To think a lot of people are completely stupid?

[blaisealex]

Someone posted a photo on a Facebook group of a Fabulosa product that is mean to keep artificial lawn clean and smelling nice. Said product is rammed full of toxic chemicals that are harmful to humans, animals and the environment. Hundreds of comments of people praising the product, tagging their mates in it. Lots of people going to be buying it, damaging the environment, probably harming their cats and dogs in the process. So bloody stupid. This cleaning craze of fabulosa and zeflora is beyond stupid.

Saw another post where people where complaining about paper straws and posting links of where others could purchase plastic straws. I mean, sure, I preferred plastic straws. They didn't go soggy and disintegrate half way through a drink but really, it's a small sacrifice to make. It's stupid and selfish.

Spoke to several people recently, ages varying between 20s and late 50s. None of them aware of who the suffragettes were.

So AIBU to think that so many people really are just stupid?

Some people need a high five… in the face… with a brick! People boil my piss!

It's very privileged to think people should be concerned about history or forms of cultural knowledge.

That is an appalling and thoroughly patronizing attitude that reallly speaks to why the OP has a good point. My grandparents were extremely poor with very limited options for their lives but my grandfather was very bright, read a lot, was very informed about thing and had a great collection of classical music as well.

As were my dgps, they made it their business to be. Not well off

I also think it's patronising. I come from a solid WC background, far from being well-off, my parents lived paycheck to paycheck, yet they always prioritised and valued learning about the world around them. The read books about, and discussed, politics, history etc. Equally, I know people from privileged MC backgrounds who are happy to be ignorant of anything that doesn't affect their (incredibly tiny) bubble. Totally incurious about the wider world, which leaves them staggerly ignorant of a lot of things.

Poor =/= thick or uncurious about the world.

I don’t think it’s patronising, some people live very chaotic lives and it’s Maslow 101 that people who are concerned with basic every day needs such as enough food and water and shelter don’t have much time for that kind of thing, it’s obviously a generalisation, but it’s a generalisation based in reality.

@woodhill

TC - Fallen Angels, Highgate Cemetery features

Thank you. It looks good.

[quote LateAtTate]@TurquoiseLemur what counts as important 'historical or cultural' awareness though? Things like Brexit obviously. Women's suffrage probably. But then what else?
Unless these things are taught in school or publicised (e.g. newspaper articles /social media campaigns marking the anniversary of women's suffrage) how exactly are people magically supposed to know?
It was easier in the past when the amount of media consumption etc is limited. Everyone read the same few newspapers and watched the same few TV shows. So if you'd read something you'd assume that everyone else would have too. Thus 'common knowledge'.
Nowadays it's the opposite. I know people who have a very solid understanding of how specific things work (the economy and financial systems, computer networks and security, classical music history) but who don't have a clue as to what women's suffrage is.
I'm not taking a dig but as a foreigner who is somewhat in the above category (although I do know about women's suffrage as that is a particular area of interest) - how do I know what's supposed to be common knowledge?[/quote]
How do people know? A mixture of learning about something at school, having access to media (preferably more than one source!), hearing other people mention whatever it is. Reading. Not necessarily all of these. . .

I agree that quite a few people are informed within their own area.

I do think that the knowledge of SOME things is part and parcel of being a decent citizen. Someone who can make a choice about certain things (eg voting) that isn't just based on party-inspired gimmicks or on what a celebrity has said on social media. I'd be shocked to find an adult who has no learning disabilities who knows nothing about the Holocaust, for example. Or who doesn't know the basic differences between the major political parties. And yes, who doesn't know that the struggle for suffrage (for both women and men) was a long and hard one.

@TurquoiseLemur

HTH😊

I always love TC's books

@MarshmallowAra

to laud and magnify the past achievements gained from violent and attention-seeking protest.

I've only just fully absorbed this ....
You think suffrage for women and universal suffrage was gained from violent & attention seeking protest??!!!

That's incredible.

Isolated acts like that most likely set back any achievements, rather than gained them.

Something that modern day protestors ought to learn from, it would help them.

@poorbuthappy

The real stupid ones are the people who won't admit they're wrong and don't value the process of learning. And when I say process of learning I don't necessarily mean in an academic setting. I mean the people who don't learn from their mistakes. The husky thing from earlier in the thread is a classic. A truly stupid person would go on FB and complain. Other people go ah shit. Yeah. I've been a bit thick. And not do it again.

Now there we have wisdom. Very distinct from knowledge and likewise in short supply.

OP you sound like a right snob.

Lots of people don't know about the suffragettes.
And? Who cares?

In the early 1900s the cabans in Welsh slate quarries used to have discussions on subjects including church disestablishment and tariff reform. These were men who would have left school at the age of 12 (indeed some would have started work at the quarry at the age of eight), spoke no English, and had hungry mouths to feed; yet were still able to have debates on the major political issues of the day over their lunch break.

OP you sound like a right snob
Lots of people don't know about the suffragettes.
And? Who cares

Are you a man? Because you should care.

YANBU. 35% of people on a thread near this one think that ghosts exist.

GHOSTS!

Having looked at the safety sheet for Zoflora- I think it's predominantly Ethanol (alcohol) and Benzalkonium chloride.

The alcohol would evaporate. The benzalkonium chloride would be toxic for cats and potentially for some dogs until dried. I don't use it personally and obviously putting it on artificial lawns might be a bit silly but there are other things that people use in the garden such a pesticides and ant poison, which are more toxic. Dettol is potentially more toxic too as it contains phenols.

Zoflora and bleach are fine if you use them correctly.

@MasterBeth

YANBU. 35% of people on a thread near this one think that ghosts exist.

GHOSTS!

Do you think people are lying about what they have seen?

@MasterBeth

YANBU. 35% of people on a thread near this one think that ghosts exist.

GHOSTS!

You cannot prove that something doesn’t exist as you would need perfect knowledge. This is a clear logical fallacy My god, the irony...

@0None0

Are you aware of who the suffragettes were? Cos there is a good chance you aren’t. Of course you’ll go and look them up now and claim you knew all along….

People don’t know what they don’t know. Then they find out, then they do know. It’s not related to intelligence or otherwise

If you read you find out important things like some of the key facts about the suffragettes. If you are badly read then you might have only seen the word without explaination. If you are curious you'd have looked it up.

The only people who don't know who the suffragettes were are people who read nothing and people who read a small amount but have no curiousity. These people are thick.