The internet is making people stupid

[RedAkston]

I know that some will focus in on the part about anti-vaxxers, but that isn't the point of the joke.

This comedy special is hilarious! I haven't had the chance to see his new one, but his observations about America are spot on and hilarious.

Enjoy!

 

[Mr Person]

Spoiler

"...second-hand stupidity is the real killer...."

Truth.

 

[Airyaman]

The reason some people get dumber after using the Internet is because there happens to be alot of misinformation on it as well as good, accurate information. Some people would rather absorb the misinformation for whatever reason. Sorta like those who choose to only watch Faux News.

 

[RedAkston]

The reason some people get dumber after using the Internet is because there happens to be alot of misinformation on it as well as good, accurate information. Some people would rather absorb the misinformation for whatever reason. Sorta like those who choose to only watch Faux News.

The same could be said for those who choose to only watch CNN or MSNBC. That aside, let's not make this political.

 

[Airyaman]

The same could be said for those who choose to only watch CNN or MSNBC. That aside, let's not make this political.

"News" channels don't only have political news.

 

[Jetboogieman]

The real problem that everyone misses though, is most people are dumb as ****.

I hate to say that, but anyone who has been in customer facing roles knows this is truth.

Because I know a lot of people, who are far more book smart than me, that do very complicated and difficult jobs that require a lot of training, schooling and work that I'm not sure I could achieve, but still say and do things immediately outside their role which they may be very competent at, that defy all logic and understanding...

 

[Allan]

 

[Airyaman]

The real problem that everyone misses though, is most people are dumb as ****.

I hate to say that, but anyone who has been in customer facing roles knows this is truth.

Because I know a lot of people, who are far more book smart than me, that do very complicated and difficult jobs that require a lot of training, schooling and work that I'm not sure I could achieve, but still say and do things immediately outside their role which they may be very competent at, that defy all logic and understanding...

Longer version of my signature:

People are stupid; given proper motivation, almost anyone will believe almost anything. Because people are stupid, they will believe a lie because they want to believe it's true, or because they are afraid it might be true. People's heads are full of knowledge, facts, and beliefs, and most of it is false, yet they think it all true. People are stupid; they can only rarely tell the difference between a lie and the truth, and yet they are confident they can, and so are all the easier to fool."

 

[Fearandloathing]

The real problem that everyone misses though, is most people are dumb as ****.

I hate to say that, but anyone who has been in customer facing roles knows this is truth.

Because I know a lot of people, who are far more book smart than me, that do very complicated and difficult jobs that require a lot of training, schooling and work that I'm not sure I could achieve, but still say and do things immediately outside their role which they may be very competent at, that defy all logic and understanding...

And hand the man the to prize!

In the stupidity of mankind department I have some deep background:

As a print journalist I learned to 'dumb down' my texts to a grade 9 reading comprehension level so that a majority of readers would easily understand it.

When I moved to radio we dumbed down to grade 6 reading comprehension level as there was no ability to back over and read...

Then I moved to TV. The dumb level had a 'soft bottom' and you learned to let the pictures do most of the talking as even new born like pictures.

I have learned that not only is stupidity was pandemic, but few cared unless it was a burning car, crashed helicopter or some form of human nudity.

Try explaining a federal budget to these people, or then mechanics of how vaccines work or why no one ever shoots out wire cable from 50 meters with a snub nosed .38.

What is heard or read isn't understood. What is seen is truth even when it's faked in a movie. Han Solo really was frozen and Superman never needed a hair cut.

"I saw it on TV..." is the new 'so help me god"

 

[Rexedgar]

I find that foreign born comics and pundits have a crisper take on holding a mirror up to the US situation.



”……..who knew that access to all accumulated knowledge would make people dumber?”

Priceless!

 

[Lursa]

“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.”
― Issac Asimov

Not very helpful but IMO true

 

[Fearandloathing]

I find that foreign born comics and pundits have a crisper take on holding a mirror up to the US situation.

