To think if someone’s stupid, it’s really hard to describe them without either being called out for being disablist or using an expletive?

[Windthebobbinup1982]

If I say moron, idiot, cretin etc. I risk being called disablist...
So I’m basically reduced to using words like dick, twat, cock etc... which you can’t really use in polite company...

Is there any noun to describe someone who's stupid without doing one or the other?

And by ‘stupid’, I don’t mean someone who is unintelligent, I mean someone who’s acting in a way that’s at odds with their intelligence.
I

A few sandwiches short of a picnic
Divvy
Div
Dullard
Thicko

Hard of thinking.

When I was a kid we used the word prat. I haven’t heard it for decades!

My 14yo has suddenly started calling everyone a “silly goose” - but I agree that lacks the perjorative-ness required - that’s when I use Oaf or eejit.

Idiot and moron are offensive because historically they were official words to describe people with learning disabilities. So in calling someone one of those names you are implying that all people with learning disabilities are like that too; and that having a learning disability is an insult. Although I think times have moved on, people generally use the word idiot as a way to describe the way someone has behaved, not their intelligence.
I'm partial to knob though, although I spell it with a k, like a doorknob, am I wrong??

Bellpipe.
Berk (rhyming slang - Berkeley Hunt).
Prannock.
Plank.
Lame under the cap.
Numpty.

I use muppet, and couldn’t care less what Kermit the Frog thinks about that.

I rather like "cabbage", myself.

My father has been heard to remark that someone was "as thick as plaited pigshit", which may be my favourite simile ever. It's even alliterative! Has the soul of a poet, my dad

Stick with moron, idiot, cretin etc - no-one in real life gets offended.

They've all been used on the Simpsons, Futurama and many more.

Anyone who doesn't understand that language evolves & that just because it was a medical term on Call The Midwife doesn't mean it is now is one of the above....

I actually do know disabled people or those with disabled children who are very offended by those words... as well as some others people have suggested here (like divvy or “mouth breather” which is actually quite an awful one when you think about why it’s used).

I personally adore the word cretin so I was very upset to discover its origins / the medical condition and now I no longer use it. It saddens me, but I agree it’s offensive.

For someone who’s talking stupid nonsense, I came up with crapwaffler (or crapwaffle, when referring to the excrement they’re talking).

I’m still looking for the ideal word to replace the words you mentioned.

Bungalow (because there's nothing upstairs)

I like the gentle sound of "feeble minded".

Actually there are still people in the developing world suffering from the condition known as “cretinism”, although iodine deficiency has mostly been eradicated in the developed world. So although you may never have met anyone with it, it still exists and the word is literally the term for someone suffering from an horrendous disability.

Pudding head 😂 I'm so using that one

Prat
Plonker
Plank

If, after having it explained to you why using 'cretin' is inappropriate, you persist in doing so, you probably deserve to have some of the choices epithets suggested on this thread applied to you.

Stop being so politically correct. An idiot is apt. Are people so easily outraged? Do people protest over The Idiot Abroad show?

why do you need to do this? Couldn't you use their name instead?

I'm struggling to think of a time when it is essential to describe someone's intellectual capacity...

I mean if your just into calling people names and trying to shame or humiliate them, then why care about being politically correct while doing it? Its a bit rearranging deck chairs on the titanic isn't it?

Eejit.

Eejit, numpty, bampot, roaster, bawbag, dobber or bawjaws.

Dunderhead is my favourite. I thank JK Rowling for bringing that word into my life. Must be said in a suitably waspish voice.

Sometimes I call car drivers I call "peanut brains". Have no idea why.

I've heard a simple fellow nearby referred to as "Terry Fuckwit".

Much better than idiot.....

as well as some others people have suggested here (like divvy or “mouth breather” which is actually quite an awful one when you think about why it’s used).

“Mouth breather” is awful. It belongs in a category with “window licker”.