Stupidity and your humble blogger

So tonight, I saw something I thought was an indicator of how dumb we are becoming.  And I thought, "This sounds like a fun post!"  And I typed, "You know the world is dumb when..." into Google to see what I might find. 

First, I found an article citing studies that show that as of those born post 1975, our worldwide IQs have begun dropping- and fast.  Some places (the article noted Norway), it dropped as much as 7 points.  The article- and the base article it linked to suggested two reasons.  One was, sadly enough, migration into higher IQ nations by lower IQ immigrants.  Another was, as a blogger put it,  "In other words, we have started building a more stupidity-inducing environment."

And as proof, I submit the "IQ test" offered in an ad on that link.  I blew 15 minutes challenging myself, completed the test with only one question out of 20 that I threw my hands in the air and gave up, and when I clicked to see my results, I got, "For $8.99 you get..."


Next, I got, "5 habits of stupid people that smart people don't have," from The Independent.  They included:
- Blaming others for your mistakes
- Always having to be right
- Reacting with anger/aggression
-Ignoring needs/feelings of others
-Thinking you're better than everyone else.

I will admit I have improved a lot on the first one; the second, I would have to change the definition from "a habit of stupid people" to "a genetic trait in Martins".  I'm working on 3 and 4, but I have to say that that last one... well, it looks that way from the outside, but on the inside that same person might be seeing, "Trying to be better than at least SOMEone else."


There were a lot of other interesting articles as I rolled along, but they lacked in entertainment value.  Then I hit one on Business Insider, "Signs you're smart-even if it doesn't feel like it."  And the first one restored hope in myself:

You drink alcohol regularly


All right, things are looking up for me at last!  And actually, three of the four remaining hit me between the eyes, as well:

-You learned to read early
-You're curious
-You're MESSY.

Now if I just worried more, I could be Einstein...


Another article proved disappointing- "Are You Dumb Enough To Be Successful?"  The author's sarcastic version of being dumb was more like, "Are you willing to pull your head out of your butt when everyone else is inserting?"  And it would have been funnier had he put it my way.


Somehow in the midst of this, I get an ad, "50 crazy sexy photos Ivanka Trump never wanted" (I assume we were supposed to believe that there is an implied "published" there, that they left off for lawsuit defense.  Fighting the tide of this post, I did not click on it.


The Atlantic did an interesting (abbreviated by me for time) article that pointed out that, between employers increasingly seeking smarter employees, social media mavens honing their insultative chops on the wit-challenged, and the well to do checking dating profiles for SAT scores, that "The 2010s, in contrast (to the 50's), are a terrible time to not be brainy."  

Doesn't seem to fit with the falling IQ scores, does it?

American Express had an article on "5 reasons stupid people make more money than you".  Although they coupled each one with a "what you can do about it,"  I've decided to couple them with an example thereof instead.

1- Inherited money.  (Ex. Hunter Biden)

2- Good genes.  (I thought about using Kim Kardashian here, but you have to debate how much is genetic there.)

3- "A study suggests that men who are “below average on agreeableness earn roughly 18 percent more than men who are considered nice.” For women, the advantage is 5 percent. It seems that men who are rude are more successful negotiators and therefore earn more financial rewards."  AE calls this "No more Mr Nice Guy".  (Eventually, I'd have to have a Donald Trump reference...)

4- Brown nosing.  (Gee, which example?  'How many of the world's 7.7 billion population know one of the world's 1.7 million CEOs?', or just, 'Name your nearest co-worker?')

****THAT WAS A JOKE.  Set the pitchfork down and put the lighters away.*******


5- Plain ol' dumb luck.  If that's true, there are an awful lot of blind hogs finding acorns out there. 


My favorite so far I found on Quartz- "The five universal laws of human stupidity".  Let them speak for themselves...

Law 1: Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation.  (I think this is a bedrock principle.)

Law 2: The probability that a certain person be stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person.  (IOW, there can be one lurking under every pretty face, every three-piece suit, every name plate on a desk.)

Law 3. A stupid person is a person who causes losses to another person or to a group of persons while himself deriving no gain and even possibly incurring losses. (Corollary- all the while figuring the whole world is basking in the glow.)

Law 4: Non-stupid people always underestimate the damaging power of stupid individuals. In particular non-stupid people constantly forget that at all times and places and under any circumstances to deal and/or associate with stupid people always turns out to be a costly mistake.

(And yet, you all keep coming back...)

And finally: 

Law 5: A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person.

And its corollary:


A stupid person is more dangerous than a bandit.

This whole thing was formulated by Cal-Berkeley Prof Carlo Cipolla, and it is he who was quoted at the end of the article:

Declining societies have the same percentage of stupid people as successful ones. But they also have high percentages of helpless people and, Cipolla writes, “an alarming proliferation of the bandits with overtones of stupidity.”

“Such change in the composition of the non-stupid population inevitably strengthens the destructive power of the [stupid] fraction and makes decline a certainty,” Cipolla concludes. “And the country goes to Hell.”


So, what was it that set me on this quest?  Well, I was in the bathroom and noticed the tag on my underwear.  It had instructions in English, Spanish, and French- including the initials to indicate their "medium" size:


M/M/M


Thank God they translated THAT...