Are we really this dumb?

It is said that the MSM, and our governments have been and are in the process of dumbing us down, so we become good little workers and stay within the law.

It's been my experience that the problem isn't so much one of misdirection and information restriction, but rather a problem on the part of the individual and in part on society/culture (as an amalgamation of individuals). Not many people really engage in education, even self education, beyond that which is immediately useful to their self-promotion. There isn't that drive to exert the dedication needed to educate themselves for little more than the sake of being educated... for knowing things, and gaining the tools necessary to better answer those questions we all ask.

There is often very little mention or focus on establishing personal methodologies for determining factual claims from fictitious ones in a functionally useful manner, and even those who do often circumvent those standards to prevent the falsification of an idea they want to be true. There's even less attention paid to identifying unconscious sources of bias in yourself, let alone identifying expressions of bias in others. We are attracted to things we like, and associate with those who share those interests... but few go out of their way to expose themselves to or associate with those who who like that which you don't. We don't challenge our conceptions, and worse than that - we insulate them by avoiding or blowing off contrary views, and chastise those who strive to provide the challenge vital to changing your mind. They become imprisoned by their own opinions and subjective perceptions.

There is also seemingly the naive concept that popular culture, media, and literature is oriented towards informing and educating the public. This doesn't appear to be the case, and it's important to keep in mind that even education/information themed media (like the Discovery Channel or CNN News) are purely entertainment oriented and are appealing to viewership to determine the content focus. For instance, the History Channel was less popular when it had a greater focus on non-war history programs. They gain far more viewers (I. E. increase profitability) by dumbing down their content to the most profitable level and airing crap like Ice Road Truckers and UFOFiles... or anything to do with mysticism and end of the world scenarios. Like that show, Life After People (and other iterations on competing stations) is tapping into a goldmine of Christian adherents who believe the Rapture will come in their lifetimes. The irony is that they're often genuinely curious about what happens to the world they think will be left behind... a spark of the very same curiosity and thirst for knowledge that their belief system stymies.


But, regardless of the perception of increasing stupidity and ignorance in the world - the truth of the matter seems to be (as reality usually is) rather counter-intuitive. General understanding and education rates globally and nationally are rising. Slowly... and perhaps too slowly for the accelerating rate of technological progress we've began to enter into... but in general, people ARE getting smarter and using their reasoning more (especially in regards to science) according to scientifically conducted survey and polling data.

An example:

NSF: 2008 Indicators of public knowledge in Science and Engineering.

Similarly, the advent of the internet has marked a turning point in human society parallel in concept, effect, and importance to the invention of written language and the printing press. Despite the horrid grammar, poor formatting, "net speak" shorthand, atrocious spelling, corruptions (e.x. LOLcats captions), and often vapid content... something profound has happened. While some may look at the user-generated content and despair the atrocities committed to the English language by literary barbarians (Penny Arcade Comic: Mr. Period ), what most people fail to acknowledge is that fifty years ago these same segments of the population barely wrote AT ALL. Generally, only enough to get them by in the workforce or as a utility. Getting people on all levels of society to read regularly (even if it is just magazines and message boards) is amazing enough, but reading already existing work stagnates without the generation of NEW content, nor does it fully engage the mind into a concept without the ability to provide feedback.

We are in the midst of a new Renaissance in literature where the lowest caste of society can engage in literature as a means of expressing their thoughts and views, debating points of issue, researching and presenting arguments, sharing experiences, generating art through poetry and fiction. Even if crude, ignorant, and clumsy... it's still remarkable. Babies also take slow and awkward, unbalanced steps when they first learn to walk... but does that lack of immediate proficiency make the moment any less spectacular?

The important thing is that freedom of speech and the open arena of ideas & opinions has been vastly promoted, not stymied. One of the largest agencies of censorship has finally been circumvented. I'm not referring to the government or copyright holders... but the limitations of our biology and the physics which govern our reality. What good is the freedom to express your opinion if nobody can hear your words? How many conversations are archived here on ATS for people from all over the globe to peruse which, only a few decades ago, never propagated past a few bar stools, the livingroom, a telephone conversation, or the convention hall floor? To a broader extent, how many of these conversations would never have occurred at all if technology and society didn't allow for the leisure time necessary to pursue personal goals & interests due to the constraints of being occupied by tasks related to simply continuing our mere survival?

