Are They Glad You're Stupid?

(or ignorant, or thoughtless, or dense, or  mindless, or under informed, or unaware, or lazy, or gullible, or...but you get the point)

Well...are they?

Yeah, yeah, we know...You're not stupid (or any of those other things).  So the question doesn't pertain to you.

Okay, but have you ever wondered it there's anyone who might think you, or likeminded folks, are stupid (whether you are, or not) and be GLAD???!!!  In other words, it also might be worthwhile to consider WHO might think you're stupid.

And you know what, if you haven't thought all of this, it might be time to do so.

So, okay, before we proceed, we'll agree that what we have to say here can be labeled mostly opinion.  Still, we've based it on some logical reasoning.  We don't know of any factual research that verifies our notions, but we think they make sense and are pretty self-evident.  You be the judge.

SO WHAT IF THEY'RE GLAD? YOU ASK

Short Answer:

We don't think it matters all that much whether someone thinks someone else is stupid.  We think what matter is whether they are glad someone else is stupid (whether they are, or not, in fact, stupid).

Chances are, if they're NOT happy, they won't be taking advantage of it.  They'll berate you for it,  hoping somehow you can get smarter.  Simple as that.

But if they ARE happy, well if you smart enough, you know what that means.  Chances are, they'll be hoping to take advantage of it.  Maybe even create or increase it.  They will:

1.  NEVER, EVER call you stupid.  No, indeed, they'll encourage you to think that you're smart.

2.  Frequently tell you that OTHERS think you're stupid, so you won't listen to them.

3.  Speak in simplified generalities and discourage any attempts to recognize and deal with the more complex matters.  (Remember, for all complex problems there are simple, easy to understand wrong answers.)

Longer Answer (for those who would like further elucidation, in spite of the fact that there may be those who would rather you didn't):

We bring this up, because we've noticed that this matter has been of some concern for some members of our society.  It has led folks to saying things like:

"They think you're stupid," or "They think we're stupid."  These are a couple of typical statements we've seen.   Been brought up by lot's of folks, especially those on the right side of the political spectrum, folks like Herman Cain, Rush Limbaugh, and Glen Beck.  They keep countering statements by others at the other end of the political spectrum as implied assertions of stupidity--as in "They must think we're stupid if they think we're gonna believe that!"

All of which might very well lead to the question:

Do they think you/we are stupid?

Guess what, we're not even a smidge concerned with that question.  Individuals either are, or are not stupid, and they either know it, or they don't, and besides, who knows whether they even care in the first place.  So we don't want to think about it, consider it, talk about it, write about it...at least not right now.

What we'd rather do is... .

...deal with the question: ARE THEY GLAD YOU'RE STUPID? (or, to depersonalize it a little: ARE THEY GLAD THERE ARE STUPID PEOPLE?

So...speaking of reality, we think this is the REAL question, a REALLY BIG REAL QUESTION.  Maybe you do, too.

And there's another question that goes along with it.  Are there people who are NOT glad, who are in fact unhappy that about this stupidity?  Someone just might think you're stupid, but is that person GLAD about it, or NOT GLAD about it?  We figure it makes a difference.   A BIG DIFFERENCE.

[And we think just maybe some folks haven't thought about this and that's why we brought it up here.]

                                                                              GLAD

Okay, then, let's start with GLAD.  Why would someone be happy about someone else being stupid?  What do you think?

Here's what we think.  We think that person would be happy, because somehow the other person's stupidity could be exploited.  They would hope to take advantage of it.  That's what we think.

                                                                          NOT GLAD

Okay, now let's look at the other side of the coin.  Let's look at NOT GLAD.  Why would someone be unhappy about someone else being stupid?  What do you think?

Here's what we think.  We think that that person would be unhappy, because somehow the other person's stupidity has bad consequences, perhaps it even creates jeopardy for others, especially if it is being exploited by someone...anyone... 

HOW TO TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN

THOSE WHO ARE GLAD AND THOSE WHO ARE NOT GLAD

You probably figured this out on your own, but just in case, we want to mention the major difference between those who are glad and those who are not glad.

GLAD: People who think you're stupid and are glad about it will never,  NEVER, NEVER, EVER tell you that you're stupid, or accuse you of being stupid, or rant about your stupidity, or pound you over the head about your stupidity, or...but you get the point.  THEY WANT YOU TO STAY STUPID.  THEY ARE COUNTING ON THAT.  Not for a moment would they want you to think you're stupid.  They would rather you never even thought about it.  On the contrary, they want stupid people to think they are smart.

NOT GLAD: On the other hand, People who think you're stupid and are NOT glad about it will tell you.  More often than you'd like to hear. They want you to recognize your stupidity.  In the end, they want you to stop being stupid.

Do liberals think conservatives are stupid?  Let's return to something we sort of brought up at the top of this page, when we mentioned folks like Herman Cain, Glen Beck and Rush Limbaugh, conservatives who think liberals, or progressives think they're stupid. 

 Well, if they do (and actually there's evidence online that many do), we once again skip over that question and move to what we think is the REAL question, the one that matters most:

Are these liberals, the ones who say conservatives are

stupid, glad, or not glad about this purported stupidity?

We can leave it to you to decide.  But if you ask us, we think they are...

