To think some people are so thick it’s almost beyond parody

[Annecydrone]

Photo on local history Facebook group. A beautiful Georgian mansion, taken in the 1930s. The post clearly explains that the mansion was demolished in the 1950s after a devastating fire destroyed most the structure, at which time it was in private hands. There’s a second photo of the shell of the building post-fire, clearly showing all but one wall standing.

Comments underneath include people
blaming the council for not preserving the mansion, demolishing it for “profit” at the behest of “developers” (despite the council not owing it, selling it or giving permission to build on it); how the failure to preserve the mansion was “woke” and shows the left’s disrespect for our heritage; several entirely serious posts about the land probably being used for a Mosque.

The land where it stood is still empty and still privately owned (as far as I can see).

Are people genuinely this stupid or are they keen to shoehorn their political views into literally anything?

What puts me off people is being almost proud of being ignorant and having no curiosity about the world. Curiosity is an aspect of intelligence and the lack of it is really, really unattractive as a personality trait.

I SO strongly agree with this. I was talking about exactly this with my son and his girlfriend the other day.

I agree with this too. A neighbour popped round recently and saw we had the Sunday papers on the kitchen table. He said something like "omg, you don't still buy newspapers do you, what a boring waste of time, you won't catch me reading that stuff". He seemed to be sneering at us but we were privately thinking how can you think it's a good thing to be so ignorant and so pleased with yourself about it?

That is insane!!

No, not in Skelmersdale - this was the Midlands; and no horse involved. Just a ridiculously tight and entitled couple who believed that, as the council owned the house, they should also pick up the bill for heating it!

the most worrying thing is that the contestans who actually make it onto the show are
a) people who consider themselves fairly intelligent and who think they have a chance of winning (so what are their friends and family like?) and

b) the ones who have survived the cull of the even stupider and more offensive applicants done by the production staff beforehand!

These posts are clickbait designed to produce immediate rage responses from people who don't have the patience to read and absorb an article. It's more an inability to concentrate caused by constantly scrolling onto the next item, and yes, some people are intellectually challenged.

They're all celebrities on ROHOG, though, who have presumably been specifically invited to participate.

I do agree with the monumentally stupid 'ordinary' people who actively apply for quiz shows, though. Not even just the likes of Tipping Point, where at least you can have a fair old guess at the answer to "Which country would you expect an Australian to come from?" if you don't already know; but the rather more challenging ones too. Seriously, what's the point? It would be like unfit old me wheezing and waddling up to the start line at the Olympics to take part in the triathlon!

There most certainly is a penalty for 'being clever'. It has been my misfortune to meet more than a few people who know perfectly well that I have been able to telepathically scan their entire vocabulary, and have chosen, with malice aforethought, to say to them a word they don't understand, in order to make them look like a cunt. Sneering at intelligence comes very easily to a lot of people.

Sneering at intelligence comes very easily to a lot of people.

Yes, this absolutely. Nobody likes to admit that they are thick, so it's much easier (to their way of thinking) to call somebody who isn't thick a know-it-all arrogant smart-arse.

It's the same with the people who will respond to any mention of what people did at university with "I went to the university of LIFE!" Yes, so did everybody... but some also went to an actual university. This is in no way remotely suggesting that people who didn't go to university are thick; but why seek to diminish the achievements of other people who did - and actually try to make out that they went to university because they were supposedly thick, or that going made them thick?! Nobody is stopping you from talking about your own proud life achievements too; but it's not a competition of 'who is great and who is thick?'.

As long as they don't expectorate. Just hate this.

I remember getting worked up into a rage after some protests...er, sorry, I can't remember what they were about (and I bet the participants can't either!!) but it was about a decade ago.

The cenotaph in Whitehall was climbed on and vandalised during the protest. This man was arrested and charged with criminal damage. His defence was that he didn't realise what the cenotaph was and didn't mean any disrespect.

He turned out to be the son of Dave Gilmour of Pink Floyd (himself a public schoolboy) who had gone to public school and was at that time studying history (yes, history) at an Oxbridge college. He was a Londoner born and bred.

Either he and his defence counsel were outright liars or he was surprisingly thick for a Londoner studying history at an elite university. I knew what the cenotaph was when I was at primary school in the NW of England.

A friend of mine can pinpoint the exact moment that she wrecked her relationship* with her boss at a stationary chain. He was the manager and she, the deputy, with a degree in history. They were going through some stock and and she used the word elipse. He sneeringly asked what the hell that meant, and she explained. He was horrible to her from that moment forward and she left as soon as she could.

My sister had a similar experience using a particular word while working for a civil service department - I can't remember exactly which word, but it really wasn't that esoteric. He mocked her in a meeting, saying there was no such word and she showed that there was, and explained the meaning to him. Cat's bum mouth from her boss and a frosty atmosphere afterwards.

I've had lots of instances like this too. It's weird - I'm always pleased to learn stuff from people better informed or cleverer than me, and wouldn't dream of holding someone's superior knowledge, education or intelligence against them.

*That's not a great way of putting it - it wasn't her doing, but you get the drift.

"Apparently, he's into philately!"
"What?! He never?!"

I see a lot of really just plain thick people commenting on the local Facebook groups in my area. When the council tax letters went out everyone was up in arms, it’s crazy how many people think council tax is exclusively for the bins.

