# I think I win for "Stupidest Parents". Can you beat me? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 11, 2016, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-i-win-for-stupidest-parents-can-you-beat-me/759688 "2016-07-11T21:59:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-i-win-for-stupidest-parents-can-you-beat-me/759688/21 "2016-07-12T04:04:30Z")
no my mom was learning disabled and where she grew up girls only went to hs (or any school; after 6th grade) for social reasons and to find a husband for after hs and since her kids had an higher iq than she did she left anything other than housework up to us to figure out … I used ot tease my mom in that fact if you put a concept past her fast enough that sounded reasonable shed go with it For instance I was going back east by train and it was relatively easy and the travel agent I used got me a nice discount … So when I was telling her I made a remark about taking a _train_ to Hawaii and I caught what I said afterwards but she went so far as to call the travel agent for a price inquiry I said mom think about where Hawaii is and then think about how trains work … she finally caught on as I choked my self from trying not to laugh ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-i-win-for-stupidest-parents-can-you-beat-me/759688/22 "2016-07-12T04:13:50Z")
Why would you tell your mother not to spoil a movie for you? In her bran-addled brain, that translates to "Oh, Robbie wants to see The Crying Game, that’s something we have in common, how sweet, and he’s going to be so shocked at the ending. Which I’m now thinking about… And if I’m thinking about something, it has to come out of my mouth…" So, if you don’t want to hear about a movie, you say “Hey, how 'bout those Mud Hens? You think Jablonski’s just on a lucky streak, or is it 'roid rage?” ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-i-win-for-stupidest-parents-can-you-beat-me/759688/23 "2016-07-12T04:25:45Z")
ObSimpsons: Alex Trebek, on TV: “The capital of North Dakota is named after this German ruler.” Homer: “Hitler!” ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-i-win-for-stupidest-parents-can-you-beat-me/759688/24 "2016-07-12T05:59:22Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > Back when the movie _The Crying Game_ came out, and was still in theaters, I had this conversation with my mom: > Me: Don’t tell me anything about the movie. I heard it has a big surprise ending and I don’t want to know what it is. > Mom: Oh, you mean that the woman turns out to be a man? > > pause > > Me: Yeah, that was probably it. That reveal came in the middle of the movie, so that couldn’t have been the big surprise ending. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Emtar\_KronJonDerSohn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/58956e/32.png) [@Emtar\_KronJonDerSohn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emtar_KronJonDerSohn)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-i-win-for-stupidest-parents-can-you-beat-me/759688/25 "2016-07-12T06:19:33Z")
I thought WWII was _really_ about states rights?! ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-i-win-for-stupidest-parents-can-you-beat-me/759688/26 "2016-07-12T07:29:00Z")
> [@digs](#): > > “So, why didn’t the guy give his horse a name?” After nine days in the desert sun, your brain would be too fried to come up with a name. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-i-win-for-stupidest-parents-can-you-beat-me/759688/27 "2016-07-12T09:05:39Z")
I’m old. I went through the whole OP thinking 'but…aren’t most people’s parents of the generation that _lived_ through WWII? :smack: Go ask your grandparents the same question. If they can’t name names, then you’re in trouble. ---
**Author:** ![Lacunae\_Matata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lacunae\_Matata](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lacunae_Matata)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-i-win-for-stupidest-parents-can-you-beat-me/759688/28 "2016-07-12T10:32:16Z")
My mom isn’t dumb. If she were dumb, I think I’d give her a pass on some things. Like her refusal to consider that racism exists - “I’ve never seen it” “Ma, you’re a middle class white woman from Georgia. No one has ever denied you anything based on your skin color.” Or her attitude about mental illness: “I’ve been sad before. But that didn’t stop me from cleaning the house and getting a shower!” (“Ma, sad isn’t depression.”) “Suicide is just a permanent solution to a temporary problem!” (Three kids with clinical depression. One committed suicide in 1998. The other 2 have tried at some point. But pithy phrases outweigh any attempt at empathy or understanding. Because depression equals sad.) ---
**Author:** ![TheChileanBlob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thechileanblob/32/435_2.png) [@TheChileanBlob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheChileanBlob)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-i-win-for-stupidest-parents-can-you-beat-me/759688/29 "2016-07-12T10:42:48Z")
> [@Whiskey\_Dickens](#): > > My Dad accidentally misspelled my first name in a note to me when I was about 15. So he spelled it “Whisky?” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-i-win-for-stupidest-parents-can-you-beat-me/759688/30 "2016-07-12T12:10:05Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > I’m old. > > I went through the whole OP thinking 'but…aren’t most people’s parents of the generation that _lived_ through WWII? > > :smack: > > Go ask your grandparents the same question. If they can’t name names, then you’re in trouble. I know the feeling, and I hate to break it to you like this, but there are adults around whose grandparents weren’t born until after the war. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-i-win-for-stupidest-parents-can-you-beat-me/759688/31 "2016-07-12T12:27:08Z")
