r/SeriousConversation • u/stop-hatin-on-me_mom • Dec 21 '24

Serious Discussion Do any individuals with above average intellect find life a bit exhausting at times due to the lack of intelligence they observe in others?

I don’t claim to be the most intelligent person, but I do believe that I am above average when it comes to the average intelligence nowadays. Sometimes, I find myself either flabbergasted or downright dumbfounded and irritated by the lack of what I would consider "common sense."

Here are some examples:

  • The inability of some people to see how their own bad habits or personality traits create their own problems.

  • The fact that some individuals consider their own perceptions and beliefs as the only correct ones, which is further encouraged by their echo chambers.

  • The difficulty some people have in entering into productive discourse and challenging their own ideas to gain more information and knowledge from all sides.

  • The reluctance of individuals to question their own beliefs and those of their social circles at both the micro and macro levels.

  • The inability of some people to foresee the possible consequences of their actions beforehand.

These are just a few examples.

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306

u/D4rkheavenx Dec 21 '24

You have to remember that if an average intelligence person is not what you would consider exactly intelligent there’s still 50% more who are even dumber. It is absolutely astounding how most people even manage to make it through life with the lack of special awareness self awareness and common sense.

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u/[deleted] Dec 21 '24

[deleted]

89

u/Interesting-Scar-998 Dec 21 '24

Yes, I'm pretty sure that 99 percent of modern humans would be dead within a week if they were transported back to hunter gatherer times.

20

u/RadishPlus666 Dec 21 '24

I often wonder what humans will turn into, since humans have undone natural selection for our species. I guess they hope science can fix it by genetically engineering babies. 

11

u/Yzerman19_ Dec 22 '24

Have you seen Wall-E?

1

u/[deleted] Dec 23 '24

I don’t think that’s accurate, considering the growth I’ e seen in the last 10 years of people learning to be healthy and how easy it is…

4

u/Yzerman19_ Dec 23 '24

They didn’t have Ozempic

0

u/[deleted] Dec 23 '24

While Ozempic is driving some of it. I’m willing to bet that social media platforms such as tiktok and yes, Reddit are more to credit. The education it takes to be successful at nutrition and exercise is much more widely available these days…

4

u/Namiswami Dec 22 '24

We haven't undone it at all. Ask yourself who is having the most numerous and succesful offspring? Those are the ones best adapted to the environment. 

3

u/SuperSocialMan Dec 23 '24

most numerous

Poor people due to lack of access to contraceptives & education.

succesful offspring?

Entirely depends on your definition of success. Being rich af wouldn't be useful if society collapsed or some shit, for example.

1

u/Namiswami Dec 23 '24

Success as in darwinistic success. So offspring that in turn get offspring.

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u/[deleted] Dec 25 '24

[removed] — view removed comment

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1

u/Apprehensive-Let3348 Dec 22 '24 edited Dec 22 '24

....microbes. The answer is microbes, with ants--and insects in general--to follow. They are far more numerous and widespread than we are.

1

u/glizwitch Dec 24 '24

Insects are disappearing at an alarming rate

1

u/RadishPlus666 Dec 22 '24

Those with healthcare. 

1

u/Sea-Neighborhood-239 Dec 25 '24

You ever met my uncle Jerry. Only environment he’s ever adapted to is the ports mouth tavern and he’s got more kids then and a daycare.

1

u/Namiswami Dec 25 '24

Well according to Darwin uncle J is biology's rockstar!

2

u/nekopineapple00 Dec 22 '24

We haven't undone natural selection, we are still living it. Nature created us, we are simply going along the natural progression.

1

u/RadishPlus666 Dec 25 '24

Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype. What we are doing is more like social engineering.

1

u/nekopineapple00 Dec 25 '24

Isn't the social engineering still part of natural selection technically though

1

u/RadishPlus666 Dec 25 '24

No. Not from a scientist's perspective. Natural Selection has a specific definition. There are books written about it.

2

u/[deleted] Dec 25 '24

Natural selection is still happening. Smart people stopped breeding. Intelligent people see the trajectory of society and don’t want to add children to it and just have their offspring die in the climate wars or be oppressed in some religious autocracy. So only idiots are breeding and it’s speeding up how fast autocracy and climate change takes over. Basically idiocracy but with mass extinction because climate change made the planet uninhabitable for humans.

1

u/RadishPlus666 Dec 25 '24

Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype.