And while I won't go into detail here, a similar trick of perception is running parallel to this - but in regards to violence and war. There is a persistent underlying belief that the world is circling the drain, and will dissipate in a whirlpool of savagery and violence. Stories of war, murder, and assault fill our media airwaves... but, as anybody who has researched even basic level statistics in light of claims made about video games will tell you, the rates of violent crime in first world nations has been on the decline for the past few decades... and anybody who's been following the military & it's history will tell you that the casualty rates have decreased dramatically on both sides. Smart Bombs and surgical strike forces kill less civilians & troops than carpet bombing an entire neighborhood. With our level of technology, if there was no concern for human life when in pursuit of resources & power - we have far more economically viable methods that can wreak far greater destructive power. It's obvious to see the tragedy inherent in spending billions of dollars in the pursuit of killing others... and yet, nobody seems to want to acknowledge that the reason why it costs billions of dollars in the first place is achieve an objective without having to kill people.

Don't mistake that as a means to minimize or justify warfare or the motivations that may or may not lie behind it. It should be obvious by now that I'm arguing against the position of mankind's degenerating behavior by countering with acknowledgment of just how high our standards have risen. And the simple fact about war is that based on cost efficiency alone, the price per corpse has risen exponentially over the years. If the concept of money being the root of all evil is still too big a factor for you, then look at it this way. In the pursuit of greed, we've finally figured out that there's more profit to be made in people who are alive and granted a certain level of freedom - than can be generated from the dead.

For a more detailed argument, I suggest the following video.




I would attribute these negative perceptions to emergent phenomena resultant from the bottom-up self-organization of interactions between independent agents and other emergent trends following simpler general rules with a component of amplifying feedback. I think the perception of top-down overt and intelligently directed control is invalid and incompatible with how reality actually works. It's simplistic thinking, and it's false... but, perhaps it is necessary to a degree and within the right parameters. Perhaps it's better to perceive a savage and hostile ignorant world and work to try to make it a better place, than it is to recognize how good we have it and allow progress to stagnate by being complacent or apathetic to the injustice and suffering which still exists. I am concerned for the potential of perception to sabotage progress by lashing out against the infrastructure that provides our standard of living and enables our progress.


TLR version: To answer the question, "Are we really this dumb?"

No; We're not nearly as dumb as we perceive ourselves to be, but we're not quite smart enough to realize it yet.

Originally posted by spookfish

Originally posted by SonicInfinity

Originally posted by spookfish
What a nob

Maybe if you stopped adding unnecessary, inciting remarks at the end, people wouldn't keep responding to you in a rude manner.

Also, I believe it's "noob/n00b", not "nob", unless "nob" is slang for something that I'm not aware of.

nob is slang for penis. Please point out to me my earlier 'inciting remarks at the end' so that I may be fully rehabilitated.

it's funny because you're doing it now as well, even though you had a go at someone else for it.

What a complete and utter knob.

I blame cooked food for the recent trend of dumbed-down intelligence

reply to post by spookfish



Yes I own the entire franchise, and you would think people would not come back to my studio but go to another location, but quite the opposite. A local celebrity writes about me every month in a magazine, and its basically about what a smart arse I am and the different ways I abuse her each time she comes in ( she is notoriously hard to deal with).

People come in going " hey I read about you, can you train me" ?

Our competition that was O so polite to everybody in that typical " the customer is always right " fashion, and paid for a million dollar, very slick, advertising campaign lost all their customers to us and went under in 2007.

The world is a very strange place to live in Master Jack.

I think it has to do with a dollar value concept.

DUH- Welcome to Fractional Banking.

Bane of the world.

reply to post by neo5842


At this time I would like to point everyone to a thread-Berkeley High Poised to Eliminate Science Classes Because They’re Too “White”

The Berkeley High School is eliminating volunteer science lab classes because they are TOO WHITE.

Come on, are people really this frelling stupid?

I live in Australia and have noticed that the level of "common sense" and knowledge in the Australian youth is on the decline.

My girlfriend has two daughters aged 14 and 16. The other day when I went to see them the eldest daughter proudly showed me her school certificate.

