― Aaron Grossman (aajjgg), Tuesday, 10 December 2002 14:58 (twenty-one years ago) link
I wish I was too stupid to know it.
― meirion john lewis (mei), Tuesday, 10 December 2002 14:59 (twenty-one years ago) link
One example: Yngwie Malmstein. Sure, he can compose big fat-ass concertos and knows more about music theory than all other humans combined, but he's the same dude that "unleashed the fuckin' fury" for all of us to hear.
Another example: People who know every basketball, baseball, football, American football, hockey, etc. statistic EVER but can't finish a sentence without using the syllable "uh" at least fifty times.
Stupidity and intelligence is REQUIRED of the human condition, it's all in how you chose to use it.
In my humble opinion, that is.
― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 10 December 2002 15:06 (twenty-one years ago) link
yeah.. i flip through catalogue and wonder, 'what kind of dining set defines me as a person?'
Most people are as stupid as they want to be.
actually i find it incredibly frustrating.
I am definitely stupid.I wish I was too stupid to know it.
that about sums me up.
― g-kit (g-kit), Tuesday, 10 December 2002 15:10 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Madchen (Madchen), Tuesday, 10 December 2002 15:16 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Tom (Groke), Tuesday, 10 December 2002 15:20 (twenty-one years ago) link
― cprek, Tuesday, 10 December 2002 15:23 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Tad (llamasfur), Tuesday, 10 December 2002 15:26 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Tad (llamasfur), Tuesday, 10 December 2002 15:27 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Tad (llamasfur), Tuesday, 10 December 2002 15:28 (twenty-one years ago) link
"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard." -- H.L. Mencken
― Tad (llamasfur), Tuesday, 10 December 2002 15:35 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Graham (graham), Tuesday, 10 December 2002 15:46 (twenty-one years ago) link
Yes, this post is quite politically oriented; that is because politics is where I see this phenomenon ocurring most obviously.
― webcrack (music=crack), Tuesday, 10 December 2002 18:15 (twenty-one years ago) link
barring physical-biological catastrophe affecting the gloop in yr bone dome, the jump from the low point to the high point in tom's normal curve is insignificant compared to the distance the entire curve is from the x-axis
on the whole, vast mental achievements — inventions, discoveries, works of art — are bought at the expense of other areas of socio-mental development, as proved in the example of PROFESSOR JOHN FRINK: "professor frink professor frink, he makes you laugh, he makes you think, and then the thing with the walking ah er..."
― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 10 December 2002 18:58 (twenty-one years ago) link
― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 10 December 2002 19:02 (twenty-one years ago) link
It seems odd to say "people are stupid because they can be fooled by people". Somebody has to be 'smart' in that equation - and it's "turtles all the way down", as the old joke has it.
― Aimless, Tuesday, 10 December 2002 19:07 (twenty-one years ago) link
― A Nairn (moretap), Tuesday, 10 December 2002 19:42 (twenty-one years ago) link
Where is the x-axis, then? Are you saying that Jim Davidson is above daffodils, in this respect, or that all thought is good thought (compared to no thought)? I disagree.
― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Tuesday, 10 December 2002 19:46 (twenty-one years ago) link
Types of intelligence (as seen on some PBS documentary):LanguageLogicMusicalSpacialBodyInterpersonalIntrapersonal
― A Nairn (moretap), Tuesday, 10 December 2002 19:46 (twenty-one years ago) link
"stupid people do stupid thingssmart people outsmart each other...then themselves..."
― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 10 December 2002 19:49 (twenty-one years ago) link
To say that people are stupid is as smug and as pointless an assertion as it's possible to make, imho.
― Venga, Tuesday, 10 December 2002 19:50 (twenty-one years ago) link
also i don't know where daffodils go, relative to the x-axis
― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 10 December 2002 19:57 (twenty-one years ago) link
That doesn't make it any less true, at least in my experience.
― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 10 December 2002 20:14 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Tuesday, 10 December 2002 20:16 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 10 December 2002 20:25 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Tuesday, 10 December 2002 20:28 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 10 December 2002 20:34 (twenty-one years ago) link
― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 10 December 2002 20:37 (twenty-one years ago) link
Setting: CVS Pharmacy.
me: Do you give cash back?clerk: Yes. The minimum is $35.me: The MINIMUM is $35?
(there was about $30.61 in my checking account)
clerk: Yes, the minimum is $35. I can't give you any more than that.me: oh . . . so, I can get less than $35 . . .?clerk: Yes. $35 is the minimum.me (picking up pack of gum): this, and can I please have $20 back?
