To clarify here, I don’t feel like I’m significantly smarter than most people, but I feel like people have a hard time doing any sort of thinking about stuff. Especially when it comes to verifying “facts.”

  • CleoTheWizard@lemmy.world
    17·
    11 months ago

    I don’t think most people are stupid if stupid means lacking reasoning skills or knowledge or curiosity. You can find all sorts of people who you’d think sound stupid but know tons about one subject. But even if they don’t, they likely have a working knowledge base and only know what they need to know.

    What I consider stupid or problematic is that most people, probably 75% or more of the overall population, are not skeptical or analytical and have a fundamentally busted epistemology. Even if your information filter works, if you don’t understand why it works, I’m going to struggle in conversation with you. So yes I think the general population has a hard time thinking critically because they don’t know how to analyze their own beliefs or knowledge.

    • Lorindól@sopuli.xyz
      5·
      11 months ago

      Your description fits my brother perfectly.

      He has very little curiosity, hasn’t read more than 3 books in his entire life, strongly dislikes all forms of art (except shitty movies and TV-shows), isn’t capable of analytical or critical thinking and hasn’t got a clue how the political system works.

      He apes the attitudes of his spouse and friends, so much that I’m not sure he even has any opinions of his own.

      Yet this doesn’t bother him at all. He’s very happy being oblivious and he makes more than twice as much money per month than I do with my master’s degree. He is very good at what he does and I’m happy for him.

      It would still be nice to be able to have a real conversation with him, instead of just stating the factual matters or laughing at some dumb jokes. If we both didn’t share such a strong resemblance of our dad I’d assume that my mom had an affair, beyond our appearance we have almost nothing else in common.