My dear Alice,
Many people are stupid. Like most of the people I know and deal with every day.
When I was younger I used to think everyone was smarter than me. I acted accordingly to that assumption.
I was wrong. The truth is, stupid people act like everybody is more stupid than them. That’s one of the many ways to spot a stupid.
The stupid is sure it knows all there is to know. The stupid believes an expert or a scholar is a stupid, even when the true stupid has never read a single line on that particular field of study.
Sometimes it seems the stupid don’t really care about learning anything. It is satisfied with its assumptions, aphorisms, common sense or vulgate.
Other times the stupid is somebody at the very limit of a cognitive disorder. But this type of stupid hasn’t crossed the limit of the cognitive disorder. Therefore, people have to deal with this kind of stupid as if it were perfectly sound.
It is very uncommon for the stupid to have a reading habit. It prefers its information as its fast food. If it looks like a simple meme, all the better.
The stupid is indisposed to or refuses to think, to reason, to look at an argument. It will probably go through life never knowing what a true argument is.
The stupid will accept the easiest explanation that confirms his beliefs and biases, even if it is harmful to itself.
The stupid will try to live by his most base instincts, ignoring all the benefits of reason, all the gifts of a neocortex bestowed upon it by evolution.
People are different. There are tall and short people, and there are stupid and intelligent people. There’s no rule stating everyone balances out their advantages and weaknesses. Some people are just better than others in just about everything. Be careful though, we are not talking eugenics here, or any kind of superiority. We are just talking about stupidity. The stupid will most times try to downplay everyone else’s advantages. The stupid is envious, covetous and fearful of losing its privileges.
It’s common nowadays to talk about emotional intelligence. It’s pseudoscience, it’s as hard to measure as real intelligence. Stupid people usually like to think they’re emotionally intelligent, to compensate, but there is no rule saying one form of intelligence has to compensate for another. True stupids are emotionally a mess and intelligent and reasonable people are frequently very good at sorting out and controlling their emotions.
Nowadays, the stupid thrive in occupations such as social media influencer, coaching and even politics. In fact, social media has been a blessing to them. It’s a gold mine; they profit billions out of stupidity and no wonder the world is such a mess. They teach other stupids and they multiply.
Still, the stupid might seem less affected by anguish or doubt. It simply drifts through an existence without meaning, always seeking comfort and avoiding fear, completely ignoring any possible rewards from taking risks to see further, to move beyond.
Love,
Dad
Aspergers Dad 