The Five Laws of Stupidity

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Being a Psych major in college, I just saw an interesting video on Boobtube called "The Five Laws of Stupidity"(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3O9FFrLpinQ), especially considering we have two pandemics raging in the SSA: Covid 19 and Selfish Mass Stupidity.

Curiously, the narrator keeps referring to links in the comments yet they are not there. Stupidity or Boobtube censorship? One missing link is https://www.academia.edu/11274021/Cipol ... _Stupidity.

[Portreve]

I tend to have an allergic reaction to stupidity. It's just possible you may have noticed.

[act]

Being a Psych major in college, I just saw an interesting video on Boobtube called "The Five Laws of Stupidity"(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3O9FFrLpinQ), especially considering we have two pandemics raging in the SSA: Covid 19 and Selfish Mass Stupidity.

Curiously, the narrator keeps referring to links in the comments yet they are not there. Stupidity or Boobtube censorship? One missing link is https://www.academia.edu/11274021/Cipol ... _Stupidity.

The problem I take with your post, aside from it being very low effort and lacking room for discussion besides a mile-long list of refutations that'd devolve into ad hominem is that your article's third (And according to the editor, the most important.) rule for stupidity is that stupid people incur losses on others without a gain to them. Now the definition of stupidity comes from the definition of what is a loss.
Losing or gaining value or whatever have you is something that can only be measured on the long term, and I have a very strange feeling that you're the type of person to describe a group as "stupid" entirely surrounding your current views and biases at the time; all without accounting for the long term, which is integral to understanding stupidity.

[Michael_Hathaway]

I found law 4 & 5 most interesting.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

...The problem I take with your post, aside from it being very low effort and lacking room for discussion besides a mile-long list of refutations that'd devolve into ad hominem is that your article's third (And according to the editor, the most important.) rule for stupidity is that stupid people incur losses on others without a gain to them...

It's not my article. It's one I found that struck me as interesting. I fail to see why you feel it is lacking room for discussion; you seem to be discussing it a fair amount.

...I have a very strange feeling that you're the type of person to describe a group as "stupid" entirely surrounding your current views and biases at the time; all without accounting for the long term, which is integral to understanding stupidity.

I never said I agreed or disagreed with any or all of the article; I only said I found it was interesting.

BTW, where did you get your degree in Psychology? I got mine from Abilene Christian College (now University).

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I tend to have an allergic reaction to stupidity. It's just possible you may have noticed.

Uhh...yeah. I have the same allergy.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Another video on this definition of stupidity (probably a source, if not the source, for Cipolla's article). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ww47bR86wSc

Besides preconceptions affecting judgement, how about willful ignorance? Gullibility?

[Portreve]

OMG that YouTube presentation is insulting to one's intelligence to listen to. He gets to the "causes loses to others without benefiting oneself" bit and just keeps repeating that phrase over and over even though he claims he's trying to explain it. What the f*** is wrong with him?

[act]

It's not my article. It's one I found that struck me as interesting. I fail to see why you feel it is lacking room for discussion; you seem to be discussing it a fair amount.

You make a fair point on it. Maybe it's because I've been conditioned to quickly disregard people who use the word "stupid" as being stupid themselves and so I just immediately chimped out inside the instant I seen the word "stupid."

[Hoser Rob]

I think Scott Adams (of Dilbert comix) put it well We're all idiots because we act irrationally all the time but we expect everyone else to be rational.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I think Scott Adams (of Dilbert comix) put it well We're all idiots because we act irrationally all the time but we expect everyone else to be rational.

You're conflating IQ with a behavior. The term idiot, on long discontinued IQ scales, was used for one with an IQ of 0-25 on more modern scales. Stupid or stupidity, on the other hand, was never used to define an IQ. Here, it used to describe a behavior.

Under the definition of Stupidity used by various "experts", such as Cipolla or Bonhoeffer, even people who have high IQs can be stupid.

This seems to be overly picky over semantics but misusing terms can muddy any discussion.

That said, Adams did a brilliant job of presenting the all too common stupidity of "Corporate America".

[Lady Fitzgerald]

OMG that YouTube presentation is insulting to one's intelligence to listen to. He gets to the "causes loses to others without benefiting oneself" bit and just keeps repeating that phrase over and over even though he claims he's trying to explain it. What the f*** is wrong with him?

Yeah, that video wasn't exactly the best one I ever saw. Cipolla's actual article is a better presentation.

[Hoser Rob]

I think Scott Adams (of Dilbert comix) put it well We're all idiots because we act irrationally all the time but we expect everyone else to be rational.

You're conflating IQ with a behavior. The term idiot, on long discontinued IQ scales, was used for one with an IQ of 0-25 on more modern scales. Stupid or stupidity, on the other hand, was never used to define an IQ. Here, it used to describe a behavior.

Under the definition of Stupidity used by various "experts", such as Cipolla or Bonhoeffer, even people who have high IQs can be stupid.

This seems to be overly picky over semantics but misusing terms can muddy any discussion.

That said, Adams did a brilliant job of presenting the all too common stupidity of "Corporate America".

What pompous dribble.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I think Scott Adams (of Dilbert comix) put it well We're all idiots because we act irrationally all the time but we expect everyone else to be rational.

You're conflating IQ with a behavior. The term idiot, on long discontinued IQ scales, was used for one with an IQ of 0-25 on more modern scales. Stupid or stupidity, on the other hand, was never used to define an IQ. Here, it used to describe a behavior.

Under the definition of Stupidity used by various "experts", such as Cipolla or Bonhoeffer, even people who have high IQs can be stupid.

This seems to be overly picky over semantics but misusing terms can muddy any discussion.

That said, Adams did a brilliant job of presenting the all too common stupidity of "Corporate America".

What pompous dribble.

And where did you get your psychology degree? In this thread, we are discussing behavior, not intelligence; the two are not the same.

[GELvdH]

It boils back down to the difference between wisdom and knowledge. Knowledge is the accumulation of information, wisdom is the ability to apply that knowledge to life.

[ckonn]

to give an universal definition of 'stupidity' is very hard if impossible. that's way we can simplify the problem to:

'tell me how much money you have and I will tell you how smart you are.'

you disagree?

can a stupid person be a millionaire or billionaire?

[rene]

can a stupid person be a millionaire or billionaire?

Heck, I'd even say he or she could be the president of the United States!

[Mick-Cork]

can a stupid person be a millionaire or billionaire?

Yep, but most likely on the back of a lucky lottery ticket!

Having said that, there's many a story of such luck leading to sad outcomes as the 'winner' didn't have the ability to intelligently cope with their new circumstances.

[Michael_Hathaway]

Heck, I'd even say he or she could be the president of the United States!

I had a good laugh after reading that.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

can a stupid person be a millionaire or billionaire?

Heck, I'd even say he or she could be the president of the United States!

You beat me to it. It's funny because it's true - Homer Simpson