Yes, I know I am stupid for letting my checking account get so low.
― felicity (felicity), Tuesday, 10 December 2002 20:38 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 10 December 2002 20:39 (twenty-one years ago) link
(i.e. I grew up while you were being infantalised.)
(p.s. The reverse might be true also.)
― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Tuesday, 10 December 2002 20:39 (twenty-one years ago) link
You're saying, "It's way over there".
― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Tuesday, 10 December 2002 20:41 (twenty-one years ago) link
hence he is agreeing with me
the x axis is where no thinking is going on: ie at a level where humans don't operate any more... the distinction between this level, and dumb-smart human activity, is FAR MORE VAST than the ditinction between dumb human activity and smart human activity (however this last is defined, which i wd not eagerly try and do)
― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 10 December 2002 20:53 (twenty-one years ago) link
the x axis is where no thinking is going on: ie at a level where humans don't operate any more...
This doesn't make sense.
― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Tuesday, 10 December 2002 21:15 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Venga, Tuesday, 10 December 2002 21:17 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Tuesday, 10 December 2002 21:21 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Venga, Tuesday, 10 December 2002 21:24 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Venga, Tuesday, 10 December 2002 21:25 (twenty-one years ago) link
― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 10 December 2002 21:29 (twenty-one years ago) link
What's more, daffodils don't "react to their environment so as to to maintain their survival and propogate their species". Would even the brainiest ILXers claim to be acting "so as to to maintain their survival and propogate their species"? Believe me, daffodils are thick as shit.
― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Tuesday, 10 December 2002 21:34 (twenty-one years ago) link
I LOVE PEOPLE!!!
― James Blount (James Blount), Tuesday, 10 December 2002 21:36 (twenty-one years ago) link
― James Blount (James Blount), Tuesday, 10 December 2002 21:42 (twenty-one years ago) link
― James Blount (James Blount), Tuesday, 10 December 2002 21:44 (twenty-one years ago) link
also daffodils DO "react to their environments blah blah" eg turning heads to face the sun etc
i said i didn't know where daffodils were in relationship to the x-axis, defined as where no thinking is going on
― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 10 December 2002 21:47 (twenty-one years ago) link
e.g mark s lost his asthma inhaler. That was 'stupid', but then he's prob. the smartest person on the board, so go figure.
Now snowdrops they really are stupid.
― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Tuesday, 10 December 2002 22:02 (twenty-one years ago) link
― di smith (lucylurex), Tuesday, 10 December 2002 22:58 (twenty-one years ago) link
luckily rainy = brainy and estela + her puppy = personal friends w. st anthony of padua
― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 10 December 2002 23:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Dave M. (rotten03), Tuesday, 10 December 2002 23:07 (twenty-one years ago) link
― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 10 December 2002 23:07 (twenty-one years ago) link
― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 10 December 2002 23:24 (twenty-one years ago) link
The point is that many people resort to platitudes and jump on bandwagons as an excuse to avoid exercising their intellect.
― webcrack (music=crack), Tuesday, 10 December 2002 23:25 (twenty-one years ago) link
I think that what prompts 'people are stupid' comments first is a belief that mankind, as a whole, fucked up (what we've done to the environment, wars, race relations, etc.), which may or may not be true, but which many ppl believe regardless of political beliefs. Of course, when that belief is coupled with some sort of political belief it degenerates into 'they don't share the same political beliefs as me'.
― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Tuesday, 10 December 2002 23:42 (twenty-one years ago) link
No, but you said: "the x axis is where no thinking is going on: ie at a level where humans don't operate any more...". Maybe I misunderstood your 'ie' (that is, I stupidly assumed it meant what it usually means).
Yes, but sweeetheart, they DON'T do so in order to "maintain their survival and propogate their species" (the 'blah blah'). Daffodils couldn't care less about that stuff. They just do it.
Feel free to take out half the words from this post too and argue with the remainder.
Maybe that's how it's defined, but where is it? Once, you seemed to know. No more?
― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Wednesday, 11 December 2002 01:06 (twenty-one years ago) link
no claim has been made about the thinking or non-thinking of non-humans in the above sentence ("ie" stands for "id est" which means "that is")
venga said "daffodils… react to their environment so as to to maintain their survival and propogate their species": this is true because "so as to" means "in such a way as to" and thus doesn't nedd to imply intention (you actually changed it to "in order to", which i would read as introducing intention, at which point you may have an argt with venga but not me, as i still maintain i don't know where daffodils go in this scheme)
i don't need to know where the x-axis is to make my claim, only that the distinction between no-thinking and thinking is bigger than difft kinds of human thinking, which is all i ever claimed anyway
this is fun!! sadly i am now going to bed
― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 11 December 2002 01:26 (twenty-one years ago) link
It's NOT fun and I DON'T believe you're in bed. That kind of thing.
