IS 'REALITY' TELEVISION POPULAR?

Is stupidity rising?

(Thanks to Chuck Cody)

Comments

[Annie Where-but-here]

I don't understand.

blink, blink?

[JMike]

This is completely brilliant.

I knew Andy Morton and shared an apartment with him and some other folks while were playing cards in the LA area.

The "double Morton" is a fully worthy extension to Andy's observations.

RIP Andy.

--JMike

[manual tomato]

Reading assignment for the author. See Infinite Monkey Theorem.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinite_monkey_theorem

[nursecindy]

Is stupidity rising where? If you don't believe people are getting more stupid read some of the comments people write on some internet stories or some letters to the editor. I believe this blog is one of the smartest ones around thanks in part to Mr. Language Person.

[queensbee]

is our children learning?
i just came back from the pesach trip, visiting mama who doesnt have a computer and i dont have any whizbang portable devices yet, since i'm a geezer................sitting next to me on amtrak was a woman at least in my age range (geezer-ish) who said she didnt know where albany was in relation to new york state as a whole. i axed her if she'd ever maybe oh, LOOKED AT A MAP! she actually said she had never looked at a map of ny. she was from someplace in ny, and dont yell at me, i grew up in nyc. i looked at maps. so, in answer to ya quession, they is getting stuuupid. wait, there is more. she didnt know the difference btn poughkeepsie and patchogue. glad i didnt ask her to spell em.
she was using TWO cell phones. one to talk on, the other to text.
Wish i was making that up!

[WVplantman]

NC, we wear our stupidity proudly in this blog! Pull my finger and you will understand.

[Steve]

Have you ever been to a Mensa meeting? It is clear proof that high intelligence does not preclude saying incredibly stupid things, being socially inept, and generally tripping over your own ego.
This in no way implicates all the attendees but the few overwhelm the many.

[queensbee]

the mensa crowd are lost in their own brilliance. the others, not so much. they are just lost. having no common sense does not explain high levels of edumacation in the face of ignorance of some stuff out there. shrugs.
I know, spending your life working out pi to the 57,000,000,000 figure is wacky - and maybe those types cant figure out what to buy to make hamburgers. but they got some smarts of some type. without that type of person, we probably would never have had computers. or nuclear egerny.
everyone of us has different gifts, as they say. i gots good soshal skillses, and a master's degree. but dont axe me to do math or put together anything mechanical. not my skill set.
some folks, however, missed christmas and didnt get a gift. watch jerry springer sometimes.
them just might be the stupids.
just saying.

[Martini Shark]

Considering that Snooki is about the size of your average garden gnome I'd say ignorance is shrinking.

[oldfatguy]

NC. Thank you for your observation re reading comments. reading comments on a lot of news stories, I am sometimes astounded by the level of dumb that some people live at and somehow manage to feed themselves and remember to breathe. I do worry that poor grammer may be a sign of approaching stupidity though? Dang I wish there was a grammer check on this site.

[queensbee]

and eye two would liek a grammer chek, and a spel chek.

[Loudmouth]

1) If stupidity is rising then the number of scholars to study stupidity is dropping.

2) Stupidity Quotient (SQ) is not inversely related to Intelligence Quotient (IQ). I have met some very naive, stupid, intelligent people.

3) Washington proves that the the more stupid the public servant, the more responsibility and money they will be given. Peter was right.

[Weezer's Sister]

Loudmouth - And yet, if we are to believe Andy Morton, the more stupid people who get together to do stupid things, the better the outcome for them. Hence, nobody has gone to prison for the financial meltdown and the same stupids who deregulated the banking industry are running our economic policies now! And rich, fat and happy are they!

In the case of Washington, there's a link between stupid and evil. Maybe we need a new term like stuvil or evpid.

[Loudmouth]

Don't get too serious about it WS. Acknowledging DC stupidity is a non-partisan sport here. The stupidity is truly non-partisan.

Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity." -MLK, Jr.

[funny man]

I'd just take a check. Any check, long as its signed.

[queensbee]

link between stupid and evil? greeedy, greedy, greedy, power hungry.

[Deon]

yes, a link between evil and stupid exists.

On many occasions, the selfish behavior which thwarts the common interest does in fact reward the selfish.

Examples:
That moron who runs riiiight up to the end of the soon-to-be-closing lane and then jams in your lane snarling traffic for the rest of the day.

Also the tragedy of the commons.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons

Also the politics of the Stupid have a bit of this element--unsustainable policy to benefit benefactors (whether corporate, union, or entitlement recipients)

[ken in sc]

The banking meltdown was not caused by any lack of regulations. Banking is one of the most heavily regulated industries around. The banking meltdown was caused by regulations that encouraged, and sometimes forced lenders to loan money to borrowers who they knew could not repay the money. Packaging those loans together with good loans was the only way they had of complying with the regulations and still making money. Anyone who was paying attention knew it was going to end badly. Forbes had an article about it over 10 years ago.