To wonder why people are such morons?!

[proximalhumerous]

Semi-lighthearted...

First moronic occurrence: Received an email yesterday copied to four people, so six people in the conversation altogether. Let's call them Alice, Ben, Charlotte, Dan, Emily, plus me.

So Ben had written to ask me to say in advance whether I need a particular item on a particular day. This item is provided by Dan. If I do need said item I should email Ben, copying in Alice, Charlotte and Emily. But not Dan. So basically now everyone is now in the loop apart from the one person who actually provides the item.

Second moronic occurrence: I emailed someone (not Alice, Ben, Charlotte, Dan, or Emily, as it happens!) requesting to book a room for a specified date in July. This person said she would check whether it was free. She then proceeded to write to all the other clients who make bookings for this room to ask whether they are using it on X date - which is an entire fortnight before I actually need it.

Third moronic occurrence: I wrote to ask for a refund for a train ticket, explaining that, owing to delays, I had had to purchase a new ticket and catch the following service on that route (a four-hour journey) half an hour later. I was asked whether I had used both tickets.

Please make me feel better with other tales of people's idiocy.

There is a correlation between the more senior a person is and how poor their reading comprehension is. It's as if they think they're too important to read and that's a job for the little people. I get a lot of senior executives asking me basic questions re an email I've sent to them. If they had bothered to read the email/report then they wouldn't have needed to ask questions.

Tried to book appointment at a salon for Friday afternoon as I had booked a half day. Specifically asked for afternoon appointments and got a reply offering me 10:30am 🙃

And the more people who believe that the drivel spewed by ChatGPT is anywhere near reliable, the worse it's going to get.

Moron/ic is fine.

People just like to be offended. So what if they're offended? Let the irrelevant people be offended.

@CantHoldMeDown - posted before I saw your critical thinking response. I agree with you, in order to pass your essays throughout uni it's necessary to 'critically think' or compare and contrast in oldspeak; which one would hope is something that comes naturally to any uni student. Otherwise, what's the point

Sometimes when I see a MN poster using 'Critical Thinking' as a whip to bandy about I think, "so you've been to Uni" in the past 20 years. I did, which is where I found this academic 'slang'.

Moron, idiot, imbecile and cretin were all diagnoses 100 years ago.
Those with an IQ below 25 were idiots, 25-50 were imbeciles and 50-70 were morons. Cretins suffered from congenital iodine deficiency-the word cretin comes from the French “chrétien” (Christian) as these people were believed to be pure of spirit.

I once had a clothing item delivered to my home but it had a tag on it. The security kind which are usually removed in shops.
Took it to the local branch.
Me - I ordered this online and had it delivered to my home but there's a security tag. (Which just set off your alarms). Can you please remove the tag? Here's my email receipt.
Salesperson - I need a receipt to be able to remove it.
Me - Here's my phone screen with the receipt on. There's even a picture of the item next to it.
S - I can't remove it without a receipt. Where's your receipt?
Me - I bought it online, it was delivered to my home. This is the only receipt I have.
S - I can't remove it without a receipt. I'll get my manager.
Me - OK thanks.
Manager asks what the problem is, I explain and show receipt.
Manager- I'll accept it this time but in the future I'd need a receipt.
Me - I've shown you the receipt.
Manager - I know. And I've said I'll remove the tag. But in the future I'll need the receipt from the shop.
Me - I don't have a shop receipt because I bought it online. That's the only receipt I have.
Manager - I'm just letting you know that next time I'll need a receipt.

I was glad the tag was removed and just walked away smiling incredulously.

I still don't know what they thought I should have shown. I know its a fairly unusual problem but the receipt was so clear on my phone too, with the date, price, size and a photo of the item.

Think how stupid the average person is. 50% of people are dumber than that guy.

This is way too complicated. Cancel everything and start again.

Oh god we had this at work recently too, can't believe they just accept it at face value! Also the fact that no-one seems to read past the first sentence of any email now.

The one that really made me think "carrot/turnip/insert insult of choice" was the SUV driver the other day who stopped carefully at the junction, looked both ways for oncoming cars and then proceeded to pull out and almost run over the woman and her guide dog who were halfway through crossing the road. She did not hold back cursing him out!

I once tried to sell younger dds scooter on fb as she'd outgrown it and it had been used about 3/4 times

I added measurements (in detail),made it clear what age it was for and that it was still full price in argos

A lady said she wanted it-and asked how old dd was (I'm guessing to gauge the size of the scooter because she was incapable of working it out with a tape measure and the measurements I'd provided or reading that id said aged 6/7)

she wanted to come at a time when I was at work,so I asked older dd to wait in and do the sale for me

Apparently the lady came round,was very rude to dd and took one look at the scooter before snapping that it was too small for her dd and telling dd she wanted the next size up and a different colour as her dd hated pink (it was bloody pink in the photo!)

Dd told her to go to argos and buy one from there as we didn't have the next size up in any colour-she got really snotty and stormed off

I got the nastiest message from her a bit later on for not having a range of the bloody things for her to choose from

I took it to the charity shop a week later

I've had this with our binmen too, blocking the road just when I have to go to work. Fine for a moment, they've got a job to do too, but they then moved the lorry to another spot that still blocked the road despite me and several cars behind me obviously waiting and other traffic-friendlier options open to them 🙄

Phoning some utility company to explain my mum had died and we need to close the account etc.

Twat on the phone says that he needs to speak to the account holder specifically to close the account!

FFS!! What do you want me to do? Hold a fricking seance??

Twat!!

Yes, they’ll be the same wankers aggressively tailgating me when I don’t overtake a cyclist on a road with blind bends and two white lines painted down the middle.

I manage bin men. This behaviour falls squarely in ‘games bin men play’

Along with leaving your bin blocking the middle of your drive. Never, ever emptying your bin again if you upset them. Going above and beyond for you if you give them a chocolate biscuit during their round, or a Christmas present.
Fun 😃

People's ability to process simple information and answer clearly expressed questions is shockingly bad these days. It's as if they get halfway through and then just stop functioning.

I often send Non-disclosure agreements to review. I always say - please let me know if you have any comments, or otherwise complete the yellow highlighted parts and tell me the email address of the signatory so I can send the doc via our eSignature tool. Every bloody time - they send me a pdf version signed. This not normally a problem but everytime I question my instructions as to whether they are clear and simple enough or if in fact I am off with the fairies.

People read nothing! I have spent hours on slides, only to be challenged in a meeting as to they need to know x,y,z and why didn;t I say that yet, when it is in the bloody slides I have to send a week in advance so they can see them.

That's actually really interesting. I didn't realise it was so precisely calibrated. Also I knew "cretinism" was a medical thing with an effect on cognition, but not that other vocabulary was used in a similar way.

Some teachers rise up to the challenge too. And even headteachers.
Working in schools is sadly not for the most aspirational of us.

This! ^^