid in the long run.

Were they choosing to be stupid by systematically doing things that were intelligent for THEM?

This question appears to have simple answers, but it doesn't really.

 

[KittenKoder]

Intelligent people do stupid things all the time, folks.

Look at the mess the geniuses at AIG made of things.

They were, one assumes, doing what was very smart for them personally, but what they did was stupid in the long run.

Were they choosing to be stupid by systematically doing things that were intelligent for THEM?

This question appears to have simple answers, but it doesn't really.

Geniuses? Just because someone managed to get a high paying job doesn't make them geniuses ... now if they had actually made the company as strong as, oh ... Microsoft or Apple, or even Starbucks (which is slowly sinking, but slowly not suddenly like AIG) then I would consider the geniuses, or at least a consideration for the label. No, they are idiots, they fucked up because they are stupid, as I said, ignorance is bliss ... stupidity is dead.

 

[catzmeow]

No offense, Ravi, but this is a really poorly chosen metaphor. Is it your contention then, that just as someone can choose to become less stupid, they can also choose to become less gay?

 

[Ravi]

No offense, Ravi, but this is a really poorly chosen metaphor. Is it your contention then, that just as someone can choose to become less stupid, they can also choose to become less gay?

Don't you mean it was a stupid metaphor?

I don't know if people can choose to be less stupid, but they can probably be forced to learn to be less stupid, or at least to act less stupidly.

Maybe I should have picked Republican or uber-Christian...but I don't know if one can choose to not be a Republican or uber-Christian, either.

Does the question of choice really matter, though? If someone chooses to engage in a non-criminal behavior, what does it matter?