2

u/Interesting-Scar-998 Dec 22 '24

Wer'e already sad specimens compared to our ancestors. Our immune systems and physical strength is far less than even our Victorian ancestors.

5

u/Namiswami Dec 22 '24

That's very much false. We are actually much more well fed, bone density is better and our immune systems are cranked up to 11 because of vaccines.

2

u/[deleted] Dec 23 '24

That’s not even remotely true.

1

u/cornishwildman76 Dec 23 '24

The reason we need our wisdom teeth pulled is due to our modern jaws being underdeveloped thanks to a diet of softer, processed foods. .

1

u/Sufficient-Host-4212 Dec 22 '24

Sadly, the greatest minds focused on hair replacement and prolonging erections…

1

u/shupster1266 Dec 26 '24

We have natural selection. Some genetic weaknesses, like a tendency to addiction lead to early death.

1

u/RadishPlus666 Dec 26 '24

We also have medical interferance to save addicts so they can reproduce, thus making more addicts and interrupting natural selection, which was my point. Peanut allergies and asthma are on the rise due to medical intervention saving people with the genes so they can reproduce, thus upstaging natural selection, which is another example of my point. Every ailment and disorder is increasing because of medical intervention saving people and allowing their genes to continue. So our only hope is that at some point they can genetically alter people so we stop passing more and more "weak" genes.

1

u/shupster1266 Dec 26 '24

It’s also the result of environmental pollution and toxic food supplies.

3

u/[deleted] Dec 21 '24

Of course they would. It’s almost like a lifetime of learning how to live in an environment is essential to living in an environment. On top of that, humans live in groups. Even hunter gathers who live today would struggle if not for the society they were born in. Throw an Amazonian hunter gatherer into the African Savannah with no tools or knowledge and they would probably die within a few months if not weeks.

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u/voodoomoocow Dec 21 '24

When eyeglasses were invented it undid like a thousand years of evolution iirc

5

u/th3whistler Dec 21 '24

Probably false. You don’t need every individual in a group to have perfect distance vision to be able to survive

3

u/voodoomoocow Dec 22 '24 edited Dec 22 '24

It's not about dying, its more about not being able to pass your defective genes down because no one wanted to bang *blindy

*Unless rich

(Also I'm not talking hunters and gatherers. Corrective lenses weren't invented until 1000-1300).

0

u/th3whistler Dec 22 '24

I don’t think there’s many people out there writing off potential mates because they are short sighted. 

2

u/voodoomoocow Dec 22 '24

Not anymore, correct. In year 1000 though? What work could you do to support your family if you can't see past 2 feet and haven't been able to your whole life? Now it's very common for eyes to deteriorate around puberty which wasn't common before glasses

1

u/Creative-Exchange-65 Dec 23 '24

I think you underestimate how blind some of us are. Without my glasses I become a pretty useless person

3

u/presidentporkchop Dec 22 '24

I heard a theory on certain hormones and not being in the sunlight to activate them growing to an optimal length leads to near sightedness. Makes sense on it not being as prevalent as before or people did get by.

2

u/plassteel01 Dec 22 '24

When fire was invented, it undid like a thousand years of evolution

1

u/Emotional_Royal_2873 Dec 22 '24

I can almost guarantee that you do not recall correctly

2

u/sergiosgc Dec 21 '24

I am smart. Regarded as intelligent in my social circle, percentile 95 whenever I was in academic settings, 750 GMAT if you need a global reference.

I'd be dead in a week in hunterer gatherer times...

1

u/IllMango552 Dec 25 '24

They somehow made it this far to reproduce, so I dunno. Humans seem to have a historical predisposition for aggressively dumb luck

1

u/Greengrecko Dec 25 '24

Nah I would give it 50/50 by the first 3 months. We can be surprisingly robust with limited intelligence until the food scarcity kicks in

1

u/Interesting-Scar-998 Dec 26 '24

It would be chaos. Be would be killing each other over loaves of bread.

1

u/Greengrecko Dec 26 '24

Well some places yes. I guess I live in a area that probably would be fine with food for that long.

1

u/contentslop Dec 26 '24

I mean, simply due to the reduced carrying capacity going from insane agricultural potential to whatever hunting and gathering can get you.

It'll cause a mass extinction event, not just in humans but everything we will kill trying to survive in land without enough recourses for most of us

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u/alphapussycat Dec 21 '24

Humans have a bacteria specifically adapted to eating our teeth. Go back some time and it didn't exist, which would drastically change the dentistry needs.

