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?

@NeverDropYourMoonCup

You've got several aspects to your complaint.

1. Artificial lawn. Yeah, I judge people who think it's better/cleaner than a lawn without a medical reason for needing it (or living on the 12th floor and want something on the balcony that isn't grey concrete) - but then again, my next door neighbour has one because her garden is permanently in shade from buildings, so grass doesn't actually grow in it and she wants her kids to play on something other than bare earth, occasional dandelions, green alkanet and thistles.

1. Cleaning products - a mixture of not knowing or not caring.

1. Suffragettes. Well, you'd either have had to see Mary Poppins before it was released on video/DVD (which I hadn't until I was an adult, it was all tiny clips on TV on Bank Holidays) or had a teacher who decided to cover the subject out of the options on the History syllabus (which I did).

1. Plastic straws. True, 'normal' people don't need them. But many disabled people do, as they are safe, hygienic, lightweight and not the disgusting texture of paper ones nor do they pose a risk of serious injury as the metal or bamboo ones do. Knowing about one but not knowing about the other doesn't necessarily mean the person complaining about plastic is thick, they just haven't learned about the many varying needs of disabled people.

Was it changed in that release?

I've seen Mary Poppins twice and I don't remember the suffragettes. I remember they went to the races and there was a weird bit where they were all floating up on the ceiling.

@Draculaswedding

I’m officially a bit thick having an IQ of 85. I know about the suffrage movement, don’t use zoflora or drinking straws and I get my news from left, independent and right biased media to try get an idea of how events and issues are interpreted by different sources. I enjoy learning and trying to think critically. There are different types of intelligence and I would like to think it’s possible to be open to new ideas, to learning and to checking the voracity of where you get your information from despite being a bit thick.

IQ tests only measure a very specific form of intelligence (abstract puzzle-solving). There was a time when they were valued in education and psychology over almost everything, but this is changing and it needed to.

What you have written highlights that there are absolutely different types of intelligence. It sounds like you are curious, open, and approaching the whole media thing (re bias) very wisely. Things that IQ tests don't measure. They don't measure common sense either, or how creative somebody is, or how empathic.

You're not thick at all.

Knowledge and intelligence are not the same thing

I wouldn't say that people are any more stupid than they ever were, but there definitely appears to be a drop in critical thinking these days! Or maybe that's just the people who use social media/the internet regularly (possible)

Gullibility seems to be on the rise - but even intelligent people can be gullible. I very much enjoyed the day that I told 4 adult men, all of them graduates from top UK universities, that "gullible" had been removed from the dictionary, and watched them debate the whys and wherefores of this, before coming clean and explaining the joke.

A lot of the time I think people don't have the will or energy to care too much about large social problems, such as women's rights or the environmental damage we're doing. If it doesn't affect them personally on a day to day basis, then why bother, eh? It's much easier to just buy the environmentally damaging product to do the job quickly, than to do things the harder/more environmentally conscious way. Fake grass in itself is a lazy thing, mostly, because it doesn't need mowing! People who CBA to mow their grass aren't going to take longer to clean it either.

But I agree it can be quite staggering how much ignorance and wilful stupidity is displayed by some, and how little they seem to care. Not sure what can be done about it though.

@0None0

No *@blaisealex*. Most people are talking about the suffregands when they think they are talking about the suffragettes, and you might well be too.

Yikes, I think you've got something horribly mixed up here. Brave if you to post without checking first though!

OP, I completely agree with you. And I think the post above is a good example of your point.

Also, for those interested:
Suffragist/Suffragette - What's the difference?
Sometimes people refer to the activists working for suffrage by different names - 'suffragette', or sometimes 'suffragist'. But which is the correct term?

See below for a quick overview!

Suffragists
Those involved in the first wave of the campaign for women’s votes are known as suffragists. Suffragists believed in peaceful, constitutional campaign methods. In the early 20th century, after the suffragists failed to make significant progress, a new generation of activists emerged. These women became known as the suffragettes, and they were willing to take direct, militant action for the cause.

Suffragettes
Suffragettes were members of women's organisations in the late-19th and early-20th centuries who, under the banner "Votes for Women," fought for women's suffrage, the right to vote in public elections.The term suffragette refers in particular to members of the British Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), a women-only movement founded in 1903 by Emmeline Pankhurst, which engaged in direct action and civil disobedience.

THat poster who mentioned "suffregands" has just made up a word purely to belittle the OP.

@Ravenspeckingearly

The average GCSE attainment in the U.K. is something like 5 grade Cs. To me that seems quite low, but whether these people just struggle or havent been given opportunities I can’t say. I’m not sure I’d use not knowing who the suffragettes are honestly makes a huge difference in day to day life.....not understanding interest rates is a far bigger problem for many people, having no clue about basic first aid, wandering round your house in winter in shorts and a t shirt with the heating on full blast and the windows open, driving without a seatbelt, smoking.....id classify all of those above not knowing who the suffragettes are.

