Just how stupid can you be? Obviously intended as a rhetorical question, clearly all of us agree there is no need for an answer. Right? Yet every single time I ask this specific question I feel as if I have set myself up and then I want to hit my own self in the head with a brick, or a hammer or any handy heavy item.
Truly, I feel as if every single blessed time I ask this specific question I have raised the bar on Stupid, as if it isn’t at all rhetorical but instead as if I am issuing a challenge. What is it that causes people to give me that blank fish eyed stare just before they respond with, “Did I fail the test? Give me another chance, I can do better I can be much stupider.”
I am flabbergasted by the level of stupid alive and well throughout society today. It amazes me every day what people will do and say thoughtlessly. People tend to live in bubbles of entitled ‘me’, heedless of their power to aggravate, annoy, hurt and even at times do great harm to others. Many of us, yes I will admit to my fair share, walk through life with blinders of how our words, actions and even lack of action affect those around us.
Just how stupid can you be?
It is sometimes truly impossible to judge how our actions affect others until after fire rains down on our heads. It might not be our intention to do harm, to hurt but by our inattention to the details we do so nonetheless. Other times, well we simply walk through life with our heads so far up in the clouds, our hearts so encased in the ice of our history we fail to consider the consequences of our words or actions. This is the ‘stupid’ of smart people. We have huge numbers of stupid smart people in the world today, people with intellectual intelligence who utterly fail the emotional ‘smart’ test, for a variety of reasons. 
Then there are the truly stupid, those who simply wake up every day and say to themselves, ‘Val posed the question, issued the challenge and I am going to greet the world with my version of STUPID and then up the ante’. These are the people I truly don’t understand, the people I wonder about. These are the people I drive by on the side of the Texas freeways piled up into each other, the people who during the winter months slam on their brakes across the icy bridges of the Dallas freeways thinking, ‘I have four wheel drive’.
These are the dumb-asses who blow up my phone with, ‘I have a job for you’ but haven’t got a clue what I do, haven’t read my resume and want to pay me $25 an hour less than the market rate for my skills, why you ask? Well because according to them, ‘they can bring someone from (name the country) who would be willing to work for that rate. Yes, I really have had these conversations. Yes, they really do say that to me. Yes, it is insulting. It is especially insulting because this has been going on for years and our rates have already been cut by at least 50% in the past decade for just that reason. 
Then there are those genius asshats who are simply STUPID because they can’t help themselves, they aren’t socially competent enough to exist in the same world as you or I, but they do. These are the people you scratch your head at. I said the other day I am selling my house. I am selling it for a reasonable market price, not expecting a windfall and recognizing there are things that will need to be done by the next owner, because I have lived here for more than a decade. On the other hand, I have also done many upgrades to this house so it is a trade-off. Guess what boys and girls, I am not paying for your desire to ‘upgrade’ or ‘redecorate’.
Don’t be stupid and please don’t insult me. Really I don’t care if you have small children, don’t care if you think you should have ‘better’ carpet than what my offered allowance will pay for, or if you think the fact that I smoke in my office is ‘bad’. The truth is, it is my house, I pay the mortgage here today. I recognize what is required and have offered a significant amount of cash at closing so you can do the necessary painting and carpet replacement, but don’t insult me with an offer of $25K less than the asking price and then give me a sob story and ask for more than double the allowance. 
My answer? Go look at houses in your price range and STFU. Entitled are we? No I would say, ‘Just how stupid can you possibly be?’ Truly, I could go on and on. I could start in on our political landscape and I just might, but not today. I could trip lightly across our ‘reality’ television (oh that might be close to the same thing), but maybe another day. My problem though? Every single time I ask the question, I feel as if I am raising the bar and there are far too many people who want to take up the challenge. What the hell is wrong with people today? Why is it we aren’t celebrating brilliance, reveling in clever? Can anyone tell me why we are tripping wildly down the path of dismal and abject intellectual poverty, please help me understand.
QBG_Tilted Tiara 
This campaign year has seemed to bring forth either a new level of stupidity or help identify stupidity. I tend to believe the latter.
I try to believe the later, sometimes I struggle to believe the later.
There are an incredible amount of Stupid around dear Val.. Sorry they are all crossing your threshold recently.. Maybe try this exercise.. Laugh at their stupidity instead of allowing it to rankle.. That way you may attract those with humour across your door lol. Rather than those who are takers and want something for nothing… At least then they will laugh when you tell them ‘Do I look Stupid?!’ lol..
Hope your house sale goes well.. Keep thinking you already sold it for well above the asking price.. Keep that thought.. See the SOLD sign up and a Happy family in there who love your carpets and decor and are thrilled to have moved in.. 🙂 What we think we create!.. 🙂 Sending lots of calming thoughts your way dear Val. 🙂 Love and Hugs
Sue ❤
I am so trying this one Sue. Truly I am so trying. I so very much need something that seems more normal.
It will come Val… I know me saying so is easy to say.. But I so believe we attract to us .. So while you are feeling frustrated all you are getting is more stress and frustration.. Which is why I often have to step back from myself and take deep breaths.. Which is why I loved your poem so much on the other post 🙂
We live in a world which highly values selfies, planking (not sure if this is over yet), social media, “tan till I’m orange” and “I only date guys who hit the gym all day”. I am not the only one who admits that every previous generation is better than the current one. Have I lost hope in humanity? More or so but it still worth trying for that 10% who still has some common sense. Great post!
Zaria
I believe I am afraid to ask what ‘planking’ is. I will go look it up and will likely weep when I find out. While I agree previous generations certainly had much to recommend them, they also came with baggage some of which is still weighing us down. I don’t think I would want to go back in time, no I still want to move forward, to progress.
Intellectual poverty is a rampant and, I’m afraid to say, highly contagious disease.
Seriously, Val, you’ll drive yourself crazy trying to figure out how the brain cells of the world’s dumbasses (if they have any) interconnect. As for education, the true measure of one’s intelligence is not how much education they’ve achieved, but how they apply that knowledge. Some of the stupidest people I’ve ever met have had master’s degrees and PhD’s. There’s a special, gilded place in the Great Beyond for people like us who realize and understand life’s inequities and do everything within our power not to kill those who instigate such madness.
I know, I know. I keep saying to myself, ‘every day that goes by where I haven’t killed someone is a win’. Yet, there are some days, I think I should get a medal, you know?
The more I talk to people, the more I like my dog…whoops, I mean cat.
I feel the same way about my dog. We’re not the first and we certainly won’t be the last to harbor such sentiments.
I am exactly of the same mind Loon.
I think there was an actual scientific study which found that the less intelligent the person is, the less likely they are to recognize that fact.
Ah, but X intelligence and stupid are very different animals. Lack of intelligence, well it is very nearly a birth defect. Whereas, stupid is a choice.
Yup. Folks do seem to be getting dumber every day. Seems like you’re experience a “stupid bonus” today, though.
A bonus? Oh, okay I will try to think of it in that way. Yes, a bonus.
Reblogged this on The Militant Negro™.
Reblogged this on It Is What It Is and commented:
“I am flabbergasted by the level of stupid alive and well throughout society today.” …. I share this feeling too!!