Why Are People Stupid?

Sometimes, the world just disappoints. First, some blethering fool writes the following bit of smug idiocy:

Middle- and upper-class women who work don’t have time to tidy (housekeeping), rear their children (child care) or cook (food industry), and they have to look professional (beauty care and garment industry). These services are provided by an underclass of largely people of color often living in precarious financial situations with little opportunity for upward mobility.

And then I see one facile loser after another happily reblogging said idiocy, highlighting especially stupid bits with the self-satisfied drool of happy idiots.

Why are people stupid? Why are they not trying to become less stupid? Why do they chirp so much and read or learn so little, if at all?

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25 responses to “Why Are People Stupid?”

ladyfiaran

May 17, 2015

I have to say, I agree with the author to a degree. These broads who don’t work and can’t be bothered to raise their own rugrats ought to be ashamed, they can’t be bothered to do their own fucking nails even. I’d be ashamed to live off of my husband’s money and not even bother to at least go to school and learn anything, stupid lazy bitches

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Z

May 17, 2015

The piece is about women who work. It suggests that if they did not work and also employed no service people, those service people would not be exploited.

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1. Clarissa
  
  May 17, 2015
  
  Yes, if nobody employed the service people, they could just live off their investment portfolios and not be exploited. 🙂 🙂
  
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May 17, 2015

What are your objections to the piece? (Note that I have a grass cutter and a house cleaner each of whom comes twice a month, that I use nail salons intermittently, and I go to restaurants when I can.)

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ladyfiaran

May 17, 2015

My objection is that these chicks who can’t be bothered to paint their Damn nails themselves are patronizing salons where the workers are pretty much slaves. And it looks as though they don’t give a shit either, I paint my own Damn nails

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1. Z
  
  May 18, 2015
  
  You are talking, it seems, about the NYT piece the blog refers to, but not the blog Clarissa is criticizing. The NYT nail salon exposé is good, and the blog is bizarrely confused.
  
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Clarissa

May 17, 2015

I don’t even know where to begin, there are so many bizarre generalizations here. Both my stylist and my manicurist, for instance, are more wealthy than I am. And they are both white. And they absolutely love their job. My handyman – also white – lives in a more modest way than I do. But he also digs his job. I don’t see any reason to condescend or pity them. There is nothing shameful about being a manicurist or a cleaner.

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1. ladyfiaran
  
  May 17, 2015
  
  I was referring to the manicurists in the article, it is shameful the people who run the salons treat them like virtual slaves and that rich ladies go to these places. It’s precisely because these workers are immigrants and minorities the owners get away with this, Americans wouldn’t stand for this sort of treatment
  
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  1. cliff arroyo
    
    May 18, 2015
    
    “salons treat them like virtual slaves and that rich ladies go to these places”
    
    Elites love the idea of servants with no rights, it’s one of the reason so many of them hire illegal aliens – no documents equals no bargaining power.
    It’s also a reason the wealthy are for never-ending mass immigration (a way of subverting normal laws of supply and demand for labor costs)
    
    All that said, lumping everyone in the service industries into a single amorphous exploited non-white mass is misleading and very disingenuous.
    
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disperser

May 18, 2015

Hmm . . . perhaps they do not recognize the trait in themselves. Many academics seem to fall victim to such blind spots.

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Stille (@aperfectbalance)

May 18, 2015

What’s with you and academics, disperser? I mean, I know you’re here to troll, but could you please use more creativity while doing so? It’s getting repetitive and you probably wouldn’t want people to think you’re projecting your own issues on our gracious hostess.

Btw, you one of the parents of that poor little girl, a more distant relative, or just a friend of the family?

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1. disperser
  
  May 18, 2015
  
  I hold academics to a higher standard than most. They are supposed to be free of prejudices, actively fight cognitive bias, and most of all get facts and data before spouting off.
  