"So as to" implies intention, and you know it. You know the rest, too. This life goes nowhere.
― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Wednesday, 11 December 2002 01:58 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Fuzzy (Fuzzy), Wednesday, 11 December 2002 09:36 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Sam (chirombo), Wednesday, 11 December 2002 09:44 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Sam (chirombo), Wednesday, 11 December 2002 09:48 (twenty-one years ago) link
― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 11 December 2002 09:49 (twenty-one years ago) link
― jel -- (jel), Wednesday, 11 December 2002 09:55 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 11 December 2002 14:46 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Snowy Mann (rdmanston), Wednesday, 11 December 2002 16:26 (twenty-one years ago) link
I'm being paid back for my throwaway comment with a dozen emails that say "YES PLEASE FURTHER DETAILS ASAP" or the like. How do you reply to these stupid people? The website looks great, took ages to sort out and they obviously haven't even bothered to look at it. But they're potential customers so I have to be nice. Grumble.
― Madchen (Madchen), Friday, 13 December 2002 16:09 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Nicole (Nicole), Friday, 13 December 2002 16:14 (twenty-one years ago) link
Another thing I've been seeing recently: aspiring journalists who post questions like "I'm interviewing _________ tomorrow; what should I ask him?" Well, dear, you're the interviewer. It's up to you to produce good copy. Do a little research and come up with 20 minutes' worth of questions!
― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 13 December 2002 16:39 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 13 December 2002 16:45 (twenty-one years ago) link
― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 13 December 2002 16:59 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 13 December 2002 17:11 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Ronan (Ronan), Saturday, 14 December 2002 17:09 (twenty-one years ago) link
I thought Dan started an "I hate humanity" thread but I couldn't find it, so this'll do.
First, Are Americans Hostile To Knowledge? from Thursday's NYT. It's too bad the writer didn't reference Frank Zappa's quote -- ""Modern Americans behave as if intelligence were some sort of hideous deformity." -- because he nailed it 27 years ago in a dozen words.
Second, more in the category of "Are people weak, uneducated and pathetic?" I was across the street getting some milk (I live across the street from a Save-A-Lot) and there was a young woman there, mid-20s or so, with her four kids, and she was practically on the verge of tears, apparently about what the kids were making her buy: two 2-liter Mt. Dew equivalents, four 20 oz. Dr. Peppers, a half-dozen Slim Jims, four big bags of chips, half a dozen candy bars. She said to the checkout guy, "You know all that stuff I was in here buying last night? It's already gone, they already ate it."
I hate people, really. Myself included, sometimes. I probably shouldn't have posted this.
― Rock Hardy, Saturday, 16 February 2008 22:22 (sixteen years ago) link
I think I've said this before somewhere but - people who say people are stupid, never seem to include themselves in that statement.
-- smee (smee), Tuesday, December 10, 2002 6:38 AM (5 years ago)
pre-orly thinking
― tremendoid, Saturday, 16 February 2008 22:25 (sixteen years ago) link
Ibn Khaldun postulated that the fourth generation of an established empire is its most abject, since its constituents have grown fat and lazy off the fruits of their ancestors' conquests.
" ..when a tribe has achieved a certain measure of superiority with the help of its group feeling, it gains control over a corresponding amount of wealth and comes to share prosperity and abundance with those who have been in possession of these things. It shares in them to the degree of its power and usefulness to the ruling dynasty. If the ruling dynasty is so strong that no-one thinks of depriving it of its power or of sharing with it, the tribe in question submits to its rule and is satisfied with whatever share in the dynasty's wealth and tax revenue it is permitted to enjoy. ... Members of the tribe are merely concerned with prosperity, gain and a life of abundance. (They are satisfied) to lead an easy, restful life in the shadow of the ruling dynasty, and to adopt royal habits in building and dress, a matter they stress and in which they take more and more pride, the more luxuries and plenty they acquire, as well as all the other things that go with luxury and plenty.