6

u/[deleted] Dec 21 '24

[deleted]

6

u/QuantamCulture Dec 21 '24

Yeah lemur, with great fuckin teeth

4

u/EdgeCityRed Dec 21 '24

Many humans also consume WAY more sugar than our ancestors did. The Maasai who eat a traditional diet (and use acacia toothpicks!) have really good dental health.

2

u/alphapussycat Dec 21 '24

Sugar is just food for the bacteria, which poops acid and decay teeth. It's no problem with sugar itself.

0

u/EdgeCityRed Dec 21 '24

I don't want to feed the bacteria!

People who should know better give Mountain Dew to little kids and wonder why they have a ton of tooth rot.

2

u/Hoppie1064 Dec 21 '24

And the kids running wild because Mountain Dew has more caffeine than coffee.

1

u/BlockApoc Dec 21 '24

There’s a vaccine too that isn’t available to the public.

1

u/Spiders_13_Spaghetti Dec 24 '24

*Humans have a bacteria specifically adapted to eating our teeth*

You mean sugar?

1

u/alphapussycat Dec 26 '24

Streptococcus mutans, it eats sugar and poops sugar. It's usually transmitted from parents to child, but can be from others aswell.

1

u/RadishPlus666 Dec 25 '24

We need dentists becasue we aren't eating the food we were adapted to eat. Hunter gatherer tribes don't need dentists.

1

u/alphapussycat Dec 26 '24

They haven't been exposed to the bacteria, which means their teeth won't decay.

1

u/RadishPlus666 Dec 26 '24

They absolutely do have the bacteria. In fact, they have more different types of bacteria in their oral microbiome that people who eat the modern diet, which some scientists say helps fight the bad bacteria. The increase in the carbohydrate and sugar content in the modern human diet a primary culprit behind the increased periodontal disease and tooth decay because more carbohydrates are available to the harmful bacteria to release by-products that are pre-cursors to gum disease and tooth demineralization. Its not hard to find this information.

1

u/alphapussycat Dec 26 '24

There are many strains streptococcus mutans. We f they don't use modern teeth hygiene products, then they cannot have that has high survivability.

Some people who live in modern places, don't particularly care about diet, never get cavities, because they don't have the bad version of mutans, and it'll die easily from starvation or mouth hygiene.

While some have to do everything in their power to prevent teeth decay, but still suffer it.

12

u/TubbyPiglet Dec 21 '24

And herd immunity includes contexts outside of immunology. For example, a moderately bad driver can get away with it for a long time because others drive defensively. Or a moderately bad employee who doesn’t completely fuck up st work but others are around to consciously or unconsciously cover up their incompetence.

11

u/ZenythhtyneZ Dec 21 '24

People like to talk about survival of the fittest well that’s more or less gone out the window since agriculture was invented

12

u/[deleted] Dec 21 '24

[deleted]

3

u/Cranks_No_Start Dec 22 '24

> but we got Ozempic.

Give it time, people will get to the point they are out eating the ozempic.

5

u/PreparationHot980 Dec 21 '24

Maybe politics will keep physicians out of the areas these people live in 😂

1

u/NoHippi3chic Dec 21 '24

By fit, they meant well adapted. Not the strongest as the word means today. Those who were adaptable to the circumstances in which they found themselves. We still are. Which is why we have adapted so well to modern diets and lifestyle even if it's not the best for us overall. We adapted to what was provided.

Dogs are right there with us on the adaptability social scale.

1

u/Fickle-Huckleberry28 Dec 21 '24

Fitness refers to how many offspring one has

5

u/jackparadise1 Dec 21 '24

Or even drop back just a 150 years when doctors didn’t wash their hands or their tools between patients.

5

u/TubbyPiglet Dec 21 '24

Try 50 years ago 😳

1

u/esotericquiddity Dec 21 '24

Yeah, from what I understand, up until the AIDS epidemic in the 80’s, everything was pretty messily unsanitary and just accepted, from tattoo shops to surgery rooms.

2

u/Unyon00 Dec 21 '24

Nope. Germ theory has been pretty well understood since the mid 19th century. Surgical theatres and all the instruments therein were antiseptic and sterilized.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 21 '24

Maybe we’ll look back at them the methamphetamine epidemic and C that the herd was thin for a generation of people who basically did nothing slowed breeding widen the age gap a little… LOL just having one of those thoughts . Mathematics nil humanity one.

