WILFULLY STUPID - Brittlestar’s Weekly Newsletter - Issue #14
So, so angry at various pandemic issues. Coffee, good. Sunday morning, good. Deep breaths, goooooood.
WILFULLY STUPID
Everyone is stupid to some degree.
Some, like myself, are stupid to an almost staggering degree, however I feel I redeem myself by knowing that I don’t “know” a lot of things.
And I know humans are weird creatures. We’ve done amazing things like… gone to space, cured various diseases, created apps that make us look a little younger in photos, and many other wondrous and beneficial things.
However, I know we’re also just meat bags with complex emotions that add a fun layer of irrationality to our actions.
One of the things we’ve done (which is quite impressive really) is the internet.
We’ve literally connected almost every living person on Earth and made the history of all knowledge that humankind has been able to cobble together available to anyone in a toilet stall.
You don’t even have to be in toilet stall to peruse and access that knowledge. It’s available everywhere. Though it does seem to be a popular spot.
Yet despite the obvious benefit of this godlike access to Everything Ever, it has come with a flaw. A human flaw.
To reiterate my starting point, everyone is stupid to some degree.
Some, aware of their own stupidity, use this easy access to Everything Ever to search out answers to their questions from people less stupid than themselves.
Others, unaware of their own stupidity, simply try to navigate this vast churning sea of information by clinging to a few chunks that seem to match what they thought already. This is easier and quicker. Also, the chunks they cling to are usually created by people at a similar stupidity level to themselves. So it just feels right.
They may be aware there are smarter people out there who may be able to better explain the information better but that seems like a lot of work, plus those smart people (who have been proven correct time and time again) seem a bit snooty. Like they know something. Like they’re tired of pointing out the the absolutely obvious.
I do not like those people.
Those people have chosen to be stupid.
They have chosen it.
They have seen the facts and pleas from people they know are smarter and more knowledgeable than them and said… nah.
To be fair (Letterkenney fans catch up when you’re done), these people are usually harmless. Usually just the name at the end of “Can you believe…?” or in the middle of “Why is … so stupid?”
But they’re not harmless in a pandemic. Their wilfully stupid ways are borderline, if not fully, criminally negligent.
They do not care about you and they’ve barely thought about how their actions affect themselves.
So, be stupid. I am. Seek out friends and voices smarter than you on any subject. It’s great.
Just don’t choose to be stupid.
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Man wears mask around others until people smarter than him say it's safe