Make no mistake -- the human species is experiencing an epidemic of stupidity -- maybe a pandemic -- and it's put human civilization at risk.
Another big problem with stupid people is that they want to require everyone else to be as stupid, or to act as stupidly, as they are and do.
Excellence rankles stupid people -- and rankles even reasonably intelligent people -- when someone "does it better than they do". They envy-others who function better than they do. That's why "elite" has become an insult, when it should be a sign of accomplishment -- as in "elite athlete".
Envy involves a desire to tear others down, rather than to rise to their level. In envy, people sabotage, mis-characterize, lie, and neglect.
THE SOCIAL DYNAMICS of STUPIDITY and INTELLIGENCE
Stupid people like to hang out with other stupid people because, in their shared stupidity, they are safe from being seen more deeply by each other -- more deeply than their self-presentation or more deeply than the standard acceptances of conventional values. Stupid people don't like really to be seen deeply (rather than be superficially or conventionally regarded) because they are afraid of being found out and held to account for their stupidity. They would rather people just hold favorable opinions about them than go through the work of actually deserving favorable opinions.There's a reason intelligent people trigger disturbing feelings in stupid people: Intelligent people see more completely, more accurately, and more deeply than stupid people; their mere "presence and way" are sufficient to trigger awakening of intelligence in stupid people -- and that can be irritating (can't it.....).
Stupid people don't want to awaken into higher intelligence because of what they expect would be burdensome responsibilities and losses of freedom, should they actually comprehend things are they are. They don't want to face their own consciences, to earn their own self-respect. Instead, they seek the appearance of respectability, regardless of what they do.
They assert that intelligent people are the stupid ones.
Stupid people don't want to wake up. They want to stay as if children protected and excused by their parents and superiors -- even as they misbehave and avoid being found out -- or if found out, to stand their ground in smug insolence or defiance.
Stupid people are content with "getting away with it".
TWO MAIN TACTICS of STUPIDITY
Because they don't like to face the actualities of the world around them, they employ two tactics to face the world:- denial
- segregation
- denying the legitimacy of scientific findings
- denying the importance of certain actions
- denying their own conscience
- denying they will suffer the consequences of stupid behavior
- granting legitimacy only to other stupid people, like them
- withholding attention from anyone whose views and concerns are not immediately like their own
- granting privilege only to select groups that include themselves
- excluding information that would cause their world-view to expand, to become more inclusive than it has been
Intelligent people do the opposite. Doing the opposite interferes with the stupidity of stupid peoples intentions.
That's why stupid people don't like intelligent people.
FACT vs. OPINION: IMAGINATION as BETRAYAL of MEMORY
While intelligent people can comprehend what stupid people comprehend, stupid people can't (or won't) comprehend what intelligent people comprehend. They comprehend less -- both in terms of shortsightedness (lack of foresight) and in terms of refusal of responsibility for side-effects.Instead, they substitute imagination.
They selectively select facts, assemble them into imagined scenarios (like, "COVID-19 was designed in a Chinese laboratory and let loose upon the world in an act of hostility.") and then present those scenarios as if they were fact (rather than imagined opinion).
When they perform badly, they imagine "alternative facts" and present them as "everything is wonderful" or deflect responsibility (also an act of imagination).
That's stupid.
Stupid people don't invite people to check their "facts". They don't like to have their facts (opinions) checked. So, as diversionary tactics, they coined the term "alternative facts" and they set up their own "fact checking" authorities to confirm their consensus imaginings and deny the legitimacy of anyone else's "fact checking". They "hold to their story", regardless of facts or, like Inspector Clouseau, act as if they "knew it all along" or as if "the blunder was someone else's fault".
That's denial.
Stupid people, because they believe that any opinion they hold must be true (simply because they believe it or someone in authority asserted it), act aggressively to hold control of the world.
They recruit other stupid people into their plans. Like cuckoos, they lay their eggs in the nests of wealth and power first developed by intelligent people. By bringing more of their own kind in, they consolidate their consensus to the point of majority dominance: denial and segregation en-masse. The Cuckoo Effect.
That's how institutions entrench stupidity. Think "post-modern academia". Think political parties. Think Wall Street. Think Monsanto.
The institutions of business, politics and government largely "hold the cards" -- largely control the wealth and influence needed by intelligent people to advance their work, their lives -- and our civilization.
When stupidity becomes entrenched in such institutions, people don't say or do what they ought. They act stupidly -- consistently -- with occasional squeaks from "whistleblowers".
They rationalize their stupidity by means of imagination-presented-as-facts and so insult the memory faculty -- and intelligence -- of their hearers.
If their hearers are stupid, they just go along, with it.
VOLUNTARY SELF-SUPPRESSION of INTELLIGENCE
The demand by stupid people that intelligent people stifle their own intelligence has a certain leverage. It shows up as suppression of scientific (and moral) voices, of suppression of information (redacting), withholding funding, or suppressing the results of research. These are examples. Observe for the specifics. There are plenty.So, intelligent people, in reaching for the resources to continue their survival and development -- to somehow be influential, to make money -- dumb down their own intelligence to be more acceptable to the stupid level.
Witness the entertainment business. Witness advertising. Witness politics.
Stupid people want intelligent people to be less intelligent -- and "supposedly intelligent" people comply.
"Intelligent" people then no longer "want" to be fully intelligent, but want to be "dumber" to fit in. They become "anti-intelligent" to some degree.
That's stupid.
Stupid people deny it.
People with enough intelligence recognize it and "take the cure", just in case.
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