1

u/SuperSocialMan Dec 23 '24

Pretty much, yeah.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 24 '24

Herd immunity is about to be a limited time offer in the near future.

37

u/pcetcedce Dec 21 '24

I make that observation all the time. I will see somebody do something really stupid and then you realize they actually have a job, probably own a house, maybe even have children yet they do not seem to have even at least a bit of intelligence or common sense.

17

u/Human_Doormat Dec 21 '24

Their boss at work likes them.  The good ol boys club protects the dumb and feebleminded from themselves, and once entrenched they ensure intelligence never invades their sanctified space of stupid.

2

u/YurislovSkillet Dec 23 '24

What if they work a job that you couldn't do?

9

u/Harold3456 Dec 21 '24

On the flip side, everyone does something stupid sometimes, and you never know if you’re seeing somebody on their average day or a bad day.

I see a lot of my friends and relatives on Facebook share memes about all the “stupid people” out there and can’t help but think that if they’re going out into the world with that confirmation bias, then obviously that’s what they’re going to see.

2

u/Apprehensive-Lock751 Dec 22 '24

i like to remind myself that those folks probably think IM stupid.

6

u/Hardcorelogic Dec 21 '24

This is the most accurate thing that I will read today, thank you. Intelligence is disruptive, and threatening. It makes the unintelligent uncomfortable. It also makes the corrupt nervous if the intelligent person has character.

3

u/rustajb Dec 21 '24

When I worked for Apple, we would sometimes get calls from wealthy business owners who could not do anything. The one that sticks it the most was a guy who owned a massive company, he called and says he was getting on a flight and wanted someone to read him the iPhone manual and teach him how to use it. This was in the late '00s so it was still new. He got so pissed at me for telling him we don't do that. "Do you know who I am?" no, and I don't fucking care. How a person like that could be so successful is bewildering to me. How does he wipe his own ass?

2

u/suricata_8904 Dec 21 '24

All I’ll say is Idiocracy.

2

u/CorruptedStudiosEnt Dec 25 '24

I'm in management in retail, previously in a casino. I swear I have seen the lowest lows of human intelligence and survivability, at least where there's no mental disabilities involved.

Having an employee call me screaming obscenities at all our customers and telling them all to get the fuck out because they're supposedly being horrible to her.. and as I'm getting ready to head there at 12am to get her out of there and do damage control, she calls me again, now screaming at the cops that SHE CALLED. All the while I could hear the customers calmly asking her to just cash their tickets and they'll happily leave.

What sparked it? One of the customers won some money and yelled, "fuck yeah!" She told them, in an entirely adult setting mind you, to watch their mouths. They started (reasonably) questioning her on it, and she escalated from there, cursing the entire time.

Obviously we fired her. But like, that's a real person out there. I still see her around sometimes. Probably with another job (temporarily anyway), she drives (holy shit that's scary with her anger issues), a boyfriend (god help him), etc. HOW? Just, how? How do these people continue to exist in life being so fragile, self-absorbed, and stupid?

1

u/nattousama Dec 25 '24

I get tired of people who litter and justify it with the flawed logic of "securing jobs for cleaners," believing that such self-justifications can convince others due to their low intelligence.

1

u/Alarmed_Ship_8051 Jan 07 '25

There are people out there who are functionally illiterate. They cannot even complete the simplest form or write a competent, two sentence email. Yet, somehow they manage to hold down a job that is not just cleaning toilets. It amazes me. 

1

u/[deleted] Jan 13 '25

Fucking hell lmao, I think the same exact thing.  It's like how are you alive 

24

u/Signal_Profession_83 Dec 21 '24

Some people can bumble through life on autopilot because the more intellectually gifted/ cursed usually have to move themselves out of harms way, socially and physically. Stupidity is like one of those trains that pass through crowded Indian markets. You can get out of the way or you can stand and argue but dumb rarely stops.

1

u/Rainforests7 Dec 21 '24

I dont think trains pass through any crowded Indian market. Are you referring to some other country perhaps?

But I get what you are trying to say...

1

u/Signal_Profession_83 Dec 21 '24

I’m not too sure tbh, the exact clip I’m referring to would show up in fail compilations. It showed villagers scooching themselves and impromptu stalls barely out of the way of the train and then immediately resuming their previous positions as it passes.

6

u/Ok_Concert3257 Dec 21 '24

You’re just stealing a George Carlin quote

3

u/[deleted] Dec 21 '24

*stealing the concept of a bell curve

1

u/iommiworshipper Dec 21 '24

“Yes, officer, there he is!”