  Our gracious host shows no signs of any of those traits. In that respect, she disappoints as an academic. The general term is used because I assume, perhaps erroneously, most of her readers are also academics. I could be wrong. Also, as a general rule, I don’t respect academics that are so at ease with the use of the word “stupid”.
  
  Troll is an interesting charge. It could be said that was exactly Clarissa’s behavior in this particular instance.
  
  As for my relationship to the family being targeted, I’ve only crossed their paths a few months ago. They are neither relatives or friends in any sense of the word.
  
  The reason I took some interest in this is because I do not like bullies. Especially bullies who should know better. Reading some of the comments made me lose yet more of my hope for humanity. When supposed learned individuals show such callousness, such disregard for basic human decency, and a level of empathy normally associated with sociopaths, it makes me wonder what we are coming to.
  
  For the record, what they are doing is not all that unusual. As for the “unsanitary” concerns, perhaps all of you would enjoy chastising people who take their kids on months-long camping trips.
  
  That they are caring and concerned parents would be obvious to anyone reading the blog from before this event.
  
  Calling her “that poor little girl” belies a level of ignorance I would not expect here. The response to the girl getting hurt in an accident borders on ghoulish.
  
  But, who am I to say anything, to judge, to assess moral character? Just a troll.
  
  Given the choice and what I read here, I wear the badge proudly.
  
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  1. Stille (@aperfectbalance)
    
    May 19, 2015
    
    I have more empathy with (yes) that poor little girl than with a family irresponsible enough to let her ride a tractor at age 5. I’m curious about what a non-ignorant person like you would call a kid who goes through an accident that requires 4 surgeries and the loss of body parts.
    
    “Caring and concerned” is not a description I’d use, considering what I’ve read of their blog before. More like extremely self-centered, and unable to manage their own emotions properly. I don’t envy anyone having to spend a few months with such people as their only constant source of social interaction, let alone a kid.
    
    And yes, I’d definitely tell anyone planning a months-long camping trip with a 5-year-old that what they’re doing is against the best interests of the kid. The comfort issues (which would be less of an issue in a camping trip than in a camping-in-the-Walmart-parking-lot trip, btw) aren’t the main problem here. The main problem is that this is the age at which kids learn how to function in a non-family context, and unless their lives are going to be spent around their family, having that process messed with by a few months of family as one’s only constant social interaction will lead to socialization difficulties later on. There’s things the camping family can do to mitigate this problem slightly (take the trip together with the families of some of the kids’ friends for example) but they’ll still be imposing unnecessary difficulty on the kid. Unfortunately, parents who will put their own interests above the interests of their kids aren’t unusual.
    
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    1. Clarissa
      
      May 19, 2015
      
      This child is bounced around like a toy while her parents don’t even stop to think about her interests and her needs. I’m hoping that maybe the discussion we are having on this blog will at least plant a seed of doubt in their self-absorbed minds and show them that there are people who see the situation with horror.
      
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      1. Stille (@aperfectbalance)
        
        May 19, 2015
        
        Yeahhh, the whole trip is an opportunity for them so clearly it has to be the best thing for the kid too.
        
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    2. Shakti
      
      May 19, 2015
      
      Stille, they were planning to do it for TWO years.
      It’s just striking that between a farm grandpa, and two parents, not one of them enough of a damn to stop a kid from riding a tractor that had a hole in the floorboard. If it was rust, that’s neglect of equipment. If it was part of the design, it’s daft. And if it was because someone forgot to put a safety guard on the hole above the power take off…
      It took me TEN minutes of casual research to find out how tractors work, and what safety measures one should take on a tractor and whether kids can or should rides as passengers. Nobody thinks a 5 year old is safe for various reasons.
      
      So yes, I’m judging the hell out of dad, grandpa and mom for their careless recklessness.
      
      One minute everything is fine and in the blink of an eye you’re running towards the sound of your daughter screaming. That moment when the helicopter flying over your head is because of someone you know and love. Any other time you wouldn’t even think of it. It would fly over your head, and you wouldn’t think twice. Thinking about those moments when you weren’t there for your baby when she needed you most. That ever present guilt that parenthood brings. The unfortunate fact that you just can’t be there to hold their hand every second of every day.
      
