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?

Facebook today on a memories page. Beautiful old photo of my street, taken in 1903.

I know because I have a print of it in my living room.

First comment. 'AI Slop'

Also, this moon mission has messed up my algorithm and I'm being bombarded with flat earth idiots.

Yes - Trump

I live in Southern Europe, in a holiday ish place. I have, just this morning, witnessed a Brit in the pharmacy demanding that they fill his NHS prescription. They speak perfect english and were very patiently explaining that he needs a prescription from this country when he shouted that the NHS covers ALL countries. 🤦‍♀️

Yep, ragebait and bots - identifable by the label "digital creator" in their profile.

I don't know about that. I've noticed that half of my friends have "digital creator" in their profiles for some reason, and they're definitely not bots. None of us even post much at all.

I deleted Next Door. What tipped me over the edge was a series of posts about a suspicious young man hanging around local streets. He would park his car and wait, then meet people and go into houses with them.

Apparently, wearing smart clothes and driving a nice car is very suspicious. Absolutely nothing to do with him being black, of course.

When a few sane posters pointed out that he is an estate agent, and it's literally his job to wait for prospective buyers outside houses so he can show them round, the level of ignorance that came back was ridiculous.

I deleted the stupid app and never looked back.

Comments pages on local newspapers are populated by thick, snobby NIMBYs and are usually bigots of every variety too

Having spent some time in the NHS environment recently I'd agree with that. Sometimes I was left wondering how the human race became the dominant species.

FB is not designed for intellectual conversation. Our local group is full of posts asking whether the local supermarket is open today, what time the bus goes into town, etc. You have to wonder how someone who knows how to create a social media post is incapable of doing a Google search.

And a Minister in the previous Govt said he wanted "everyone to be above average" ...

The trouble is, being intelligent, being able to think creatively is being bullied (and in some cases medicated)out of existence. The way we engage with the world and with others has been increasingly dumbed down, from available entertainment to intimidation and fear of using anything apart from stock phrases and answers - genuine discussion just doesn’t happen anymore. It’s a loop of humiliation/punishment- fear- stupidity/silence. Even intelligent people seem to be masking their intelligence in order to fit in. Not only is this affecting the intelligence levels we experience during interactions it’s also severely affecting mental health as people are living inauthentic lives.

Slightly related...I once saw the question and answer section on a product on Amazon where someone had asked "what does this smell like" and the answerer said "I don't know...how am I supposed to know!"
They clearly hadn't realised the email they got saying "can you answer this question?" Regarding an Amazon purchase was optional to answer

You might do that in your teens when you're in forced proximity to an underachieving peer group, for instance, but once you leave that context, there's no penalty for being clever. I don't think it has anything to do with a mental crisis.

Yes people are quite frankly thick, and I don’t mean learning disabilities I mean don’t listen, don’t read things properly, don’t process information thoroughly and are incredibly naive in that they believe things that they are told based on whether they like them, was nicely presented or what in it for them quite frankly. And yes AI and bots too

My dh's favourites are negative reviews of books for example, because the packaging was damaged or delivery was crap. But the book was an entertaining read and they thoroughly enjoyed it. Would have been five stars if the driver had delivered it on time.

You're not wrong. Private Eye magazine even has a column called Dumb Britain which highlights daft answers to questions in quiz shows (sample from The Finish Line: Q: Who wrote Henry IV, Part 1? A: Macbeth).

I was once talking to some friends about historical people. I mentioned Jesus and someone piped up and asked if he was the one with the amazing technicolour dreamcoat.

I dont mind stupid people. What I cant bear is pseudo intellectuals who think they are blindingly brilliant and spout a shallow point of view propped up bya few key words but who are actually embarrassingly ignorant and everyone realises this except for them....

Did they have a 'down with this sort of thing' banner too? It's not a true Irish protest without one. Or a 'Careful now'.

Some people are staggeringly dense. Others just don't read or comprehend things but decide to launch on some tirade anyway.

On my local Nextdoor, someone posted about a man in his 20s in a black hoodie asking her the time, then pulling a knife on her when she ignored him. Some idiot bloke posted a huge rant at her saying she was "a woke bitch who must live in fear if she was this scared when a man asked her the time". Someone else pointed out the bit about the knife, and this bloke just replied with "Oh I missed that bit". No apology. 🙄

That's mildly irritating, but far less actually dangerous than extreme stupidity.

The average iq is 100

I love those. Similar to the ones on Amazon : "Don't know. Haven't opened it yet."

Our local FB group is full of thick people, I presume the more sensible amongst us just don't post on them.

It's the same sad people everytime whenever local council, NHS etc post on FB.

I read about a local politician in the USA from a long time ago who knew that the electorate were mainly thick and decided to capitalise on this by 'accusing' his chief opponent of perfectly normal things but which thickos would misunderstand.

Things like there being undeniable evidence of him openly masticating in public on numerous occasions!

It is handy being able to get answers to those sorts of questions, however, if you live in a remote area or small holiday town as I do.
There is one road in and out... the hourly bus is often delayed by a traffic incident, volume of holiday traffic or emergency roadworks. Unless it's a situation that pursists for many hours it is unlikely to be on an official website. Some shops and cafes only open half the year or in winter just weekends (and they don't keep their website up to date).Your Evri parcel doesn't turn up - a great way to be united with it.