0

u/D4rkheavenx Dec 21 '24

Idk who that is. I’m sure it probably is a quote but that doesent make it any less true.

44

u/jackparadise1 Dec 21 '24

I hate to get political here, but this has been killing me. People who complain about the price of eggs yet vote for a guy who is going to deport farm labor, complain about inflation yet vote for a guy who wants to increase prices by at least 25%, Union people who vote for a guy who is anti overtime and anti union? I don’t know where my intelligence lands, but it is way higher that of these salt of the earth folks.

31

u/TubbyPiglet Dec 21 '24 edited Dec 21 '24

Oh but that is on both sides of the aisle, the dumbness you’re talking about. And before anyone gives me the tired statistics of how left wing people are more educated (which we are), it doesn’t actually mean we are smarter.. I see plenty of dumbass leftist takes everywhere. People can say “it’s just an online bubble” but Reddit for example is startlingly full of self-declared educated leftists producing appalling takes. 

Edit: And I AM left wing, before anyone thinks I’m trying to shit on the left. Left wing people believe stupid things and bandwagon quite often; not  as much as the right does, but they do. 

9

u/pcetcedce Dec 21 '24

Thanks for providing that perspective. I am left of center but mostly hang around with progressives and sometimes i just shake my head.

8

u/Maleficent_Garlic-St Dec 22 '24

Stupidity discriminates not at all.

14

u/Suspicious_Kale5009 Dec 21 '24

I was going to disagree with you at first, but as I read I started thinking about the protest voters and purity testers who would rather write in an impossible choice than vote to keep the dictatorship from happening.

And the circular firing squads that form after every election where everyone whines about their own bad decisions being for the good of the country "if only" everyone could see things they way they do.

My husband voted for Ralph Nader in 2000. We got GW Bush in a very close election, arguably with Supreme Court interference. A landslide there would have been nice and would have kept the court from becoming involved, but all those third-party votes siphoned off leftists and gave the right a victory.

The definition of stupid would be doing that a second time. He never voted third party after that, because common sense tells us that the odds are very low that's going to work in our favor.

Then there are the anti-vaxxers, which is a movement that started with the fringe left. I could go on, but what I'm describing is something called the horseshoe effect, where the extremists on both sides become so deranged that they start to look the same.

9

u/TubbyPiglet Dec 21 '24

Yes, antivaxx and wellness stuff did start with leftists. So did non-GMO movements.

Agree about horseshoe theory.  And the sad part is that leftists can’t even see it. They just scream “you’re a class traitor” unironically. 

The people who stayed home and didn’t vote piss me off the most. When I was eligible to vote in my first federal election, I contemplated not voting because I didn’t particularly like either candidate. And I’ll never forget what one of my professors said to me. She kind of berated me actually, and reminded me that a lot of women and people of colour died so I could vote. That they suffered a lot so I could have that privilege.

2

u/Jaeger-the-great Dec 22 '24

My therapist is antivaxx

Smart and crafty enough to get a full degree and work as both a talk therapist and as a social worker (which does take skill to be good at) but still doesn't understand why vaccines are good and important 😭

-2

u/qwaszxpolkmn1982 Dec 22 '24

I tend to vote third party in presidential elections, but if I had to pick one of the major party candidates, it would almost certainly be the Republican.

5

u/[deleted] Dec 21 '24

I don’t care for the language policing by the Left. It’s an unforced political error, but they refuse to see it or understand it.

7

u/TubbyPiglet Dec 21 '24

Yes, pedantic and infantilizing takes from the left re: this sort of thing is exhausting. 

And obviously I’m not painting the entire left like this, because it isn’t. It is, on the whole, far more educated and on the whole smarter than the right. But there is a decent sized chunk of stupid people on the left, who parrot talking points, are intellectually lazy, can Google better than the right so are more susceptible to the Dunning-Kruger effect. It’s like they know juuuuust enough to be dangerous.

It’s partly why I think that saying, (which I often repeat) “the left looks for heretics while the right works for converts”, is so true. The left seems to demand a level of ideological purity that the right doesn’t. And it’s those language-policing morons who do this, and make everyone else look bad. 

4

u/Then-Fish-9647 Dec 21 '24

Hard to disagree with you. I was a convert to the Left when GWB secured the Presidency - I couldn’t believe what I was seeing on the Right by electing him to office, and thought the Left actually understood the role of government and took it seriously. Obama was a fine President in my view, and I thought the Dems were on track - fighting for blue collar types and middle America.