> [@Idle\_Thoughts](#): > > Oy. > I give up. Just be a good daughter and accept them where they are at. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-i-win-for-stupidest-parents-can-you-beat-me/759688/32 "2016-07-12T12:35:38Z")
> [@purplehearingaid](#): > > Yeah I think I can ! My parents didn’t notice I was hard of hearing ! A teacher did when I stayed back in first grade. I was 8 yo when my parents knew this ! That is pretty stupid to me ! I have to admit that’s worse than not noticing your children need glasses until their ages are in double digits. That’s when the classrooms got large enough that every teacher we had did notice, previously it hadn’t really been a problem. Mom still didn’t believe it was true until we left the optician’s and I stopped dead becase the tree across the street _had leaves_. This is a woman who wears glasses and whose husband also did. Her mother’s injunction upon meeting my future Dad was “not the one with the glasses!” Grandma knew we’d need glasses before we were even born, and she in turn is someone who would have problems selecting Hitler in a lineup (the woman has… issues, including what’s probably some serious ADHD). ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-i-win-for-stupidest-parents-can-you-beat-me/759688/33 "2016-07-12T12:42:19Z")
You should have led with the mustache… ---
**Author:** ![Whiskey\_Dickens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/9fc348/32.png) [@Whiskey\_Dickens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whiskey_Dickens)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-i-win-for-stupidest-parents-can-you-beat-me/759688/34 "2016-07-12T14:09:18Z")
> [@TheChileanBlob](#): > > So he spelled it “Whisky?” 😃 If my parents had actually named me Whiskey Dickens, that alone would be my entry for this thread! ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-i-win-for-stupidest-parents-can-you-beat-me/759688/35 "2016-07-12T14:59:47Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I love history. But I realize some people just don’t care about it. They might have some idea who Adolf Hitler was and who George Washington was but if you asked them which of those two lived first, they couldn’t tell you. They might not even associate Hitler with World War II or Washington with the American Revolution; history is just a bunch of unconnected events with no overall pattern. > > And it’s possible to live that way and have a normal life. Plenty of people who don’t know how electricity works are able to use modern technology. You don’t need to know how chemistry and biology work in order to breath. Your understanding of physics will have no influence on what tomorrow’s weather will be. And you can live in a society that was created by history in total ignorance of what that history was. > > So lighten up and stop annoying your parents. Yeah, that’s all well and good, but the problem is that these people can, and unfortunately often do, vote. And because they have no context or knowledge upon which to make an informed decision, they make a decision based upon bogus rhetoric, or how attractive the candidate’s wife is, or some kind of unworkable pledge to, say, built a 3000 km wall to stop illegal immigration. There really should be a compentency test for participating in an election, perhaps graduated by the degree of knowledge of civics, history, and technology. Sure, it will disenfranchise some people–perhaps even otherwise intelligent people with holes in their knowledge–but that’s a feature, not a bug. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-i-win-for-stupidest-parents-can-you-beat-me/759688/36 "2016-07-12T15:41:33Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > There really should be a compentency test for participating in an election, perhaps graduated by the degree of knowledge of civics, history, and technology. Sure, it will disenfranchise some people–perhaps even otherwise intelligent people with holes in their knowledge–but that’s a feature, not a bug. > > Stranger Many places in the US used to run such a test. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-i-win-for-stupidest-parents-can-you-beat-me/759688/37 "2016-07-12T15:48:07Z")
Is Arizona a swing state? ---
**Author:** ![Whiskey\_Dickens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/9fc348/32.png) [@Whiskey\_Dickens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whiskey_Dickens)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-i-win-for-stupidest-parents-can-you-beat-me/759688/38 "2016-07-12T16:42:32Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > Many places in the US used to run such a test. It was great at disenfranchising “those people.” ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-i-win-for-stupidest-parents-can-you-beat-me/759688/39 "2016-07-12T16:46:29Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > Many places in the US used to run such a test. With the intent to disenfranchise specific ethnic groups, not to verify the knowledge of the electorate. Such an idea is most likely unworkable, and would almost certanly be politically impossible to pass (and would result in massive corruption even if attempted) s I’m not seriously advoating it, but the notion at deliberately ignorant people are only affecting themselves is just not true; allowing and accepting people who are intentionally ignorant or obtuse is a detriment to society at large. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-i-win-for-stupidest-parents-can-you-beat-me/759688/40 "2016-07-12T17:43:32Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > Is Arizona a swing state? Yeah. It’s traditionally been a red state, but Pima and Maricopa counties are more liberal. But pollsters believe that the state could reject Trump and turn toward the Democratic candidate. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-i-win-for-stupidest-parents-can-you-beat-me/759688.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-i-win-for-stupidest-parents-can-you-beat-me/759688.md?page=3)