On point.

I think so. It seems that many aren't interested with anything outside their small bubble.
I believe it's by design to have a population of compliant worker bees.

I think a lot of people are completely overwhelmed to the point of tuning out when it comes to the environment and what they should or could be doing to save it. To a certain extent, they are justified in deciding to stuff it all. There is only so much individual people can do.

@CroneAVirus

I don’t know if it’s fair to say stupid. Lacking in curiosity describes it better for me.

I remember when the Brexit referendum was happening and I was chatting with a girl at work and she literally had no idea what any of it was about. She thought it was ‘boring’ and ‘not really her thing’.

I also remember speaking to a girl at college once about the US president and she didn’t know who I meant. When I was like WTF? She said that it was none of her business who the president of the US was.

Astonishing.

I lecture third year students at university and am always astounded at the lack of general knowledge and awareness of cultural issues. They're bright people but they don't watch the news of are often completely unaware of politics unless it features on tiktok. As part of my course I have to quiz them on why research exploded in the late 1940s. Every year I ask them "so what happened in the 40s, globally, to prompt this change?" And each year there is a huge long pause and one person eventually says "was there a war or something?"

@0None0

No *@blaisealex*. Most people are talking about the suffregands when they think they are talking about the suffragettes, and you might well be too.

@0None0

Come the fuck back to explain what this word that exists nowhere on the internets actually means.

Enquiring minds want to know.

Some highly intelligent people think those who chose to have children when the world is already overpopulated and resources are diminishing shouldn't pass comment on anyone else's intelligence, selfishness or impact on the planet.

@0None0

No *@blaisealex*. Most people are talking about the suffregands when they think they are talking about the suffragettes, and you might well be too.

Oh, the irony.

At one time there were only paper straws. I think they were a little more robust than today’s version though.

I remember people being very upset when plastic ones came in. They were too sharp and scratchy compared to paper ones and made drinks taste a bit warm and odd.

The suffragettes in Mary Poppins was when Winifred was dancing around singing Sister Suffragette

We're clearly soldiers in petticoats
And dauntless crusaders for women's votes
Though we adore men individually
We agree that as a group they're rather stupid
Cast off the shackles of yesterday
Shoulder to shoulder into the fray
Our daughters' daughters will adore us
And they'll sing in grateful chorus
Well done
Sister Suffragette
From Kensington to Billingsgate
One hears the restless cries
From every corner of the land
Womankind, arise
Political equality
And equal rights with men
Take heart, for Mrs. Pankhurst has been clapped in irons again
No more the meek and mild subservients, we
We're fighting for our rights
Militantly
Never you fear
So, cast off the shackles of yesterday
Shoulder to shoulder into the fray
Our daughters' daughters will adore us
And they'll sing in grateful chorus
Well done
Well done
Well done
Sister Suffragette

My high school English teacher used to say “the general public aren’t as thick as you think they are, they’re thicker”

I remember when I house sat for a friend and used her tumble drier. As usual I emptied the lint filter before putting it on. The lint filter was absolutely full to bursting, almost like a lovely soft duvet.
When she came back I mentioned this and she said she had no idea you were meant to empty it. Doesn't everyone at least run an eye over appliance manuals?! She's lucky it hadn't burst into flames!

I don't think it's necessarily stupidity its more like not caring.

A suffragan is an assistant or subordinate bishop

So many words with the suffra prefix

Hunting through this thread and simply can't find any answer to the burning question what's wrong with using Zoflora??!
Why can't I disinfect bathrooms and clean up after pets using something that smells like a beautiful garden if I want? Am I getting life wrong again? Please forgive my ignorance if it's secretly full of radioactive waste but I checked before buying for the first time and it seemed ok from an environmental and animal testing perspective 🤷‍♀️

"Scientists say that the most common element in the universe is Hydrogen. They are wrong. The most common element in the universe is stupidity" - Frank Zappa

Zoflora is bad for animals and the drain system as it can kill fish and other Aqua wildlife

It is also very toxic to pets, but saying that, as long as you let it dry fully before allowing an animal to walk across it, it’s safe.

WinkyWonkyDonkey, that would drive me insane!

On a similar note, a few years ago I came across a group of young women in Waterstone's.They were viewing copies of "Mrs Dalloway" by Virgina Woolf and earnestly (but cluelessly) discussing with each other whether it was Mrs Dalloway or Virginia Woolf who had written the book. They were all studying for a degree in English Lit.

There's almost a pride in being so uninformed.

"Wasn't there a war or something?" Jeez. No wonder so many of our electorate make, ahem, interesting political decisions, if this is the level of knowledge they possess.