I noted with some surprise that she had been allocated an "A" in maths. Now don't take me wrong, but this girl is not that good at maths. I once asked her if she bought something for $16.57 and handed the cashier a $20 dollar note, how much change should she receive? She immediately pulled out her phone and started to work it out with the calculator. I suggested she should try to work it out in her head, which she readily admitted that she couldn't.

Taking this into account I asked her if she always used her phone to check if she was getting the right change. She looked at me stupidly and said, "well of course not, I can see how much change i'm supposed to get on the register".

Now this young lady doesn't really have any idea what she want's to do in life, so she went to her careers advisor for some advice. To my amazement, the careers advisor suggested to her that because of her high mark in maths, maybe she could consider becoming a maths teacher!

I think the problem is that people rely on schools to educate their children, and the levels are dropping. In 20 years, these young kids will be teaching the next generation of kids. This girl cannot even do a long division or multiplication by hand and has absolutely no idea what a logarithm is, yet this is stuff we were routinely taught in when I went to school.

Now if this young girl got an "A" for maths, how challenged are the kids that got Bs, Cs and Ds?

The mind boggles.

toroor derrrrrrrrrr duh.... eh i want my toaster!

Originally posted by Psychoses
I live in Australia and have noticed that the level of "common sense" and knowledge in the Australian youth is on the decline.

My girlfriend has two daughters aged 14 and 16. The other day when I went to see them the eldest daughter proudly showed me her school certificate.

I noted with some surprise that she had been allocated an "A" in maths. Now don't take me wrong, but this girl is not that good at maths. I once asked her if she bought something for $16.57 and handed the cashier a $20 dollar note, how much change should she receive? She immediately pulled out her phone and started to work it out with the calculator. I suggested she should try to work it out in her head, which she readily admitted that she couldn't.

Taking this into account I asked her if she always used her phone to check if she was getting the right change. She looked at me stupidly and said, "well of course not, I can see how much change i'm supposed to get on the register".

Now this young lady doesn't really have any idea what she want's to do in life, so she went to her careers advisor for some advice. To my amazement, the careers advisor suggested to her that because of her high mark in maths, maybe she could consider becoming a maths teacher!

I think the problem is that people rely on schools to educate their children, and the levels are dropping. In 20 years, these young kids will be teaching the next generation of kids. This girl cannot even do a long division or multiplication by hand and has absolutely no idea what a logarithm is, yet this is stuff we were routinely taught in when I went to school.

Now if this young girl got an "A" for maths, how challenged are the kids that got Bs, Cs and Ds?

The mind boggles.

It's always funny to see older people stereotyping today's youth. You see, they can spell words without a spell checker, make mathematical calculations without a calculator, and remember all their friend's phone numbers off by heart. Impressive indeed.

Then ask them to transfer a file from a backup hard drive onto an iPod and what's the usual response? Or how to change the settings on their mobile phone.

I think it is more an issue of becoming a lot more reliant on technology compared to times passed.

You are right about the math teaching thing though

[edit on 8/1/2010 by Dark Ghost]

one example of this is the way the news has been conducted over the past few days. any time you switch to bbc or sky news all that is ever on it is about the weather, if not, it's about the government! dont think i've seen any noteworthy international news since before christmas!

now my wee story:

while vacationing in florida, we were waiting in line at universal studios chatting and minding our own business. all of a sudden the guy behind starts talking to us cause he liked the sound of our accents. (to be fair to the guy i had a brazil football top on)

he then precedes to ask what part of brazil we're from and if it's a nice place to stay! i then asked him if he thought brazil was a warm country to which he replied yes, it was then that i pointed out to him that we were all milk bottle white and speaking perfect english.

he seemed a little confused that i was wearing a brazil top but was scottish, i dont think he believed us at first!

reply to post by Dark Ghost


In response to your reply,

I don't use an Iphone. My personal choice is my Nokia N95.

I can back up my hard drive faster than you can post a laughing emoticon.

Just because I'm older don't ever think I haven't embraced the new technology. If they took technology out of the equation, us older people would be much more adept at survival than the younger generation. The reason for this is simple.

WE CAN THINK!

If the young people today had their phones and computers and their calculators taken away, they would be like like zombies, unable to function.