      The uncertainty of it all, wondering if your kid might lose a limb, or a foot, or even just a few toes. The reality. Real blood. Real tears. Real screams. The sound of fear. The clarity. Sitting in the back of a car, flying down the highway, with only your thoughts to calm you. Replaying the scenario in your mind, over and over. Wondering what you could have done different. Wishing you could go back in time.
      
      Impatiently waiting. Calling out for love and receiving it. Hugging it out and telling stories. Reassuring one another. Blaming ourselves. Paperwork and drug sheets. Therapists and surgeons. The people who love you come from all around. They offer you support and touch your hand.
      
      The love is felt from around the world. In the form of words on a screen, but I can feel the sentiment in my heart, and it makes me cry. Because I know how lucky I am at this moment, even though it’s one of the worst days of my life. I’d gladly trade a pound of flesh for a life, two toes for a leg, or everything I had to take it all back and make it go away.
      
      And right next door, above me and below me, there are other dads going through the same thing and worse. Counting on their support groups, feeling the human connection that we all so desperately need but take for granted. I set out on this journey in search of that connection, just not like this.
      
      If you don’t think “poor girl” from just that text, what kind of person are you?
      
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      1. Clarissa
        
        May 19, 2015
        
        These people have really bizarre ways of interacting with the world. First, they publish these accounts on a public blog and then act shocked and outraged when people express opinions on their posts. I’m not surprised that they are not managing to inscribe themselves into society in productive ways. This is infantile behavior that doesn’t even try to mask itself as anything else. And they would be perfectly entitled to keep wallowing in this state if only they didn’t try to drag a child into it.
        
        Also, I have to say as a blogger who had entire websites dedicated to myself, it’s extremely, just extraordinarily bizarre to say that people who read your blog and comment on what they read are “stalkers.” The whole point of blogs is for people to read them. If one doesn’t want readers, one could just write in a private diary.
        
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      2. Stille (@aperfectbalance)
        
        May 19, 2015
        
        Brrrr, do you notice how much of the my-kid-got-her-leg-mangled-in-an-utterly-preventable-accident blogpost is about the parent “calling out for love and receiving it?”. And beyond that, do you notice how much of it is about the parent’s feelings about the situation?
        
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        Shakti
        
        May 19, 2015
        
        Yes, I did. I hope that he admits his fault and apologizes to his daughter for not taking proper care, if nothing else, someday. But that seems unlikely. He’s already minimizing what happened in a new post. He seems to think he wouldn’t be judged for his carelessness if he didn’t travel full time cross country in a van. What can I say? If it takes a mangling to make you consider “safety briefs” before letting a small child wander around a dangerous unfamiliar environment, it doesn’t matter if you decide to roam the world or live in the same house for the rest of your life.
        
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2. disperser
  
  May 18, 2015
  
  By the way, I only answered because it was a direct question.
  
  If you just want to insult, have at it; I’m good at ignoring.
  
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  1. Clarissa
    
    May 18, 2015
    
    “By the way, I only answered because it was a direct question.”
    
    I knew there was no chance of you actually leaving as you said you would. 🙂
    
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  2. disperser
    
    May 18, 2015
    
    I do answer questions. It’s impolite not to answer.
    
    . . . don’t ask any, and I’m gone.
    
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    1. Clarissa
      
      May 18, 2015
      
      Ah, so now you’ll give us conditions on how to conduct ourselves in our own space. Makes total sense. 🙂
      
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    2. disperser
      
      May 18, 2015
      
      Got it; no talking to your readers. Will unsubscribe.
      
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      1. Clarissa
        
        May 18, 2015
        
        This persecution mania of yours is boring. But your infantile idea that adults should never dare to pass judgment on other adults is even more boring.
        
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