Eternal Question: Why Are People Stupid?

If you know me you know I have little tolerance for voluntary stupidity. 

By "voluntary stupidity" I mean the sort of stupidity that people willfully, gleefully it seems, embrace. There are several kinds:

The ones who choose not to read the announcement, ad or other printed documentation and then ask a question CLEARLY answered in said documentation. Such as: 

Sign posted Hours 10:00 a.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Question asked by a person who has the sign in their field of vision: So when are you open?

That sort of thing is annoying enough and since I manage several Facebook pages for folks I see those kind of questions a LOT. Post some information and people will ask questions that clearly indicate they did not bother to read what you posted beyond the first three or four words. Really? Obviously you are literate enough to use a computer/smartphone/tablet to access the page and type in your question. Can you not perhaps maybe READ what we posted BEFORE you ask your silly question? It would save us all some time. 'K, thanks.

And then there are the gleefully stupid who choose ignorance over informed decision making. I promise we are not going to go anywhere near politics this time so you can breathe now. 

You know the folks I mean here ... First off there's the let's buy a bazooka when a squirtgun will suffice DIY ones. Spending great gobs of money on something they have no skill and/or physical ability in operating, are not going to read the directions for, did not even shop around to get the best price and then .... wait for it .... they screw up, get hurt or otherwise destroy something and TA DA! file a lawsuit against the manufacturer.  These people are often - but not always - male. This is why we have labels on things like hair dryers that warn the gleefully stupid not to submerge the device in water. Famous last words of these people fall into two categories: (1) watch this and (2) I wonder what would happen if I...

Then there are the people who know absolutely nothing about a topic (any topic) or a culture, or even that person sitting across from them in a class or meeting. Zip. They have no info but they think they do. They make decisions about the other person (or group) based completely on what they think they know. While mama was right and first impressions do matter, that doesn't that doesn't make it right to judge (or be judged by) another person based on the color of their hair (hint, gray might not mean old), the way they dress (women are still dealing with the if she was dressed that way she was asking for it stigma), or if two members of the same sex seem "overly" friendly with each other.  And that is just the first step down the stereotyping/gross generalization path. How simple would it be become informed about another culture from a member of that culture instead of Google, your best buddy, or an entertainment source (and if its primary concern is making money via ratings it is entertainment not news people)? This type of stupid doesn't allow for that, makes too much sense. By the way, not all people of a particular race go to the same church in your town. Guess what? You probably have more than one church in your town that the racial group in question attends. Yes I have seen that last one (the church thing) in action.

A subset of the I think I know but don't group is the cluster of folk who sit around and complain about their community. There is nothing to do, it is crime-ridden, this or that racial group has destroyed this or that neighborhood ... you name it. These people have never even looked to see what their town has to offer. Or they haven't done so in oh, twenty years. They do not get off the porch, they complain about everything and they truly do not want to hear it when well meaning informed people try to tell them something positive. They are happier being miserable and "voluntarily stupid". They also refuse to find out ways they can get involved to change whatever it is they are complaining about - apparently that would take all the meaning out of their lives.

But why? Why do people choose to ignore reality? To educate themselves? To become informed? Are they lazy? Do they not care? Are they afraid that they might really be wrong? Is education dangerous? 

You bet it is dangerous! If education weren't dangerous would dictators try to control or squash it? Would schoolgirls be shot and killed? Would schools be blown up and burned down? When a person is educated they tend to think for themselves to ask "why" or "why not"? And they expect answers. The "voluntarily stupid" don't want answers, they already have all the answers. And they annoy the hell out of me.

If you bury your head in the sand and refuse to learn (and subsequently grow) you miss out on a lot. If you keep yourself "voluntarily stupid" you miss out on even more. It is an eternal question. Heck, Plato may have asked it (probably did) why are people stupid? And why is it often by choice?

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