I've seen fast food restaurants advertising value meals that were priced one penny more than the total cost of ordering each item individually off the menu. My friend and I used to laugh about this one all the time as we ordered cheeseburger, fries and Coke instead of the value meal. The person behind the counter thought ~we~ were the idiots. Maybe we just enjoyed putting them through their paces.

reply to post by Psychoses


I would say its fair to say that we rely far to heavily on technology, when i was at school we were not allowed a calculator anywhere near a maths lesson, let alone have one in the exam, that would have be seen as cheating and an instant dismissal for the room.

But wouldn't it be true to say that this is another part or method of dumbing people down? getting them or us, so used to the technology of today that in the event it was to fail, or be removed for what ever reason, some people would just stop. Simple things like working out finances, or even in some cases putting a pen to paper and writing a letter. I do know of people who can type, but their hand writing looks like an ant had walked on the paper after walking through ink. But i guess who needs to know how to handwrite any more, the technology prints it off for you.

I'm not picking on any group, but it would seem the younger generations would suffer more than us older ones if modernisation were to be removed for a short time, take the weather in the UK at the moment, because people are not able to get about, or get what they need from the store, they panic, like bread ins't an easy thing to make. But that's the point it is easy, but most people have never been shown how to, which is why i say, everyone has pretty much and equal opportunity to be intelligence and have common sense and even basic life skills, but they have been slowly removed from the learning curve deliberately to make peoples reliance on the system that much more, giving the system more control over the masses.

Maybe this all has to do with "surgency for something"- but life seems to get to "easy" - nothing to challenge, so all are bored and getting stupid because of there laziness.

If you have to exists to consume superfluous things and work like a animal, - maybe you loose all inspiration and will the get uneducated in different things. Not only IQ, also the hearth, soul and consciousness.

Can you remember - feets on the bench in train? 10 years ago this was 10% off the under 12 year olds, know i can see people over 30 with feets on the bench (AND WHITE PANTS) - how is this logic?

Originally posted by viperdave
just to let everybody know, these are "chain" emails sent to everybody, i dont think they are true!!

Here's a website that actually researches whether or not such stories of stupidity are valid or just jokes/hoaxes...The thing is that, considering how many stories of terminal stupidity they actually verify, it doesn't surprise me at all how many people really are that stupid. I get a kick out of the motto of the site though..."Honoring those who improve the species...by
accidentally removing themselves from it!" My all-time favorite true story was recounted here.
Many of the stories I've seen in this thread so far just makes me wish that such cases of "stupidity" really should be "terminal" cases much more often than they are.

Originally posted by MadameGuillotine
So how does that relate? We are the idiots that keep voting these idiot back into office!

Actually, before I scrolled down far enough to see the answer for that list, my first thought was, "Not NFL or NBA...More like GOP." I was only half right with my answer though...I forgot to include the other major political party in Congress.
Will Rogers had it right when he said:

A fool and his money are soon elected.

I don't vote for idiots though...For as long as I can remember voting, I've voted only for "No Confidence." And anybody who asks me if there's ever been somebody with that name running for Office, I'll just reply, "Here's your sign."

Originally posted by endisnighe
I myself would love to see a free wheel discussion of topics by our officials, in the debates, instead of the regimented ones we see now.

I think the reason for this is because of the stupidity level in Congress...Everybody is afraid that they'll have to face off against Ron Paul in the debate!

Originally posted by spookfish
The other ones I see constantly here are 'then' instead of 'than' and vice versa. In fact I've never seen it written correctly.

Well then, now you can say you've seen it done correctly at this site, rather than saying that you've never seen it.
Seriously though, you also have to consider that there are many people from around the world who post here & English is their second language. There's also been complaints of kids graduating high schools that can't even read English! Heck, for that matter, there are many naturalized Americans who still haven't completely mastered English either...And that's not to exclude the far-too-many illegal aliens in the USA who don't even bother to learn American English at all.

Originally posted by spookfish
I'll forgive if you've never been to the UK. We have something here called a two pound coin!

I'd have to say that the two pound coin would be too heavy for the mental weaklings of the world to carry...
It reminds me of the very old phrase in America, "As phony as the two-dollar bill," but then the government , in its infinite "wisdom," decides to circulate a two-dollar bill before its unpopularity puts it back out of circulation.

Originally posted by crimsongod21
reply to post by mopusvindictus

 

I'M FAR MORE CONVINCED THE STUPID PEOPLE THAT MADE IT THROUGH SCHOOL PRETENDING THEY ARE SMART AND WHO ACTUALLY BELIEVE IT CAUSE ALL THE DAMAGE....