...Not Glad, Quite Unhappy, Chewing Nails over it:  From our perspective and despite the claims of the likes of Cain, Beck and Limbaugh, we don't see liberals finding any advantage in stupidity in conservatives.  It seems to us that those liberals who deride conservatives for being stupid are not expecting that stupidity to work in their favor.  No, they look pretty unhappy about it. 

In fact, they appear to want them to get smarter, to be more knowledgeable, more able to reason, less driven by immature emotionality. 

They find stupidity on the part of conservative to be highly destructive in our world.  That's why they point it out.   Over and over again.

Yeah, for the most part, telling others that they are stupid probably doesn't do that much good.  It probably just arises from frustration and a need to vent.  A better strategy is probably one of trying to focus on reality and reasoning and what that reveals to all of us (Ahem, our goal for this web site).

Okay, and do some conservatives say that liberals are stupid,

and if, are they glad, or not glad about this purported stupidity?

Again, we can leave it to you to decide.  But if you ask us, we think they are...

...Not Glad, Quite Unhappy, Chewing Nails over it:  From our perspective, they are downright angry.  In fact, if anything, they are very angry.  Among other things, they think that it's stupid to call conservatives stupid.  Plus, they accuse liberals of being stupid about the various things they espouse.  Unfortunately, we were not able to find any online accusations of stupidity on the part of liberals that spelled out what intellectual failing was present in the liberal agenda.  Mostly, all we saw was statement that it is stupid, as if the stupidity is mostly self-evident, that it doesn't need to be validated with concrete evidence.  

So while we're at it, is ONE group more stupid than the other?  We dunno.  Actually, we don't care all that much.  But we thought you might like to see someone who has thought about this topic. 

To read an article about assessing intelligence of liberals and conservatives

What sort of groups, or individuals find the stupidity of others advantageous?  Mostly, we think it's those who are power seeking, or greedy, or arrogant, or some combination of all three, plus maybe something else (which we haven't though of yet).  Here are a few examples (we hope you can think of more):

1.  Rich folks: We don't assume this applies to ALL wealthy people.  But we do think there are quite a few wealthy individuals who want you to think it's wrong to "redistribute wealth" by making their tax rates higher than yours.  They know that there has been years of "wealth redistribution" that has made them richer, while keeping you at the same level, or maybe even poorer.  They are glad there are individuals who are stupid enough to not know that redistribution of wealth is an inherent part of capitalism, the very thing that drives competition (they're competing for the wealth, so they want to take it away from others, i.e., redistribute it out of less wealthy folks pockets and into their pockets).

Maybe, just maybe, George Carlin got it right when he talked about big wealthy business owners.and said

They don’t want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don’t want well informed, well educated people capable of critical thinking. They’re not interested in that. That doesn’t help them. That's against their interests.

That's right. They don’t want people who are smart enough to sit around a kitchen table and think about how badly they’re getting f---ed by a system that threw them overboard 30 f---ing years ago. They don’t want that!

You know what they want? They want obedient workers. Obedient workers, people who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork. And just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly sh---y jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, the reduced benefits, the end of overtime and vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it, and now they’re coming for your Social Security money. They want your retirement money. They want it back so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street, and you know something? They’ll get it. They’ll get it all from you sooner or later cause they own this f---ing place! Its a big club, and you ain’t in it! You, and I, are not in the big club.

To see a video in which Carlin makes the above statements.

2.  Environment despoilers: Those want to continue doing things that mess up our environment, usually in order earn money (sort of like no. 1 above).  This would include oil companies that want you to continue denying the possible contribution to climate change created by the burning of fossil fuels.  Or the tobacco industry that wants you to ignore the extent smoking leads to cancer.

3.  Panderers:  Folks who make money pandering to the stupidity of others.  Here we get back to Herman Cain, Rush Limbaugh, and Glen Beck.  Add to this all the folks who make good salaries working for Fox News.  Oh, and include Ann Coulter to the mix.   Okay, Okay, so maybe not all of them are that avaricious, or egoistic, in which case, they're probably  just stupid, and probably being taken advantage of by others, who are glad they're stupid.

Quick Note: Before anyone gets there dander up about our choice of panderers, perhaps wanting to draw attention to pandering amongst liberals, let us point out that the above concerns pandering to stupidity, in this case amongst conservatives.  It is equally possible that there are people who pander to intelligence.  Of course, that's a somewhat different matter (sort of like the difference between pandering to criminals and pandering to law-abiding folks--you know that one has more dire consequences than the other).

4. Politicians:  In their quest for support and getting elected, they may well benefit from a stupid electorate (remember, roughly half the population is at, or below average in intelligence).  So, for example, they might tell those against socialism that social  welfare is the same as socialism, when they are not evenly slightly similar, in order to win an election against a candidate who supports social welfare.  Some might reasonably maintain these politicians are panderers and belong under No. 3 above.  We would agree but wanted to give them some separate attention in order to elaborate on their form of pandering.

Post-Script: Of course, there is another aspect to this.  Maybe they don't think you're stupid and are glad, but maybe they HOPE you're stupid and will be delighted if it turns out you are.  In fact, some might want you to take a "stupid" pill:

 To go to the brief introduction to thinking and feeling

 To go to the Articles Page.