3 examples of “Hullo, My Name Is Stupid” that I encountered in the past week:
- The inane Facebook comments on an article published by NPR: “Religious Groups Tackle an X-Rated Secret.” Nothing wrong with the article itself, which was a brief report on the efforts of the evangelical Christian church, the Mormon church, and Orthodox Jews to deal with the problem of pornography use among members. The FB comments – over 1,000 – consisted mainly of “Hyuck hyuck hyuck the church is so stupid what is wrong with lookin’ at boobies????” types, with a few “Organized religion is evil and should stay out of our business!” types thrown in for good measure. I particularly enjoyed the second type, which showed that the commenters either hadn’t bothered to read the article or failed in reading comprehension, since all the religious leaders mentioned were concerned with the membership of their own congregations/groups, not “the world in general.” Stupid Points: 9/10
- Next up: an article linked in an e-mail from a sweet person who was concerned about the issue at hand… which issue was the purported joint “Chrislam” movement, spear-headed by Pastor Rick Warren, starring the Bible and the Koran side by side in church pews as Christians attempted to reach out to their Muslim brethren and find some common ground. Stupid Points for 1) the article using a doctored photo and 2) not doing enough fact-checking. But most of the Stupid Points come again from the amazing negative-intellectual space occupied by the commenting public. Wow, Oh, Wow. Harangues, lengthy debates, copying & pasting of Wikipedia (really? I mean, really?), misquoted Scriptures, lots of CAPS LOCK, quite a few “America, YEAH! Hoo rah! Kill ‘em all!” types in the mix as well. A grand display of dogmatism from both Muslim & Christian readers. A grand display of STUPID from, well, everybody… Stupid Points: 9/10.
- Me, on Saturday. Had a bad day agaaaaaaaaain.. She said you would not understand… Point being, of course, that there was nothing to understand, just that every now and again, being of the female gender, and at this time also of the pregnant variety, hormonal fluctuation doth occur. Emotional upheaval along with it. Weeping and gnashing of teeth. I know this occurrence does not come from some deep-down-life-self-marriage-problem but I still try to analyze and find such problem, which means instead of just removing myself into a hot bath, having a good cry, eating some chocolate, and getting Joe to give me a foot massage – which is what I should have done – I spent the day trying to “get over it” and crying anyway, then trying to figure out what “it” was, not, and coming up with many possible options to share with said Joe. The foot massage would have been much better. Stupid Points: 10/10
What is so great about being stupid?
Here’s what I’ma thinking -
First off, it’s easier to be stupid than smart, and most of us are lazy. Check that, all of us are lazy; some of us have just managed to overcome it better than others. I do not count myself in that “better” category, case you’re wondering.
Secondly, you know if you’re going to be stupid you’ll always have company. Bandwagons. 1000 + comment writers on FB nodding in agreement. We’re social creatures. Stupid is social, apparently.
Third up, we love familiar stuff. It’s so much more fun and comfortable to roll around in the same ole ideologies and assumptions and stereotypes and habits than to stop and think of ones that (gasp) MAKE SENSE. So we roll around in the familiar. Cuz we can; it’s America, durn it! Check that. It’s not just an American thing. It’s global.
One thing more before END TIRADE (which I will do soon I promise):
Top among the “Stupid Things People Think” list is the Golden Past Fallacy. You know it. It’s that things are getting worse, and these youngsters don’t know what they’re talking about, and nobody has any respect anymore, and it’s never been this bad, and the End Is Near.
Maybe the End is, indeed, near, but we need to face a fact: humans have been choosing STUPID ever since the Beta Versions ate the ONLY SINGLE FORBIDDEN THING ON EARTH in the garden of Paradise. Can’t get much stupider than that. I think we’d all be better off if we’d quit sugar-glazing anything that’s 50+ years old and acknowledge that humanity has been making the same stupid mistakes, following the same stupid trends, for its entire existence. We have history, we have cycles, we have better times and worse times, but overall, there’s not much new under the sun.
END TIRADE.
See? I promised.
Back to your lives, citizens.
Recant the stupid and eat something healthier for breakfast. Granola? Or (yes, even these are healthier) cinnamon rolls to die for? (That’s right, we do religion, philosophy, and recipes here. It’s a one-stop shop.)
For whoever finds Wisdom finds life and obtains favor from the LORD, but he who fails to find Wisdom injures himself; all who hate Wisdom love death. Proverbs 8:35-36
Image: Light gray ceramic bowl of honey cereals by Horia Varlan