As a result the toughness of desert life is lost. Group feeling and courage weaken. Members of the tribe revel in the well-being that God has given them. Their children and offspring grow up too proud to look after themselves or to attend to their own needs. They have disdain also for all the other things that are necessary in connection with group feeling.... Their group feeling and courage decrease in the next generations. Eventually group feeling is altogether destroyed. ... It will be swallowed up by other nations."
― Gavin, Saturday, 16 February 2008 22:30 (sixteen years ago) link
yes people are stupid. even smart people find ways to be stupid. it's a genetic trait.
― or something, Saturday, 16 February 2008 23:42 (sixteen years ago) link
This is pretty funny:
Walking home to her Upper East Side apartment, she said, overwhelmed and confused, she stopped at a bar. As she sipped her bloody mary, she quietly listened to two men, neatly dressed in suits. For a second she thought they were going to compare that day’s horrifying attack to the Japanese bombing in 1941 that blew America into World War II:
“This is just like Pearl Harbor,” one of the men said.
The other asked, “What is Pearl Harbor?”
“That was when the Vietnamese dropped bombs in a harbor, and it started the Vietnam War,” the first man replied.
― Mr. Que, Saturday, 16 February 2008 23:58 (sixteen years ago) link
Are people stupid? Everyone is stupid sometimes. Are they smart? See: "Are people stupid?" above.
― Aimless, Sunday, 17 February 2008 03:53 (sixteen years ago) link
Compared to what? Dolphins?
― Bodrick III, Sunday, 17 February 2008 10:58 (sixteen years ago) link
most people don't deserve to live. just my opinion.
― Arms, Sunday, 17 February 2008 11:03 (sixteen years ago) link
off yourself then!
― latebloomer, Sunday, 17 February 2008 11:05 (sixteen years ago) link
most people don't deserve to die.
― Eyeball Kicks, Sunday, 17 February 2008 20:33 (sixteen years ago) link
"This is just like Pearl Harbor."
"What's Pearl Harbor?"
"You know, that movie with Ben Affleck?"
― milo z, Sunday, 17 February 2008 20:37 (sixteen years ago) link
I'm smart and most of the people I know are smart in one way or another. It's rare that I meet someone I think is truly stupid.
― Maria :D, Sunday, 17 February 2008 20:50 (sixteen years ago) link
Most people just don't care about a lot of the stuff that people who say "people are stupid" care about. Short-termism seems to be a near universal human failing, tho.
― Noodle Vague, Sunday, 17 February 2008 20:56 (sixteen years ago) link
universal human failing
― Arms, Sunday, 17 February 2008 21:00 (sixteen years ago) link
hey i just found this site through momus' blog! hi guys!
― DG, Tuesday, 4 March 2008 15:32 (sixteen years ago) link
Good choice of inaugural thread to introduce yourself within.
― Aimless, Wednesday, 5 March 2008 01:31 (sixteen years ago) link
so I had some packages for work shipped to this FedEx location overnight, with my name is the POC for pickup. They were both supposed to come in this morning so I grab a coworker and go down to the FedEx where they're being held and wait in line and tell dude "I'm here to pick up two packages for Jonathan Williams" and he goes and looks in the hold cabinet and gets an express letter out and hands it to me. He looks at my DL to confirm that I am in fact Jonathan Williams and I say "There should be two?" and he goes BACK and looks AGAIN and says "no, only one."
So we return to the office and I check the tracking numbers and yes indeed the other package WAS delivered at 9:56 AM and is awaiting pickup. I call them back "Uhhh welcome to finland what's your deal" and dude (same guy at the pickup counter from before) says "oh, the other one says Jon Williams, not Jonathan, is why I didn't give it to you"
― El Tomboto, Thursday, 31 July 2008 20:29 (fifteen years ago) link
why bother google proofing
― Catsupppppppppppppp dude 茄蕃, Thursday, 31 July 2008 20:30 (fifteen years ago) link
tom you should get an iphone if you had an iphone you could have looked up the #'s on the internets while @ FedEx and then powned the guy in person
― Mr. Que, Thursday, 31 July 2008 20:35 (fifteen years ago) link
is that better for you catsup dddddddude
― TOMBOT, Thursday, 31 July 2008 20:36 (fifteen years ago) link
why should I need to spend $300 + service charges in order to help compensate for the gross incompetence of shipping company personnel
― TOMBOT, Thursday, 31 July 2008 20:40 (fifteen years ago) link
i was kidding. sorry about the douches
― Mr. Que, Thursday, 31 July 2008 20:44 (fifteen years ago) link
yeah so infuriating
― El Tomboto, Thursday, 31 July 2008 20:45 (fifteen years ago) link