Totally agree...For example, a government thinks that it can buy its way out of a recession with the same kind of money that bought them into the recession in the first place...

Originally posted by crimsongod21
ps sorry not a very good speller..... un-educated i guess ha ha ha ha

Well, being uneducated may actually be a good thing. At least it's better than being half-assed educated, as already pointed out in this thread.
Will rogers:

All I know is just what I read in the papers, and that's an alibi for my ignorance.

Far better to educate yourself anyway...The College of Hard Knocks isn't really the best way to go through life.

Vernon Law:
Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterward.

As pointed out by Benjamin Franklin

Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn.

Originally posted by spookfish
I think I'm going to put in for a transfer to the Mars posting.

Well, at least you won't have far to go for that posting...The View From Marrs forum can be found under the Conspiracy Pros topic...

Originally posted by SpacePunk

Originally posted by sugarmonkey

Originally posted by spookfish

Originally posted by sugarmonkey

Originally posted by spookfish

Originally posted by sugarmonkey

Originally posted by spookfish
reply to post by unicorn1

 

I'm hoping to see someone on this thread ask you why you don't just give them £3.20 if you've got £4.20. Someone's got to do it surely, please, pretty please.

I was wondering that, I just didn't want to ask.

And it happens in the very next post! SUPERB.

I'll forgive if you've never been to the UK. We have something here called a two pound coin!

OK, I just had my own duh moment! I'm an American but I do live here in the UK! I forgot about the £2 coin!

Hang your head in shame.

Ok, I will, but do you guys really need 8 coins??? It makes the purse heavy!!!!

I'd think so with two pound coins! Duh!

So, with 8 two-pound coins, that's 16 pounds to an ounce? Ooops! I forgot that England uses the metric system, not the US system...

Originally posted by pharaohmoan
DUMB PEOPLE
Police in Wichita, Kansas, arrested a 22-year-old man at an airport hotel after he tried to pass two (counterfeit) $16 bills.

that actually reminds me of a joke I heard long ago;
A counterfeiter was set to retire, but wanted to have one last fling first. He printed up a bunch of $15 bills. As he was driving to a small out-of-town airport to climb onto his private plane, he stopped a a little gas station at the side of the road. He asked for two 50-cent cigars & handed the clerk one of his $15 bills. The clerk scratched his head, told him to wait a second & went into the back room. The clerk came back with the man's change...Two $7 bills.
Anyone who doesn't get that joke...Here's your sign.

Originally posted by macssam
there is no word yet to describe the stupidity of americans
maybe the encyclopedia should come up with a new word
for such an extra retarded nation

It's not that bad. Americans don't have a monopoly on stupidity; you can go to the first link I included in this post & see that stupidity is worldwide. We Americans just get more MSM coverage for it.
We have our share of real wisdom too, as pointed out by Will Rogers:

Everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects.

Originally posted by mopusvindictus
Stupid people annoy me... I encounter them every day.

It's strange, but I realize from your comment that there's a common kind of "double-standard" that most people seem to have; When told a story about stupid people, it's funny. But when actually encountering someone that stupid, it's annoying...

----------------Continued Below------------------

[edit on 8-1-2010 by MidnightDStroyer]

---------Continued From Above----------------

Originally posted by kerberos
I think that this lack of common knowledge stems primarily from that fact that people's lives have gotten so much easier as time moves forward, if you ask for something, it usually comes easily, nobody has to use their mind to create/ find/ solve anything for themselves anymore, so consequently people just don't use and develop the grey matter that they've been born with.

This is a part of the "deliberate dumbing down" process that can turn a great nation into a "Third World" country. How many people do you think could actually survive if the grocery store was ever emptied out? How much "specialization" there is in occupations?--Sort of like the Real Estate Agent mentioned on page 1 of this thread who didn't even know which way north is. We've been dumbed down to the point where, if it's not something specific related to our occupations, we're way out in left field to try figuring it out. As kerberos mentioned on page 2, far too many people have no concept of what it means to actually design & construct anything they would need to live from day to day. The reason for that is because too many people have gone lazy with their gray matter; The public education system actually encourages the public to be "mind-lazy."
We are creatures evolved with both body & mind; As the flesh grows stronger with exercise or atrophies under laziness, so to does the mind benefit from use or degrade from non-use.

