Why it is pointless to tell a stupid person that they are, in fact, stupid
5 Comments Published by Icon on Monday, August 25, 2008 at 2:17 PM.
They won't get it
The one thing that they ones I have met, those dumber than me, anyway, is that they are profoundly lacking in self-awareness. They cannot assess themselves in comparision to smart people and usually have some self-serving definition of intelligence. If they have degrees, then degrees make you smart, if they have little schooling then they are "street-smart", and that is what sets them above the dumb. Every moron is a genius in their own mind.
It won't make them smarter
Dumb is permanent. You can't learn your way out of it, and no amount of life experience will reduce it. There are old stupid people and stupid people who have traveled and stupid people who have met Presidents and Popes and Nobel Prize winners. They are still very much the morons they always were. You can't make them smart.
It will likely make them aggressive
You say "idiot" and they hear "inferior". It is merely an insult, something done by you in order to hurt their feelings because you are threatened, or envious, or arrogant, not a true assessment of them. Most people constantly reinforce their sense of worthiness by remembering those times they happened to be right about something and forgetting those times when they were wrong. They see you coming along to remind them of the wrong-times and it is seen merely as an act of hostility, the appropriate response being equal hostility with the intent of shutting you up.
They will at some point try to prove you wrong
Which will probably have disastrous results if they are stupid. The thing is that they can't agree with you, and in order to not agree with you they have to make it clear that they are smart. Think Wile E. Coyote. Imagine somebody driven to prove to the world that they are in fact a genius, when they really are not, against all evidence. Failure just makes them more determined.
The one thing that they ones I have met, those dumber than me, anyway, is that they are profoundly lacking in self-awareness. They cannot assess themselves in comparision to smart people and usually have some self-serving definition of intelligence. If they have degrees, then degrees make you smart, if they have little schooling then they are "street-smart", and that is what sets them above the dumb. Every moron is a genius in their own mind.
It won't make them smarter
Dumb is permanent. You can't learn your way out of it, and no amount of life experience will reduce it. There are old stupid people and stupid people who have traveled and stupid people who have met Presidents and Popes and Nobel Prize winners. They are still very much the morons they always were. You can't make them smart.
It will likely make them aggressive
You say "idiot" and they hear "inferior". It is merely an insult, something done by you in order to hurt their feelings because you are threatened, or envious, or arrogant, not a true assessment of them. Most people constantly reinforce their sense of worthiness by remembering those times they happened to be right about something and forgetting those times when they were wrong. They see you coming along to remind them of the wrong-times and it is seen merely as an act of hostility, the appropriate response being equal hostility with the intent of shutting you up.
They will at some point try to prove you wrong
Which will probably have disastrous results if they are stupid. The thing is that they can't agree with you, and in order to not agree with you they have to make it clear that they are smart. Think Wile E. Coyote. Imagine somebody driven to prove to the world that they are in fact a genius, when they really are not, against all evidence. Failure just makes them more determined.
Labels: People, People I know
I don't get it...
@jonathan carl:
I hope that's a joke...because if you actually don't get this article, it might be about you :P
Well said. All of it.
"The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool." - William Shakespeare
Right on -- love this article!