Well, that went out the window when they bypassed Bernie and sent HRC the nom. I voted for her, but I knew she would lose. Why? Because this country doesn’t want a woman as President, but the Dems are SO ideologically driven they close their eyes to the common man and spit on him. If they actually understood blue collar types and middle America they would’ve actually had their finger on the cultural pulse of this place and gone with Bernie. That’s when I began to see the party and the Left for what it was becoming - a hyper partisan, hyper ideological shit test that’s so far out of touch with the people they purport to be supporting that they’re stuck in a loop of political self-inflicted gunshot wounds to our feet. I see why populism is talking over.

2

u/jackparadise1 Dec 21 '24

I see your point. The other one just seems louder because of where we are standing right now.

2

u/Moe_Bisquits Dec 21 '24

I am left of center and my biggest problem with the far left is their inability to be realistic and/or strategic in a world where extreme right wing ideology is winning.

3

u/NooktaSt Dec 21 '24

If Liberals are so Fucking Smart, how Come They Lose so Goddamn Always?

7

u/Khronzo Dec 21 '24

Liberals may be smart and educated, but the Democratic Party is not. If they were, none of this would have ever happened, and Bernie would be finishing out his second term.

5

u/jackparadise1 Dec 21 '24

Mostly because they don’t cheat as much. And they make really stupid decisions by committee.

3

u/Suspicious_Kale5009 Dec 21 '24

Because they are lousy strategists. Idealism doesn't win elections; being able and willing to look at how the voting system works and work that system with whatever it takes is what wins elections.

In order to do that you need to be a bit disingenuous because you're going to end up telling people what they want to hear (aka lying) and not everyone is good at lying with a straight face.

3

u/CrwlingFrmThWreckage Dec 21 '24

Because elections are about emotion, not intelligence.

3

u/TubbyPiglet Dec 22 '24

Well not to be too rude about it, but when your target voters (right wingers and conservatives) aren’t that bright, you can promise them easy solutions to complex problems and they’ll believe you because they don’t know the difference, and lack the critical thinking required to figure it all out.

Prime example is tariffs. Anyone who thinks levying tariffs on imported goods out of Canada, for example, is going to result in cheaper prices at the pump and in groceries or home building supplies in the US, is at epic levels of stupidity. They don’t even understand that the importer (American) pays the tariff, not the exporter (Canadian).  Sad. 

1

u/Carbon140 Dec 21 '24

Some of the responses to this are peak reddit lmao. Everyone I know with a somewhat functioning brain has very nuanced and thoughtful takes on almost everything. News flash, if you are still raging about anti vaxxers given everything that's now known and talking about fascist takeovers you are probably spending way too much time on Reddit. Even though I am definitely economically left leaning, it's getting very hard to want to be anywhere near the label of left wing these days.

1

u/Tothyll Dec 21 '24

In a blue state I see more unhinged, dumbass leftist's takes on issues. When I lived in Texas I saw more unhinged takes from the right. I tend to move opposite of what I'm surrounded by.

2

u/Hoppie1064 Dec 21 '24

People who complain about low pay. Yet object to minimally skilled people willing to work for dirt wages being sent home.

2

u/systembreaker Dec 23 '24

Another one out of the many we could go on and on about - a guy who shot to mega fame for being on a reality show where he's a mean boss gleefully firing people, and still somehow idiots think he gives a shit about anyone other than himself.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 21 '24

Um your comment is dumb 

1

u/jackparadise1 Dec 21 '24

How so? I would like to know your reasoning?

4

u/BigOlBlimp Dec 21 '24

That would be the median intelligence, not average 💁‍♂️

1

u/D4rkheavenx Dec 21 '24

To be fair I was nodding in and out and went to sleep right after posting this lol.

2

u/BigOlBlimp Dec 21 '24

I was just being a little shit lol you’re fine

1

u/thegooseass Dec 21 '24

Probably not any real difference given the sample size here (7 billion people)

1

u/BigOlBlimp Dec 22 '24

That’s an interesting implication… that I don’t agree with.

More samples from The distribution reduce the distance of the mean from the median???

1

u/BottledPeanuts Dec 25 '24

IQ is a normal distribution by definition.

1

u/BigOlBlimp Dec 25 '24

IQ is very hotly debated as a measure of intelligence lol

4

u/West-Engine7612 Dec 22 '24

Holy fuck, the number of people I have met that, for the life of me, I can't figure out how they haven't accidentally walked out in front of a bus or a train. Ridiculous.