Originally posted by spookfish
Or is it just that stupid people don't know there is a correlation between sex and pregnancy? Most likely it's just that stupidity in others triggers our own nurturing and protective traits and therefore the stupid naked ape gets to live long enough to breed.

Or maybe it's just two people too stupid to practice "Family Planning?" Maybe this is how intelligence is actually "breeding out" of the human race? We're already aware of the consequences that inbreeding has among self-styled elite families that try to "keep the bloodline pure" & the effects it's had in history.

Originally posted by Hack28
You know how i know your a tool because im probably around your age you look about 27, im 24, and i learned a long time ago that morons like you when you get your little feelings hurt strike back and try to insult.

I hate to butt into this...Well, no I don't: When you accuse someone of insulting you, have you so soon forgotten who started the insulting? Perhaps you should take a look at the thread Courtesy Is Mandatory & understand that you're on a fast track to getting yourself banned.
Oh well, if you gotta feed a troll, you might as well feed 'im the truth...

Originally posted by mopusvindictus
I posted a simple post with a simple statement that has been reverberated throughout history by many famous and respected men and women...

"a little knowledge can be dangerous"

Oh yeah, it's been said already...Here's an example by Benjamin Franklin:

A learned blockhead is a greater blockhead than an ignorant one.

So mopus, when you find yourself dealing with trolls, just shrug 'em off & remember something that Thomas Jefferson said:

Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.

And also:

An enemy generally says and believes what he wishes.

And notwithstanding what Benjamin Franklin said:

Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do.

Originally posted by neo5842
It is a shame, the reason for the original post was simply to show how I thought we were being dumbed down but MSM, and government, and i honestly believe that one of the reasons for the dumbing down, is to increase the amount of arguing and fighting we do among our selves.

Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a Winner!...Divide & conquer INDEED!
What other reason could there be for "Affirmative Action Laws" but to promote & distinguish our differences, instead of promoting harmony? Democrat vs. Liberal, Baby Boomer Generation vs. Generation X vs.Generation Y...The list goes on & on! This is one of the bigger factors that promotes stupidity, having everyone talking about the "Party Line" instead of trying to think about basic understanding between each other.

Originally posted by neo5842
I didn't come on here to fight, i came to learn and meat new like minded people, and i wont fight if i can help it.

Ooops! I ran my body through the Body Composition Machine mentioned earlier in this thread & it turns out I've got a decent amount of "meat" in me already...

Originally posted by spookfish
reply to post by dampnickers

 

Oh my mistake. it's just I've never seen the following used for a tongue and cheek statement.

Hmmm...Using "nob" in a tongue-in-cheek statement while in discussion with someone who carries the nickname of dampknickers?...Nah, I'm not going there!

Originally posted by rob_widener
The problem is this. Yes westerners are getting dumbed down by the education systems, media

and technology,

The problem with technology getting into a "consumer" market is that most people don't have any idea what they're "consuming." Aspartame (artificial sweetener) is toxic...Fluoride in the water even though any dentist will tell you to spit it out because he knows it's toxic when ingested...Pharmaceuticals that have side-effects worse than the condition they're treating, etc. We really do need to self-educate because regular education just doesn't provide for survival anymore.
Thomas Jefferson:

Educate and inform the whole mass of the people... They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.

So is it any wonder that the government can continue to trample our Rights, violate the Oaths of Office & act openly criminal while in Office? Their ability to do so & get away with it is directly proportional to our collective ignorance. As the government gives money (subsidy) to the education system, it also dictates the length & breadth of the education system. So the "dumbing down" phenomenon is not exactly coincidental, is it?

Originally posted by Jussi
Hmm,

I'm thinking there actually is no such thing as "stupidity" - first of all, it cannot be even defined... what does it mean? To be stupid? -> Not to know, what one generally would consider something, that should be known (?) - now what is that? Can that be defined - no it cannot..

