To think some people are so thick it’s almost beyond parody

What, so she disapproved of the very concept of restaurants?!

That reminds me of some of the letters to Viz - obviously fictional for their purposes (even the 'senders' will be called something hilariously ridiculous like 'Percy Pinchloaf') but sometimes parodying people who are not that far off thinking that way in real life.

My favourite was the man who wrote something like "They keep telling us that chocolate is dangerous for dogs. Well, I may not be a dog, but I've enjoyed a piece of chocolate every day for the last 30 years and it hasn't done me any harm... just do your research before coming out with obvious nonsense, boffins!"

One that always sticks with me was a relative when a large local shop was closing down for good, and he'd managed to get himself something (quite non-generic spec and likely not one of their most popular lines) at 90% off. He commented, in all seriousness, that they must ordinarily be making an absolute fortune on everything they sell if they can afford to offer that huge a discount on that item. Yes, indeed: they're making such a massive fortune that they're just closing down for a laugh and haven't been forced into it at all!!

We have a large population of the hard of thinking on the local facebook groups too. They’re not bots, I know exactly who they are in real life. It would definitely feel more comfortable and less concerning to believe they were AI.

In my experience the majority of people are a bit dumb, if not intellectually then emotionally

Yes I agree. Website and Google information around opening hours isn't always reliable now, and google itself is getting more clunky and more difficult to get accurate specific answers about anything.

My mother regarded masticating in public as rude 😄

It is handy being able to get answers to those sorts of questions, however, if you live in a remote area or small holiday town as I do.
There is one road in and out... the hourly bus is often delayed by a traffic incident, volume of holiday traffic or emergency roadworks. Unless it's a situation that pursists for many hours it is unlikely to be on an official website. Some shops and cafes only open half the year or in winter just weekends (and they don't keep their website up to date).Your Evri parcel doesn't turn up - a great way to be united with it.

I read about a local politician in the USA from a long time ago who knew that the electorate were mainly thick and decided to capitalise on this by 'accusing' his chief opponent of perfectly normal things but which thickos would misunderstand.

Things like there being undeniable evidence of him openly masticating in public on numerous occasions!

Our local FB group is full of thick people, I presume the more sensible amongst us just don't post on them.

It's the same sad people everytime whenever local council, NHS etc post on FB.

I love those. Similar to the ones on Amazon : "Don't know. Haven't opened it yet."

The average iq is 100

That's mildly irritating, but far less actually dangerous than extreme stupidity.

Some people are staggeringly dense. Others just don't read or comprehend things but decide to launch on some tirade anyway.

On my local Nextdoor, someone posted about a man in his 20s in a black hoodie asking her the time, then pulling a knife on her when she ignored him. Some idiot bloke posted a huge rant at her saying she was "a woke bitch who must live in fear if she was this scared when a man asked her the time". Someone else pointed out the bit about the knife, and this bloke just replied with "Oh I missed that bit". No apology. 🙄

Did they have a 'down with this sort of thing' banner too? It's not a true Irish protest without one. Or a 'Careful now'.

I dont mind stupid people. What I cant bear is pseudo intellectuals who think they are blindingly brilliant and spout a shallow point of view propped up bya few key words but who are actually embarrassingly ignorant and everyone realises this except for them....

You're not wrong. Private Eye magazine even has a column called Dumb Britain which highlights daft answers to questions in quiz shows (sample from The Finish Line: Q: Who wrote Henry IV, Part 1? A: Macbeth).

I was once talking to some friends about historical people. I mentioned Jesus and someone piped up and asked if he was the one with the amazing technicolour dreamcoat.

My dh's favourites are negative reviews of books for example, because the packaging was damaged or delivery was crap. But the book was an entertaining read and they thoroughly enjoyed it. Would have been five stars if the driver had delivered it on time.

Yes people are quite frankly thick, and I don’t mean learning disabilities I mean don’t listen, don’t read things properly, don’t process information thoroughly and are incredibly naive in that they believe things that they are told based on whether they like them, was nicely presented or what in it for them quite frankly. And yes AI and bots too

You might do that in your teens when you're in forced proximity to an underachieving peer group, for instance, but once you leave that context, there's no penalty for being clever. I don't think it has anything to do with a mental crisis.

Slightly related...I once saw the question and answer section on a product on Amazon where someone had asked "what does this smell like" and the answerer said "I don't know...how am I supposed to know!"
They clearly hadn't realised the email they got saying "can you answer this question?" Regarding an Amazon purchase was optional to answer

The trouble is, being intelligent, being able to think creatively is being bullied (and in some cases medicated)out of existence. The way we engage with the world and with others has been increasingly dumbed down, from available entertainment to intimidation and fear of using anything apart from stock phrases and answers - genuine discussion just doesn’t happen anymore. It’s a loop of humiliation/punishment- fear- stupidity/silence. Even intelligent people seem to be masking their intelligence in order to fit in. Not only is this affecting the intelligence levels we experience during interactions it’s also severely affecting mental health as people are living inauthentic lives.

And a Minister in the previous Govt said he wanted "everyone to be above average" ...

FB is not designed for intellectual conversation. Our local group is full of posts asking whether the local supermarket is open today, what time the bus goes into town, etc. You have to wonder how someone who knows how to create a social media post is incapable of doing a Google search.

Having spent some time in the NHS environment recently I'd agree with that. Sometimes I was left wondering how the human race became the dominant species.

Comments pages on local newspapers are populated by thick, snobby NIMBYs and are usually bigots of every variety too