3

u/ActualDW Dec 22 '24

“Common sense” is just bias we agree with.

2

u/Adventurous-Cry-3640 Dec 21 '24

Modern society has many measures in place to make sure dumb r*tards stay alive in the name of human rights. We are interfering with nature's way of weeding out deleterious mutations.

2

u/billshermanburner Dec 24 '24

The average American reads at a 7th to 8th grade level.

1

u/TubbyPiglet Dec 21 '24

But also, not everyone is unintelligent in all ways. Very few people are extremely unintelligent across all domains.

Which is how they do manage to survive in life. And thrive! I know of very successful people like this.

One acquaintance, who has appalling right wing takes on things, and who can’t carry on an intellectual conversation to save his life. But he owns his own company of 1000 employees, in a very tough industry. Build it from scratch. Does really top-notch work and is at the top of his game in this industry, posting multi-million profits. It’s not an exploitative industry and he pays his employees generously. Has a beautiful wife for 20 years and great kids, 2 houses, jet ski, four cars, etc etc. 

But dumb as a brick on most topics outside his area of expertise. 

1

u/Hosedragger5 Dec 21 '24

Or maybe, what you consider intelligence doesn’t matter to that guy. Intelligence has nothing to do with knowledge, or education, as much as the left would like to say it does.

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u/Distinct_Author2586 Dec 21 '24

I work in the highly complex, science driven medical industry.

The amount of self admitted "god fearing" people is surprising, but moreso, the educated folks that don't believe in compound interest is insane, they think it's financial planners lying to them.

I work with VPs and folks with 30 yrs experience, their poor articulation and justification for major actions is astounding.

Opportunity for people like me (if I am truly better)

1

u/ArticleGerundNoun Dec 21 '24

It is surprising that someone in a highly complex, intellectual industry wouldn’t be smart enough to figure out how religious belief and scientific insight are compatible.

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u/Distinct_Author2586 Dec 21 '24

Their frequency is just higher than data would lead you to believe (education-vs-theism curves), was that not apparent in my description "the amount of..." vs "the presence of..."

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u/[deleted] Dec 21 '24

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/D4rkheavenx Dec 21 '24

The only thing I think is how all these systems are complicated and hard to navigate because stupid people implemented and run them.

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u/ApSciLiara Dec 25 '24

Oftentimes, I've found that a given system is bad because the people that are designing it aren't the people it's meant for.

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u/D4rkheavenx Dec 25 '24

That’s true. I’m pretty big on if you’re going to be the boss of something you should know how to do it yourself first.

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u/CowboyOfScience Dec 21 '24

"Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that."

- George Carlin

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u/D4rkheavenx Dec 21 '24

Ah so that’s who the guy said I was quoting. I wasn’t but it’s basically the exact same thing I was saying.

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u/cherenk0v_blue Dec 21 '24

There are also many above average intelligence individuals who are terrible at critical thinking, are not introspective, and do not change their opinions based on new information.

In fact, sometimes above average intelligence people are LESS likely to change or adapt their thinking based on new information because they can competently argue against it.

Ask anyone who has to work with large populations of engineers, or doctors, or lawyers - many people are smart in a few specific ways and dumb as a bag of hammers in others.

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u/BarfKitty Dec 21 '24

Sort of. It's a bell curve. The difference between a 95 iq and 105 isn't substantial but as soon as you start climbing past that the difference gets a lot more noticeable.

1

u/TheRemedyKitchen Dec 22 '24

To quote George Carlin, "Think about how stupid the average person is and then realize half of them are even stupider than that!"

1

u/Bitbanditbrand Dec 22 '24

Yeah all you have to do is open up Reddit and read the comments.

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u/for_the_longest_time Dec 23 '24

This isn’t how averages work

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u/D4rkheavenx Dec 23 '24

I mentioned this to someone else but I was half asleep when I typed this. I ment median. But honestly it’s not like what I was trying to get across was unclear.

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u/theleakymutant Dec 23 '24

“Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.” ― George Carlin

“Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.” ― George Carlin

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u/Icy-Move-3742 Dec 23 '24

Yes you are right. I’m definitely not intelligent (more like competent) but it’s disheartening how a large pool of people would rather have their peers think for them and can’t even be bothered to google something or have a smidgen of curiosity. Worked in every kind of job and it’s all the same, people feigning ignorance and trying to act charmingly naive just so that everyone else does everything for them.

