Stupid Is As Stupid Does

How often, if ever, have you witnessed someone falling down and, rather than helping them up, thought that they must’ve fallen on purpose because they’re stupid? Now out of context that reads as an outlandish accusation against somebody who probably just tripped but, hold on, I promise I’ll explain where I’m going with this. 

The other day while having a discussion on world maps, and how they often look different depending on what country they’re being produced in, a generalized statement was made that “most Americans choose to be stupid.” First things first, I hate generalizations with a passion. Whether that’s a result of my club activities in college or that I simply just like to disagree with people that try to make opinionated statements sound like facts—we’ll never know but, facts are, I dislike them. 

Now, as someone who has gone through the full extent of the American education system in a state where kids are sometimes removed from school by their parents because they’re appalled that the teachers would teach them about something as nonsensical as dinosaurs existing (*ahem* Florida)—there are some pretty dumb people that live in the United States. 

I’m an equal-opportunity hater though. If we’re applying labels of stupidity to a group of people don’t just stop at Americans because, frankly, most people on this planet are pretty dumb (I would include myself in that category on most days if I’m being real). 

You may now be wondering, “how can you hate generalizations if you just made an even bigger one yourself?” 

Great question.

I don’t consider most of the world being dumb a generalization, I consider that a fact. Stupidity is in all of us. Smartness (or any other word someone chooses to package all forms of intelligence into) is but a moment really. We may be intelligent creatures but I am most certainly not intelligent with my actions or my words at every waking moment. And for anyone attempting to make the claim that they are, well, let’s just say they also fall into this category because of a little something called the Dunning-Kruger effect (I’ll come back to this later).

But back to the point, why did this generalization upset me if I do concede that most everyone on this planet is dumb? 

Again, dumbness does not belong to America alone (the state of the world makes that obvious) but, also, I don’t believe that a majority of people make the choice to be dumb. That assertion of people choosing to be indifferent or intentionally try to be or do dumb things is unfair because how am I to say that someone was choosing to be dumb in any given situation—especially if I don’t know said person. 

It’s the same as if I were to resolutely say that the person who fell in front of me fell because they were stupid. That statement in and of itself is putting my own stupidity on display.

I may disagree with someone’s point of view, maybe even consider it stupid, but to say that they’re continuing to hold these “stupid” beliefs intentionally without taking their upbringing (where they grew up, where their family comes from, what their family dynamic looked like, who their friends were, how their school educated, etc.) and their current environment (where they work and who they work with, are they still living in the same area?, are they still an active member of their family (if ever) or have they found a family that they are actively involved in, are they married?, do they have their own family now?, etc.) into consideration. And I’m not even going to touch on all the ways certain traumas from any one of these phases of life can further impact this point because I think my ranty sidebar in the parentheses was enough.

To back up my point, I shall have Mr. Bill Bryson, author of many things but particularly The Road to Little Dribbling, sum up the basic premise of the Dunning-Kruger effect which, “appears to be that if you are truly stupid you not only do things stupidly but are in all likelihood too stupid to realize how stupidly you are doing them.” Now unlike Bill, you don’t mind if I call you Bill do you? I am not trying to cause offense but simply make a point. 

My point is that people are too nuanced as individuals to place into these overarching categories without assessing their entire existence which, as you might’ve guessed, isn’t impossible but also not something I’d imagine people with better things to do in their own lives would be willing to take on. 

Beliefs, and the actions resulting from said beliefs, do not appear overnight. I am an accumulation of the beliefs of my own community and someone may rightly look and me and think the same thing—that I am stupid. Which is entirely fair but I do not say or do things stupidly to be stupid on purpose. 

Honestly, though, the world is far too big and broken as it is to be hung up on what other people say and do (that is unless it directly affects you). 

Looking back at our hypothetical tripper, I can say for sure that that person fell but what if they tripped on the sidewalk or their own feet? 

Or what if they have a neurological disorder that disoriented them momentarily? 

Or a physical disability that did the same? 

Maybe someone pushed them or tied their shoelaces together. 

And, in the off chance that magic does exist, a tricky little fairy could have been responsible for the whole event. 

In that moment though, the result is still the same regardless of how it happened—there is a person on the floor. So, and I say this to myself as well to remind me in my own moments of dumbness, instead of trying to sort out how they fell, maybe just help them up instead. 

Because lifting people up is always far more impactful than kicking them while they’re down, whether they think they’re down or not.

We are already chock full of judgement in this world and judgement never did anything to change anyone. If anything, it just makes everyone more stupid. Offering assistance makes the difference not whether or not you get the last word in. 

So, that is all I have to say on the matter of “Stupidology.”

p.s. I fell because of my weak ankles.