And another thing: get off my lawn!

[tim]

You know what I could stand never to hear again? Complaints about stupid people, when such complaints are perpetrated by hip 25-to-44-year-old upper-income types.

Yes, I'm aware that I used to more or less build my identity around complaining about stupid people. I'm trying not to do that anymore. I don't want to hear you complaining about how all the world's problems are due to stupid people (or religious people, or people who fail to share some trait that you congratulate yourself about) if all you do is work at a corporate job and play video games. You are not doing the world any favors by merely existing. Your intelligence is of no value to anyone else unless you're using it to help alleviate the suffering of some other human beings. If your life goal is accumulating wealth, you are actually worse than the stupid people you revile.

Relatedly, I really don't want to hear anyone bemoaning how terrible it is that "people like us" (see previously mentioned hip 25-to-44-year-olds) aren't reproducing, while "stupid people are having so many kids". If you would teach your hypothetical kids to drive a Subaru Outback to the grocery store and aspire to a plush defense contracting job, the world is probably actually better off without those kids. If your life more or less amounts to consuming large quantities of consumer electronics and artisan-made waffles, what makes you think your kids are going to be any different?

In summary, shit is not fucked up because of stupid people. Shit is fucked up because of some smart people who are intent on using their power to make sure they get the goodies whether anyone else or not. And it's also fucked up because a lot of very smart people spend their lives keeping the power structure going rather than using their talent to undermine it. Blaming stupid people is a great way for that latter group to vent their frustrations without threatening the former group's power.

Comments

[juli]

I regret that I probably have a fair amount of the "stupid people" thing floating around in my head, but it's the sort of thing I've been trying to be better about, although I hadn't thought about it specifically until you mentioned it — thank you.

I do wish that the Social Justice-crazy Episcopalian folks who are intent on doing good things in the world would worry less about overpopulation or adopt or something. I mean, some people aren't breeding because their lives are fundamentally self-centered and they're not going to leave behind anything but a lot of used plastic and carbon, but there are also people who don't seem to be so awful who aren't raising children.

Which tempts me to divert to talking about people concerned about their culture / ethnic group dying out due to lack of breeding in absolute or relative terms, but I'll spare you :)

[tim]

I guess I just object to the idea that smart people (where smartness is defined by amount of code you can write) will automatically produce good kids. Because, you know, virtue is genetic. And to the idea that kids of poor, uneducated people will never grow up to be public servants. As far as I can tell, the opposite is true.

[juli]

Yeah, sure. I'm more concerned with values that are getting passed on, and that's less about stupid people than about Glenn Beck fans — who I'd call stupid, but are really just oblivious and unthinking...because they can afford to be. Whenever I catch myself wanting to say something like "why aren't us smart folk breedin'?" I pretty quickly realize that I wouldn't want most of my friends raising kids any more than the people who I mean as ¬smart, even if I don't think to note that that's a sloppy/misleading phrasing of the dichotomy.

[naath]

Why aren't all the 'smart' people who whine about how all the 'not smart' people are outbreeding them working in schools to make the 'not smart people' kids *smart*? hmm?

[tim]

That occurred to me too, yup. Though I'm afraid if I ask this question in some audiences, it's going to confirm my suspicion that the attitude basically amounts to a hardcore essentialist view of intelligence and a desire for eugenics.

[anemone.livejournal.com]

Well, maybe it makes me a bad person, but from what I understand, the evidence is that you can't make a five year old more intelligent. A good teacher may be able to make a big difference in someone's life, but if you want a more intelligent population, you should be making sure pregnant women and young children are getting all the nutrition they need.

But, in any case, I suspect that most people who complain about "stupid people" are really complaining about people they don't understand.