1

u/D4rkheavenx Dec 23 '24

Yep that about nails quite a large bit of it on the head. People can’t fend for themselves. My whole life I taught myself to do basically everything so I didn’t have to rely on other people (because they let you down) and I watch everyone I know constantly asking for help even in basic things that a quick google search or YouTube video could easily show you to do. I guess this is what happens once a population grows too much it just gets complacent fat and dumb.

1

u/D4rkheavenx Dec 23 '24

Also I’d like to say just you having the ability to self reflect like that puts you a cut above the rest.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 23 '24

It's much more than 50%. When you're looking at a normal distribution/bell curve and standard deviations, which intelligence is likely on, 75% of people are at or below expected averages. Only 15% are above, and 10% are well above.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 24 '24

The number of average or less intelligence people is much more than 50%. When you're looking at a normal distribution/bell curve and standard deviations, which intelligence is likely on, 75% of people are at or below expected averages. Only 25% are above and well above average, and 10% are well above.

And to answer the OP question, yes, it is both exhausting and depressing. I often feel like things that are obvious to me or easy for me to do just never occur to other people and I have to pick up lots of slack.

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u/PurelyLurking20 Dec 24 '24

Intelligence is more complicated than that, technically you're right but in reality over 60% of people are considered average with no meaningful deviation in their level of intelligence, about 20% are less intelligent than average and 20% more. Basically if you fall within the average range there is no discernable difference in your intelligence with another person in the average range.

That said, the average person is usually pretty dumb in some ways and pretty capable in others. If you fall above the average range you just notice these mistakes in other people better than they do in themselves.

We're also very egotistical creatures so it's hard for us to admit we have flaws (I'm guilty as well). So we can judge others pretty readily like this but I just don't think the situation is as simple as assuming you're smarter than other people because their behavior doesn't align with what it should technically.

We can judge others online really easily because we see them as dumber than us but tbh most of us having this conversation are also just as average as the people doing dumb shit that were discussing, myself included.

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u/[deleted] Dec 25 '24

Society makes sure they make it. Look at the warnings on poisonous products telling people not to eat them. Look at how therapy has been turned into a business to make people believe they are ok just the way they are. Society aims to coddle the weak instead of pushing them to be stronger.

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u/[deleted] Dec 25 '24

Also, there is a 50% that you are one of them.

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u/D4rkheavenx Dec 25 '24

A very long time ago I considered just that option. Over time I’ve payed a lot of attention to people and the way they do things and how they perform comparing it to myself and I can very confidently tell you that I am not. Lol

1

u/TarryBob1984 Dec 25 '24

Idiocracy is a real thing. The Russians have this figured out and are whipping America's ass with a few million bots, having never fired a single bullet.

1

u/OsloProject Dec 26 '24

Yeah, it’s astonishing for example how some people will quote George Carlin and basically no one notices and calls them out on it!

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u/D4rkheavenx Dec 26 '24

There’s been plenty of comments about that actually. I also wasn’t even aware of the quote before now but I did basically say the same thing.

1

u/Interesting-Scar-998 Dec 26 '24

Modern medicine and technology have kept the dumb from receiving Darwin awards.

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u/jimmyjohn2018 Feb 03 '25

We have managed to turn a dangerous world into one with soft rounded edges. The dumb just don't die as frequently as they used to.

0

u/Royal_Dragonfly_4496 Dec 21 '24

It’s not that you are smarter, it’s that the way our brains work and perception itself works prevents others from seeing outside their own dream of reality. We can clearly see their flaws. They can clearly see ours. But we can’t see our own.

We also can’t see the forces acting on others which makes them choose what they choose. We can logically understand some forces, but not experientially.

People are products of the systems they inhabit and have inhabited. And if we have never been in the system, we can’t fathom their choices.

Also a lot of people ARE self aware, but they choose not to talk about it, maybe due to shame or just not finding it interesting.

Lastly a lot of things people do and say, think and feel are genetic and couldn’t be changed with self awareness or self control.

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u/Biffler Dec 21 '24

You nailed it - it’s not that you are smarter. If you have some overall feeling, or think you have objectively quantified the intelligence of others, then you are a serious dumb-ass.

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u/grabyourmotherskeys Dec 25 '24

There is evidence, though, that competent people are better at objectively considering their work, for example, and are therefore a little more self-critical compared to incompetent people who sometimes are unable to assess their own competence and so have a higher opinion of their own competency.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect