To be utterly fed up dealing with the hard of thinking

[Wiggler1]

I am so so sick of listening to/reading the opinions of people who just fail to engage their brains for more than a nanosecond on any subject that takes their fancy.

“We voted leave/brexit means brexit”

“Trans women are women”

“Fed is best”

“Women just aren’t as good at corporate jobs”

“Vaccines cause autism”

“Animals don’t have emotions/opinions”

Ad infinitum. We KNOW that brexit is likely to lead to economic doom (at least for a period), trans women are not biological women, breast is actually best for the health outcomes of mother and baby at population level (although there are very valid reasons it may not be for individuals), women are just as successful in the corporate world if they’re not held back by men (or other women), vaccines do not cause autism, animals very visibly do have emotions/opinions, if you bother to watch them for long enough, etc etc etc.

I know this is likely to be controversial because of the examples I’ve used, but my point is that people just don’t seem to be able to engage with the slightest piece of research or evidence that their opinions are not in line with the facts.

I can understand knowing a surface level about a topic and getting things wrong, we’re all learning, but listening to people shouting their world view progressively louder, despite all evidence to the contrary, is utterly infuriating.

If you have a well thought out opposing view I’m more than happy to debate, tell me about the research you’ve done on potential economic outcomes of brexit, or why formula is as good as breast milk, I’m interested in differing opinions as a way to learn more myself. Yelling “BAN ABORTIONS” at me without any substance whatsoever and bashing me over the head with a placard makes me want to burn down the world.

O god, o god, o god . . . Yes I know what you mean.

I find it rather wearying that people seem so resistant to attempting to appreciate the complexities in this world, the nuance, the context, in which people hold their views. Where is the compassion? Opinions all come from somewhere. Unravelling this helps us understand each other better instead of continually hitting each other with metaphorical sticks.

Yanbu OP...yanbu.

With the exception of “fed is best”, I agree with the rest of your facts opinions.

However, what a really badly executed OP.

Fort of all I actually know a woman who daughter lost most of her brain function and ended up in a wheel chair after having the MMR jags, a long time ago. They won a court case in it so not autism but worse. Also fed is best in the sense if a woman is stressing herself trying to breast feed her child (which can be very difficult for some) it's best if she gives bmherself a break and gives the baby a bottle, because sits best that the baby is fed well and that a mother isn't damaging her mental health torturing herself trying to breast feed.
Clearly you don't like other people having an opinion though so carry on.

Well yes ‘breastmilk is almost always nutritionally superior’ would be a fact but ‘breast is best’ isn’t just about the nutritional value of the milk.
You have jumbled actual facts with opinions imo and seem to be accusing others with a different opinion of being stupid at which points you ever lost your argument. If your opinion is actually based in fact and evidence that’s all you need - you don’t need to sling insults.

*at which point you lost your argument imo

And for the things you mention that are actually scientifically verifiable some people genuinely do have a low IQ and are unable to research facts using the correct sources and understand scholarly literature. For those people patiently explaining in layman’s terms is much more likely to enlighten them than hurling insults which just tends to make people defensive.

Some people are thick as fuck to be fair. I remember during the Charlie Gard and Alfie Evans cases how sad it was that there were so many stupid people whipping up hysteria and egging the parents on over social media.

There is no shame in admitting that you don't always understand things though. We can't all be well read up on everything.

Can we have a Venn diagram please?

If so many people have an IQ lower than 100, why is 100-120 (or is it 130) the average range???

That's not right. Here's the first thing google found for me, from MENSA USA web site.

Nearly 70 percent of the population has an IQ between 85 and 115 on most tests. The scores above 115 are generally considered as “high IQ,” and those above 130 to 132 (depending on the test taken) are usually considered highly gifted and are in the top 2 percent of the population.

I actually know a woman who daughter lost most of her brain function and ended up in a wheel chair after having the MMR jags, a long time ago. They won a court case in it so not autism but worse.

This is a classic appeal to emotions over logic - literally millions and millions of children died of measles, mumps and rubella. But one person is harmed by a vaccine so let's not vaccinate.

I think we’ve just lost our ability to think critically, to keep asking why until we get to an answer we’re comfortable with and can defend in debate. I wonder if identity politics and a concern over hurting feelings is blunting our thinking skills.

I hear this argument a lot that we are somehow 'post truth' now, or things have changed, but I look at history and I just don't see it. Humans are not, and have never been rational logical creatures.

We're balls of emotion that resort to reason if we want to explain things or back up our point. I'm not saying or heads can't steer our hearts some of the time, but I don't think it's our primary way of being.

Nevertheless they still have opinions, feelings, instincts that are just as valid as yours.

No.

This is wrong

I am so so sick of listening to/reading the opinions of people who just fail to engage their brains

Yet you obviously didn't too with your title and OP...
"I didn't mean it as calling people stupid"

As much as I agree some people just blindly follow misinformation and refuse to accept well researched counter information your post just lost any validity because you yourself obviously didn't think it through properly before writing this. So you are now actually in that camp you moan about.

All opinions are not as valid as others.

Mammals have emotions but other animals, not so much and no other animal than humans can formulate an opinion.

Your Brexit point is speculative opinion, not fact since we are yet to leave the EU so nobody actually knows what will happen.

Fed is best isn’t stating that breast isn’t best it’s merely pointing out that you shouldn’t feel guilty if you can’t BF for whatever reason because formula is a great alternative and provided your baby isn’t starving to death, they’re fine.

Oh and it has no bearing on my life whether a person wants to be known as a woman, man or fucking Spider-Man. I really don’t care.

• Rule by popularist opinion fed by political manipulation. The whole Brexit ideology based on Farage fear, xenophobia and blinkers is quite frightening. There is no logical reason to have voted to leave that is based in fact. It’s entirely propaganda driven. The people most likely to suffer the greatest are those who proudly ticked the leave box because ‘we want our sovereignty back’ - which, of course, we never lost. *

TIL, Jeremy Corbyn is a xenophobic who has been fooled by Farage etc.

Calling people 'thick as fuck' and 'hard of thinking' says more about those saying it than those they are talking about.

I agree @Wiggler1. I find it increasingly difficult to have conversations/debate with people because most people seem far more focused on their feelings about something than any train of logical thought.

But then I guess everyone thinks that everyone else is stupid, so...

Also "fed is best" drives me bonkers. Feeding a baby is the absolute bare minimum standard

@MoaningSickness

At what point did I say don't vaccinate children? I still had all my kids vaccinated so as did my mum with us, as does everyone in know irl, so you made a snap judgement there and you were wrong.

@Drogosnextwife

Apologies if it came across wrong, I was making a general point about appeals to emotion over logic, not saying anything at all about you specifically or your children or making any judgements.

Wiggler, because someone doesn’t share your opinion; it doesn’t make them “hard of thinking”. I actually agree with many of your opinions, but your attitude to those who don’t agree with your viewpoint, makes me think that you may actually be hard of thinking

Op you are one of those that can never possibly be wrong. I couldn't be bothered to engage with you tbh.

We'll put @Blanchedupetitpois

For someone saying people need to 'engage with the research' - OP doesn't:t seem to understand that they're just spouting uncritically examined opinions.

I'm pretty certain this post is deliberate goady to just get attention.