To think this has really identified the people who have a lack of independent thinking

[constantlyseekinghappiness]

Exactly that.

The volume of people in the world you simply cannot work anything out for themselves. They seem to expect specific instructions tailored to their own self/family.

Simply cannot listen to guidance and come to their own conclusion on what to do.

The questions on here are getting utterly ridiculous. Some people just cannot apply their own minds to something and get on with it.

The world - “you should practice social distancing”

Person - “oh, but can I still just do...” (activity severely lacking in social distancing)

Half the population is of below-average intelligence.

You are absolutely right. But tbh you can't actually expect the whole population to be of average intelligence or above. By definition that can't be true. Some people just have difficulty understanding stuff. And some people understand perfectly well, but feign confusion so that the rules don't need to apply to them.

Cross-posted

And some people understand perfectly well, but feign confusion so that the rules don't need to apply to them.

I think this is certainly true of many Mumsnetters going by the posts I’ve read this week.

I'm ashamed of it all. Me me me and greed.
It's been like it for bloody years so I'm not surprised really !

I think the whole Brexit shitshow displayed how many people there are in the UK who are unable to think critically.

Isn't being below average intelligence classed as having learning difficultues?

"Isn't being below average intelligence classed as having learning difficultues?"

No it isn't and can we not insult every person with LDs by saying that they ate incapable of independent thought and can quite easily navigate this.

My DD has LDs, she has done a mainstream collage course and works full time. She has had to explain lots of different subjects to her intelligent friends and colleagues.

You can be highly educated and intelligent, but incredibly stupid and closed minded, with no capacity for critical thinking.

I can't help but notice that we've had an influx of new posters over the past couple of weeks, ones who I feel would be more at home on Netmums, hence the ridiculous questions.

You can be highly educated and intelligent, but incredibly stupid and closed minded, with no capacity for critical thinking.

Like Boris, you mean?

Isn't being below average intelligence classed as having learning difficultues?

Of course not!

Some fuckers are just willfully ignorant.

It's the doom laden negativity about EVERYTHING and the total inability to think for themselves. I'm honestly shocked by so many showing a complete lack - I don't know whether of intelligence or common sense or both.

I honestly thought MN represented intelligent, confident, capable women but that's been blown away. From those sobbing because their child won't now go to the prom to those who feel the need to ask if they should still go on holiday/hold a child's birthday party/go to the hairdressers ..... the list goes on.

It's obviously a shock to some that following a nonentity online and taking selfies have become somewhat less important.

I wonder what natural selection will bring.

Doesn't doing your own thing and not following advice mean you have demonstrated independent thinking? You might be wrong but you did make that decision yourself

Based on my undergraduates at a Russell Group university, who are given detailed and explicit instructions in a module handbook on everything from FAQ, exactly what reading to do for each seminar to exact word counts, stylesheets, marking criteria and deadlines for assignments, a significant minority (despite being directed to check the module handbook for an answer as a first port of call) simply cannot believe the evidence of their eyes unless they actually hear me say something. Even though what I am saying is word for word what is in the module handbook.

Lack of self care capabilities was bad prior to this. Corona has highlighted how stupid people are and how little common sense they have.

Doesn't doing your own thing and not following advice mean you have demonstrated independent thinking? You might be wrong but you did make that decision yourself

Not if you post on Mumsnet asking everyone else to tell you if it’s ok or not (when it should be obvious it’s not ok).

I wouldn’t call that independent thinking.

Simply people who cannot possibly understand what’s being told to them and to act accordingly.

We always refer to them as the hard of thinking. Akin to the worried well. The combination of the two has created an over subscribed NHS.
If the general public followed the sensible advice given by HCPs the nhs would not be on its knees. They just don’t think that it applies to them. I often spend a great deal of my time giving out health advice only for the patient to say “ but you can fix it can’t you” with that voice that tells me that they think it’s my problem to solve not theirs.

I was talking about this to DH earlier.

I work in a school but used to work in nursing. My Schoolie WhatsApp is full of outrage and moaning about lack of specific guidance. It's very self-absorbed and whiney.

It is a crisis! No one is going to spoonfeed us. We've been given the PHA guidelines so we should support the children referring to them and common sense. It is very up in the air and there's not a lot info but we're all in the same boat.

Thankfully the Nursing WhatsApp has a different tone. They are given scant info too but they just get on with it.

It's nothing to do with intelligence. Those people not knowing what to do because they haven't been specifically told are educators and very well educated.

Yup. Lots of posts over the past week with people feeling they should be exempt from the rules because '... we've got woods at the back of our house', or '...our kids will go mad', or 'my child simply won't drink water'

Do people really expect the government to be tailoring advice to each households? Do they think nobody else's kids are going to go mad? Do they think juice is a human right?

Read the guidance and do your absolute royal best to stick as close as you can to it. That's it.

The most worrying thing is that these same people are allowed to vote. It really is no wonder we are in the mess we are.
The amount of complete idiots both on here and in real life beggars belief.

I think that it’s more the case that people have applied their critical thinking skills and come out with a difference answer to what policy seems to dictate. They’re coming on here seeking reassurance for their position. You must remember that a part of critical thinking is questioning your presuppositions. Not everyone is at that point yet where they are blindly following government advice because they’ve got that little critical voice in the back of their head going on and on ‘is this actually necessary? Surely it’s been blown out of proportion?’ Etc. It’s going to take a bit more time for everyone to firm establish presuppositions that take all of this as seriously as some mners do.

Obviously there will be sone people who aren’t very bright struggling to apply the rather garbled government advice. But I would assume that most deviance comes from people who haven’t accepted the same presuppositions as those that underline official advice.

Meanwhile our nhs staff will be trying to save these people's lives in a couple of weeks time. Where is the common sense?

@Reginabambina, I think you are giving the ‘It doesn’t apply to me’ and ‘Someone on the Internet told me...’ positions way more intellectual credit than they merit. It seems to me that it’s down to an inability to distinguish between credible and nonsense sources. Again, like poorly-performing undergraduates who don’t understand why a Wiki entry or a tabloid article is any different from peer-reviewed research in an academic journal.

I'd love to know how many people were the ones screaming for "FULL LOCKDOWN" a couple of weeks ago and are now outraged that they've been laid off and/or can't send their kids to school. I bet it's more than a fair few.

I said this to people who posted a million of "Can I do this, Can I do that.... what about this.. that..... "

They ask the same question the previous 100 people asked and expect someone to make an exception for them because they are speacial....

Their logic has holes as big as their egos !!!

Shocking !!!