Stupid: Having or showing a great lack of intelligence or common sense.
I am flabbergasted at how wide-spread apathy by intelligent people across the United States has enabled irrational emotionally driven stupid people to gain an unprecedented measure of control over our society. Apathy in political activism has left a serious intellectual sucking black hole in our social fabric creating a fertile well-fed breeding ground for irrational emotionally driven behavior to flourish. A sincere lack of critical thinking skills and common sense is now obvious in 21st century public activism and it’s especially evident since mid 2016. Also see; Hordes of Anti-Social “Stupid” People Stomp Civility Into Submission!
Public activism is now driven by emotional feelings which are a decisive overriding factor for 21st century public activists. We now have droves of emotionally driven stupid people that are destroying civility and engaging in mass intimidation tactics that rival those used by immoral totalitarian governments throughout history. These irrational emotionally driven behaviors are becoming so socially acceptable that they’re the beginnings of a new societal norm and they’re being encouraged by unethical, unscrupulous, and blindly ignorant people all for the sake of political power. We are seeing the building blocks of a civil society crumble before our eyes and cult-like hordes of stupid people are the unilateral crushing force and it’s all enabled by blind apathy.
When you have one stupid person ranting in public it’s easy for the public to shrug it off and explain it away to others as “it’s just a wacko”, but what happens when that wacko’s rantings become mainstream and there are hordes of stupid people publicly parroting the same irrational emotionally driven nonsense, shutting down public meetings, blocking roadways, wrecking businesses, destroying property and making the public feel unsafe to use their fundamental right to free speech and speak their mind.
What should society do and what does society actually do.
Right now the vast majority of the public is silent and that silence speaks volumes to a stupid person. Your silent apathy means that you agree with them, you approve of their words and actions. Yes it’s an idiotic notion but to stupid people it’s their truth spewed out in mass volume, both numerically and literal volume vs one or two gutsy people willing to face the gauntlet of name calling morons.
What would you do if you suddenly learned that emotionally driven stupid people were starting to directly and indirectly influencing a huge portion of your life? Well, wake up, it’s happening and you are allowing it. Over the last 20 years or so we have seen a steady stream of people showing a great lacking of intelligence or common sense rising out of the shadows and screaming at the top of their ignorant lungs. These stupid people are getting enough of a following that they are starting to elect other stupid people to public office. We see this in school boards, city counsels, mayoral offices, US congress, and lots of people say that President Trump is stupid (personally I think he’s playing them for fools and he’s “trolling” for emotional knee-jerk reactions to keep them off their political game). Anyway I look at it emotionally driven blind ignorance is becoming a new norm and I’ve had my fill.
If you don’t want to live under rules created by stupid people then you need to set aside your apathy for society and politics, stand up for intelligent truths and do something about what’s happening!
What’s boiling all this stupidity to the surface? It’s fear. It’s clear that there are a lot of people out there that are fearful of everything and everyone. There was a recent discussion about the defining event that sparked the “current irrational cult of social justice warriors”, you can read all of it here. One argument in the comments section was that the Civil War sparked the nonsense and the other argument was that 9/11 sparked the nonsense. Based on observation, I think the argument about the fears related to 9/11 has some merit. I don’t remember much of this kind of nonsense before 9/11, do you?
It all boils down to this; you can’t fix stupid but you can stand side-by-side with other intelligent people and speak out against the emotional driven lunacy that stupid people are presenting as the only valid truth. If we continue to allow stupid people’s voices to be the only public voices that are being heard the stupid people will continue to think they’re right and they’ll suck in more stupid people into their irrational delusions.
[EDIT: Fixed some misspelled words.]
Featured Photo Credit: Painted and Photographed by Steve Witherspoon
Apathy Fertilizes A Breeding Ground For Stupidity
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Society's Building Blocks 
I agree: apathy is what has allowed society to slide this far. Each of us can look at this phenomenon and take small steps to counter the flow of stupidity. Developing your writing skills, your public speaking skill, or contributing to worthy causes could be such steps. I use Ethics Alarms (and now, this blog) to develop and refine ethical and rational responses to the lunacy.
Taking an interest in local politics is another such step. Actually getting involved is a larger one. Donate your time, your treasure, and your interest. Get away from fruitless social media: you don’t need to know what someone had for breakfast three days ago.
I have volunteered to work within my Home Owner’s Association, and became president. I can prevent a little bit of crazy invading my neighborhood, and make the world a slightly better place for over 500 families. This in turn helps my community, and rolls up to county and state issues.
We will need grass roots politicians to counter the tide which has swept over us the past 30 years. As President Trump drains the Swamp, new politicians can take root in the fertile soil left behind.
But only if they will serve, and stay true to their principles.
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