Thats a rhetorical question aimed at nobody in particular, but one that often crosses my mind when I read message boards. Over and again on OBOB we endure the rantings of people who have never accomplished anything in their lives trying to explain complex topics like climate change, moral theology, foreign relations, crime and punishment, or the global financial market. There have been cases where some middle-aged habitually non-contributing member of society comes on to complain that they arent making enough money at their part-time job where they work with highschoolers and then just minutes later produce a poorly-formatted, illogical rant about some nutjob conspiracy theory that explains how a current political leader is conspiring with aliens or something equally absurd. I understand that stupidity likely makes life very difficult for those afflicted with it, but I have a hard time wrapping my head around the reasons that stupid people dont eventually come to recognize their condition. They can perform the most basic reasoning, they know because they once burnt their fingers not to touch the kettle when it is hot, so why dont they get that their failure to master anything in their lives is indicative of the fact that they are, in fact, not able to understand anything more complex than peeling a potato?
This likely sounds like a rant or an attack, but it shouldnt. It is a serious sociological problem that I dont understand but would like to understand. Ive observed that moderately successful people are quick to note that they understand a little about a lot and a lot about just a few things, happily deferring to those who are experts in the field. It shocks me to see how willing laypeople who have never taken so much as an introductory physics course are to challenge the findings of a community of respected scientists. We have been blessed to have actual experts in complicated fields here on OBOB BillH (who left, sick of the garbage) is an internationally recognized political economics expert who got his learnin done at Stanford and Georgetown that didnt stop people who could barely tie their shoes from trying to explain to him how global economics really works. We had Davidnic, a wiser man on theological topics than weve seen in a long time recently leave. He would patiently provide documentation and combat error, only to have to repeat himself 6 months later when the same willfully errant people repeated their errors. TheOtherHockeyMom is, iirc, a Engineering Professor focused on oil collection methods, and on at least a dozen occasions Ive seen people who think that mean, median and mode are synonyms tell her that she doesnt understand fracking.
I dont think that there is a natural explanation for it. Certainly intelligence is pre-determined to a certain extent, but I'm not talking about intelligence. There is no shortage of 90 IQ people who are respected in their chosen fields and are well-adjusted in all ways, quick to acknowledge that which they dont understand.
This likely sounds like a rant or an attack, but it shouldnt. It is a serious sociological problem that I dont understand but would like to understand. Ive observed that moderately successful people are quick to note that they understand a little about a lot and a lot about just a few things, happily deferring to those who are experts in the field. It shocks me to see how willing laypeople who have never taken so much as an introductory physics course are to challenge the findings of a community of respected scientists. We have been blessed to have actual experts in complicated fields here on OBOB BillH (who left, sick of the garbage) is an internationally recognized political economics expert who got his learnin done at Stanford and Georgetown that didnt stop people who could barely tie their shoes from trying to explain to him how global economics really works. We had Davidnic, a wiser man on theological topics than weve seen in a long time recently leave. He would patiently provide documentation and combat error, only to have to repeat himself 6 months later when the same willfully errant people repeated their errors. TheOtherHockeyMom is, iirc, a Engineering Professor focused on oil collection methods, and on at least a dozen occasions Ive seen people who think that mean, median and mode are synonyms tell her that she doesnt understand fracking.
I dont think that there is a natural explanation for it. Certainly intelligence is pre-determined to a certain extent, but I'm not talking about intelligence. There is no shortage of 90 IQ people who are respected in their chosen fields and are well-adjusted in all ways, quick to acknowledge that which they dont understand.