People seem to have no critical thinking skills whatsoever.

Some people are keen to shoehorn their political beliefs into anything. I dont think it's a right wing problem or an anti muslim problem. It's a people problem. On all sides of every argument stupidity prevails, gays for Palestein being one of my particular favorites. Or the trans women would get "periods and cramps" or the transwoman who wants a womb transplant so they can have a termination all stupid I am afraid.

Oh gosh - there must be some explanation for this.

Of course intelligence varies from person to person but I think the lack of informed-ness and awareness about how the world works is something fairly recent.

When I were a lass, there were just 2, and then 3, TV channels. Programming was pretty serious and often highbrow compared to now - it assumed a certain level of intelligence and education in its viewers. I had to watch the news and often Panorama because my parents watched them. Most people had only one TV. Children's programming was more serious and 'educational' then, and there were lots of really good science and arts documentaries, which I, as a working class child, lapped up and felt very grown up doing so!

The point I'm making is: you couldn't help but be reasonably well-informed in those far-off days, even if your family weren't well-educated. I went to a state school in an industrial town, but I still remember the level of conversation there - it would amaze teenagers now! I remember an older girl saying of her form teacher, in a strong northern accent '"Miss Bloggs looks like I imagine Helen of Troy to look". Well, she had to know who Helen of Troy was in order to say this.

Now youngsters (and all of us) can filter out anything that doesn't immediately interest us. We're rarely forced to sit and watch or listen to things we haven't chosen ourselves, from our own narrow interest range. The algorithm will make sure you aren't challenged and that you don't have your mind opened to things which you know nothing about, or think are boring.

There are lots of reasons why we are confronted by thickness and bone-headed ignorance much more nowadays, but I think this is one of them. Also - the non-judgemental attitude we're all supposed to have towards stupidity and ignorance certainly helps to foster it!

The local pages I see are full of "in the good old days" people.In particular they mourn for the 1970s, when my large and prosperous home town was apparently much better than now (it was a post-industrial dump in my opinion)

Q. What relation was Prince Albert to Queen Victoria before they married?

A: Was he her father?

Private Eye swore this one was real..😅

I dont think it helps that nothing is every challenged online by moderators. And an article can have a typo or error but you cant get it updated.
So this week netmums had put a person was a ‘star’ when it was tsar.

I’m never sure whether people are actually getting stupider, or whether social media and the internet mean that we’re much more likely to hear what stupid people have to say than we were 20 years ago.

Either way it’s fairly terrifying.

I mean, this is shocking, but I see this more as ignorance than stupidity. They frequently co-exist in the same people but they aren’t exactly the same thing.

I often ask myself this. I think people's concentration spans and problem solving skills are definitely worse than they used to be. I just googled 'has the average IQ changed in the UK in the last 30 years?' and this was the response:

• Throughout most of the 20th century, IQ scores in the UK rose, a trend known as the Flynn effect, driven by better education, nutrition, and environmental factors.
• The Reversal (1990s–Present): Studies indicate that this rise stopped around the mid-1990s and has since seen a decline. Research from 2009 showed that British teenagers in 2008 had lower IQ scores—dropping by more than two points—compared to teenagers 30 years prior.
• Ongoing Decline: Other studies suggest that IQ scores in some Western countries, including the UK, have been dropping by approximately 2–5 points per generation since the early 2000s.

Reasons for the Shift
Researchers suggest several factors for this reversal:

• Technology and Media: Increased screen time and the use of technology may affect cognitive capacity, with people focusing on scanning information rather than deep thinking.
• Education System Changes: Changes in how language and mathematics are taught, as well as reduced emphasis on certain analytical skills.
• Environmental Factors: Declining quality in education or environmental changes.
• "Dumbing Down" of Youth Culture: Some researchers, such as Prof. James Flynn, have suggested that environmental and cultural factors in modern society have led to less "cognitive exercise" among teenagers.

Important Context
While some studies show a decline, it is important to note that IQ tests are designed to be "renormed" (made harder) every 15–20 years to keep the average score at 100. Therefore, an average IQ of 100 today represents higher cognitive ability than an average IQ of 100 did 30 years ago.

I do think the ability to bash out a few poorly constructed sentences on the internet with the help of predicitive text has allowed millions of not terribly literate, not terribly intelligent, barely educated people to have their two penneth in impotant debates, where previously they wouldn't have had a voice except in the pub. I'm all for that, actually. It's good to know what the proles are thinking. They deserve to be heard too. Even though many of them clearly have all the critical thinking and reasoning abilities of an amoeba.

Elsvieta, your explanation of mean, median, mode is very welcome to me. Thank you so much. Please, is there any chance that you could shine a light on what it means when something is 'unfalsifiable'?

@HeadDeskHeadDesk

Great post and lots to think about - and none of it very edifying.

Yes, I think you're right that we are more aware of public stupidity because of the access the internet gives to many who wouldn't have been able to broadcast their er...'thoughts' ..previously.

Now any fool can write rubbish from the comfort of their sofa. (I may be one of them!! )

With the rise of AI and the decline of public service broadcasting this kind of problem can only get worse.

Most of them vote Reform

Well said! I know no Reform voters personally but encounter them regularly on Facebook groups, eg GB News, Britannia Daily and others.

Now it's my turn.

My husband once told me that Prince Charles was playing water polo and his horse drowned.

I believed him.