Oh yes, stupid can be defined & has been...You can find it in the dictionary:

Main Entry: 1stu·pid
Pronunciation: \ˈstü-pəd, ˈstyü-\
Function: adjective
Etymology: Middle French stupide, from Latin stupidus, from stupēre to be numb, be astonished — more at type
Date: 1541

1 a : slow of mind : obtuse b : given to unintelligent decisions or acts : acting in an unintelligent or careless manner c : lacking intelligence or reason : brutish
2 : dulled in feeling or sensation : torpid
3 : marked by or resulting from unreasoned thinking or acting : senseless
4 a : lacking interest or point b : vexatious, exasperating

-------Concluded From Above--------

Originally posted by Gorman91
reply to post by neo5842

 

Good God sir, I feel like I'm immune to this dumbing down, and proud to be such.

Well, being aware of the problem may make you less vulnerable, but no one is completely immune to it. Sooner or later, you'll get a little tired & lower your guard...That's when they slip something in under your radar. Believe it or not, even though Obama has broken every single campaign promise he made just within his first year, there's still people who admire him simply because of his ability to make pretty speeches...

Originally posted by Gorman91
yay, idiocray is here! Band together my brothers with brains! Let us cast down this evil with books and speech!

Argue my dear friend! Argue with that manager, with that repairman, etc etc. DO IT! your just laughing there does nothing to stop the problem!

I'd just say that if you intend to go through with it, be careful. I don't actually have a link for this quote, but it goes something like: "Don't argue with stupidity. They'll drag you down to their level & beat you with experience."

Another way to put it was postulated by the comedian Gallagher: "Once I rode on a plane in first class. The guy behind me took off his shoes & put his feet up on my armrests. Right! His socky old feet on my armrests! Did I turn around & try to explain life to him in a civilized world? Hell, no. I took off my socks & hung them over the back of my chair."
In short, Gallagher felt that stupid people can't understand reason & logic, so when you're attacked by ignorance & stupidity, the only counter-attack is using ignorance & stupidity. You just have to be intelligent as to how you approach your attack...By pointing out to them exactly how stupid they really do act.

Originally posted by Lolliek
I'll do my best to spell correctly and use perfect grammer.

Personally, I couldn't care less...As long as you seem semi-coherent enough to make yourself understood is all that matters. It's amazing that English classes in school are more geared at teaching the technicalities of reading & writing, but don't do much for teaching students how to coherently express themselves.

reply to post by Lasheic

Ding! Ding! Ding! We have another winner!
The most important part of the internet's advancement of human curiosity & intelligence is that it got into the hands of the Public while it was still open to free expression. Mass media doesn't have any allowance to generate feedback to everyone else, including the original person who provided the content in their writings. This is why it's so important to keep the internet free from censorship, so that mutual discussion can continue without suppression from law-makers & marketing corporations. The internet has allowed the "common" person to open up to new information, new ideas, other opinions & discuss them...Without getting into a fistfight over disagreements. I'd rather see the occasional troll pop up because I know that, if we were all physically gathered into the same room, there would be a pig-pile forming on the trolls!
Even trolls have the Right to Self-Expression, but it's a heck of a lot easier to ignore them on the 'net!
As it has been said (typed?) here in ATS fairly often, "Free your mind & your ass will soon follow." So we must all keep vigilance against censorship so that more minds may be freed.
I can't really agree with this Obituary of Common Sense. Twenty years ago, I actually thought Common Sense was dead too, but with the widespread use of a publicly-accessed internet, I've been seeing signs of Common Sense actually coming out of its coma!

Thanks for the laughs! Maybe there are stupid dis-info agents among us.

One day I ran into a friend of mine and complimented her nice dark tan. I asked her if she recently took a vacation.

She told me that she got her tan at a tanning bed in town, that it was a lot cheaper than a vacation.

And she wasn't kidding.

Living in the Uk I do think there is an attempt to dumb things down, each year exams are made eaiser so that the pass mark goes up and the education system looks good.

Maybe though there needs to be a proper definition of what dumb is as someone said some older people can do one thing yet not something a person of the next generation would see as easy.

In saying that I was speaking to a co worker about a subject that interested me at the time and he said "why would you want to learn about that" My answer was "becuase I can" but there in lies the difference in smart and dumb I think, some people are just not interested in learning anything past what is already in the everday lives.

Yeah. I was in the post office the other day getting money order. A thousand dollar one, and they wanted some change to process it, so I threw the lady a $20. She started counting change, and I offered some more to round it out. She got confused, handed back the $20, said "lets start over", counted out the change for the $20 and I told her thank you and left. It took a lot to keep a straight face, and I bet the cameras missed it.