STUPIDITY

STUPIDITY

Last updated: September 14, 2022 at 22:06 pm

Created on Saturday, 28 March 2009 13:52

‘STUPIDITY' by Albert Nerenberg features interviews with various people who engage in critical thinkingIf you don't know what critical thinking is, you should not be on my website.

Some of the subjects covered in this 2003 documentary are the effects of television and mass media on the intellect, the dumbing-down of the masses, the popularity of Steve-O and Jackass, the role of religion in willful stupidity, and the evolution of such concepts as 'idiot' and 'moron'.

 Updates 14 September 2022 

This is the song that's played during the closing credits of the documentary. Quote from the lyrics:

If you want a place in the history books then do something dumb before you die. 

 

Why Stupid People Think They're Smart

 

The 5 Basic Laws Of Human Stupidity

Link to the full article on Principia Scientific International (PSI). You can also copy/paste this link into your browser – https://principia-scientific.com/the-5-basic-laws-of-human-stupidity-according-to-cipolla/

1. Always and inevitably, each of us underestimates the number of stupid individuals in the world
 
2. The probability that a certain person is stupid is independent of any other characteristic of the same person
 
3. A stupid person is one who causes harm to another person or group without at the same time obtaining a benefit for himself or even damaging himself
 
4. Non-stupid people always underestimate the harmful potential of stupid people
 
5. The stupid person is the most dangerous person that exists

A very interesting study conducted at the Eötvös Loránd University gives us other clues to gain self-consciousness in determining the 3 causes of human stupidity:

1. Ignorance or overconfidence. It would be the highest degree of stupidity and appears in people who take risks of any kind, although they lack the skills or knowledge necessary to face them.

2. Lack of control. It’s a medium degree of stupidity that corresponds to impulsive people, who lack self-control and act letting themselves be carried away by the first impulse.

3. Distraction. It would be the slightest degree of stupidity, which manifests itself in those who fail to achieve something because they don’t pay attention or don’t allocate sufficient resources, struggling uselessly.

 

The Dunning-Kruger Effect or Why Incompetent People Think They're Amazing

 

Bonhoeffer‘s Theory of Stupidity

Bonhoeffer on Stupidity (entire quote)

 

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4 Comments

  • Lander7

    September 26, 2017 at 07:15 Reply

    WOW! That is an eye opening video. It’s actually going to change my direction on one of my projects. Great information, thanks.

    • Randy

      September 26, 2017 at 09:34 Reply

      Eye opening indeed which is probably why you couldn’t watch it from the US 😉

  • Lander7

    September 24, 2017 at 07:43 Reply

    FYI this video is blocked here from viewing. The message reads, “This video contains content from eOne UGC, who has blocked it in your country on copyright grounds”. You can move it to Vimeo to get past this.

    • Randy

      September 24, 2017 at 09:12 Reply

      Friggin’ YouTube. Many thanks for spotting and alerting me to it. I will repost it on my Vimeo account.

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