Are people stupid?

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.

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!

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.

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

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."

yes people are stupid. even smart people find ways to be stupid. it's a genetic trait.

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.

Are people stupid? Everyone is stupid sometimes. Are they smart? See: "Are people stupid?" above.

Compared to what? Dolphins?

most people don't deserve to live. just my opinion.

off yourself then!

most people don't deserve to die.

"This is just like Pearl Harbor."

"What's Pearl Harbor?"

"You know, that movie with Ben Affleck?"

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.

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.

universal human failing

hey i just found this site through momus' blog! hi guys!

Good choice of inaugural thread to introduce yourself within.

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"

why bother google proofing

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

is that better for you catsup dddddddude

why should I need to spend $300 + service charges in order to help compensate for the gross incompetence of shipping company personnel

i was kidding. sorry about the douches

yeah so infuriating