I'd love to share a bowl with you and debate the point. Yes, Canadian and British comics have contributed a lot, but then there are the likes of George Carlin. Talk about a mirror I doubt there is a segment of society he hasn't dissected...his bit on 'boomers' had all boomers laughing out loud.
And I have to say sometimes Canadian comics (our biggest export) often go too far, it comes to sound like pride to Canadian ears....and open, glaring patriot driven pride is illegal in Canada

 

[Rexedgar]

I'd love to share a bowl with you and debate the point. Yes, Canadian and British comics have contributed a lot, but then there are the likes of George Carlin. Talk about a mirror I doubt there is a segment of society he hasn't dissected...his bit on 'boomers' had all boomers laughing out loud.
And I have to say sometimes Canadian comics (our biggest export) often go too far, it comes to sound like pride to Canadian ears....and open, glaring patriot driven pride is illegal in Canada

Carlin was a once in a generation jewel. He soured on the US late in his life. He drew from those that came before him, Lenny Bruce comes to mind. You say “the likes of Carlin,” who else do you have in mind?

John Oliver
The Russian guy Smirnoff, “What a country”
Ricky Gervais, (once he gets done fellating himself)
Trevor Noah

Are all I can come up with spur of the moment.

 

[grip]

One I'm guilty of is willful stupidity. Things I just don't want to be true.

 

[Chagos]

The comic relief that the clip provides notwithstanding, in my perception it's not so much the internet that makes people stupid, it's more like the other way round.

Which doesn't apply to the whole net for sure, just that it provides a great platform for certain idjits to flock together, thus empowering them to wallow in their group confirmation bias to an extent not available before (the net's advent).

That goes for both sides (if indeed not more sides) of the political aisle and while perhaps perceivable as more pronounced in the US, no nation (nationality) is immune to the phenomenon..

Heck, even my insinuation that the level of stupidity is greater in the US is not something I can evidence and thus suitable to show my own bias. Cuz I really don't have to look far afield (let alone across the pond) to find confirmation.

,

 

[KingLeo]

Not sure the internet 'makes' people stupid it is just that the internet makes it more readily apparent that there are a lot of stupid people around.

 

[Gordy327]

Not sure the internet 'makes' people stupid it is just that the internet makes it more readily apparent that there are a lot of stupid people around.

It has definitely given the ignorant, the stupid, and the crazy a soundboard.

 

[Deuce]

Longer version of my signature:

From probably the creepiest, most brazenly fascist author I know of.

 

[The Mark]

I know that some will focus in on the part about anti-vaxxers, but that isn't the point of the joke.

This comedy special is hilarious! I haven't had the chance to see his new one, but his observations about America are spot on and hilarious.

Enjoy!

I disagree with this theory.

I think the internet enhances both stupidity and it's opposite.
But at the same time, I think everyone is stupid at least part of the time, so...

 

[Airyaman]

From probably the creepiest, most brazenly fascist author I know of.

My Libertarian side enjoyed it.

 

[Deuce]

My Libertarian side enjoyed it.

Yes, I expect a libertarian would love that 700 page rant about communism.

What side of you enjoyed the rape fetish and horrifying misogyny?

 

[Airyaman]

Yes, I expect a libertarian would love that 700 page rant about communism.

What side of you enjoyed the rape fetish and horrifying misogyny?

Welcome to the world of some fantasy. Read any George R. R. Martin?

 

[Deuce]

Welcome to the world of some fantasy. Read any George R. R. Martin?

Martin writes a lot of sex scenes but that just isn't comparable to Goodkind heavily featuring rape in the entire series, or the leather-clad dominatrix torturer women with literal magic pain dildos. Or the group of women who will literally magically enslave a man's mind if they have an orgasm during sex...

How did your libertarian side feel about the protagonist running a fascist dictatorship requiring daily chants of devotion and slaughtering a group of literal pacifists (and doing so requires the protagonist to truly believe those pacifists are evil and deserving of death, because that's how his sword works)?

 

[Airyaman]

Martin writes a lot of sex scenes but that just isn't comparable to Goodkind heavily featuring rape in the entire series, or the leather-clad dominatrix torturer women with literal magic pain dildos. Or the group of women who will literally magically enslave a man's mind if they have an orgasm during sex...

How did your libertarian side feel about the protagonist running a fascist dictatorship requiring daily chants of devotion and slaughtering a group of literal pacifists (and doing so requires the protagonist to truly believe those pacifists are evil and deserving of death, because that's how his sword works)?

I treated it as it was: fiction. You should try that next time, seems like you took it a bit too personally (fyi, I did not visualize anything remotely like you did, yikes)

 

[Deuce]

I treated it as it was: fiction. You should try that next time, seems like you took it a bit too personally (fyi, I did not visualize anything remotely like you did, yikes)

Which part of what I wrote was not explicitly part of the book?