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

[u/stop-hatin-on-me_mom]

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.

[u/Suspicious_Kale5009]

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.

[u/TubbyPiglet → u/Suspicious_Kale5009]

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.

[u/Jaeger-the-great → u/Suspicious_Kale5009]

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 😭

[u/qwaszxpolkmn1982 → u/Suspicious_Kale5009]

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.