I agree on the most part, however there are certain situations where you just get sick of explaining stuff (see: Feminism 101) to people who have done no research or have ignored the research because they are so headstrong about their issues.
Smart people don't think others are stupid
91–100 of 130 posts
Re: Smart people don't think others are stupid
#92One doesn't need to be smart to find stupidity (in others or in our own). "Stupid is as stupid does."
Re: Smart people don't think others are stupid
#93I used to think people are stupid.
Then I stopped being a teenager and realized that, hey, most people are actually pretty cool. When they're being stupid it's usually just a lack of information and when you educate them a bit, they get better.
But then the internet reminded me that there are, in fact, stupid people all over the place, they just don't live in my IRL filter bubble.
Evidence: http://notalwaysright.com/ http://clientsfromhell.net/ http://textsfromlastnight.com/
Re: Smart people don't think others are stupid
#94"Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree,… it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."
— Albert Einstein
Re: Smart people don't think others are stupid
#95Smart people don't think others are stupid merely because of the beliefs they hold . That is, being a [Southerner, Northerner, Republican, Democrat, Indian, American, Christian, Muslim, Atheist, Tauist, Piist, vi user, emacs user, ...] does not mean a person is stupid. There are smart people who really have thought things through and ended up at each of those positions for good reasons. But smart people might conclud…
What really matters is how you treat people, not what you believe about them.
Re: Smart people don't think others are stupid
#96Sorry but no. Most people are cattle. Utter retards. The only thing missing them is drooling on the floor and making feces. They're little more than animals that can speak. Anyone even remotely smart knows most people are stupid compared to himself.
Of course, smart people don't go around whining about it. But they do KNOW they're surrounded by retards.
Re: Smart people don't think others are stupid
#97There are no smart people or stupid people, just people being smart or being stupid. The same could be said about almost all behaviors, such as courage, promiscuity, or whathaveyou. However, over time people tend to display consistent patterns of behavior. As a consistent picture emerges, we tend to switch from thinking of people as acting a certain way, to thinking of people as being a certain way. Whether you want…
> As a consistent picture emerges I've found that the length of time most people take to form a "consistent picture" of someone else is very short. Generally, it is whatever is the shortest length of time required to determine "are they acting in accordance with my desires or not?". If the person is generally helping to make things happen which you want to have happen, you form a favorable impression of them quickly.…
> I think a truly "smart person" is someone who is always staying open to the possibility of people changing radically, however unlikely that may seem.
But a truly "person who is currently acting smart" may realise that they simply do not have the time to continue treating this "person who is currently acting stupid" as if they're simply acting that way, and may make a temporary value judgement about that person fully in the knowledge that it's an over-simplification and useful only in the present situation. Doing so may also be a smart thing to do, as it allows said person to actually get something done.
Re: Smart people don't think others are stupid
#98Smart people don't think others are stupid merely because of the beliefs they hold . That is, being a [Southerner, Northerner, Republican, Democrat, Indian, American, Christian, Muslim, Atheist, Tauist, Piist, vi user, emacs user, ...] does not mean a person is stupid. There are smart people who really have thought things through and ended up at each of those positions for good reasons. But smart people might conclud…
The real question is what to do with stupid people?
I usually try to hold it as their defense. Something like: "It's OK he said something like that because he's -- well, like that. Now let's change the subject quickly." This makes me look like a bad person but hey, it's better than pick on people because they didn't use their brain.
And then I try to avoid stupid people. There is only so much time.
Re: Smart people don't think others are stupid
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
Fundamental attribution error from social psychology - you tend to attribute errors by others to their intrinsic flaws (stupidity, poor judgment, clumsiness) but your own errors to circumstances (I was tired, they tricked me, it was slippery).
The world would be a much better place, IMO, if everyone ever knew about this cognitive bias and was reminded of it periodically.
Just a quick recommendation for "A Mind Of Its Own" by Cordelia Fine (especially Chapter 3 = The Immoral Brain) for anyone who would like to read more about this, or for anyone already familiar who would like a short, readable book on the subject to recommend to other people.
Re: Smart people don't think others are stupid
#100The article should maybe have been titled "Smart people don't assume others are stupid". But even then the argument is wrong. It seems to me that what this comes down to is: is it justifiable and appropriate to categorise a person according to their behaviour (including the holding of opinions)? The author doesn't seem to deny that people can exhibit stupid behaviour , but argues that its wrong to categorise a person…
> "Smart people don't assume others are stupid".
FWIW: This is Chersterton's fence fallacy. This states that you should not criticise a viewpoint without understanding the reasoning behind it. The reasoning may be unsound, but without knowing it at all, criticism is useless.