# Pure, unadulterated stupid. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 22, 2018, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pure-unadulterated-stupid/811030 "2018-03-22T16:59:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/channing_idaho_banks/32/250_2.png) [@Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Channing_Idaho_Banks)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2018, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pure-unadulterated-stupid/811030/21 "2018-03-22T23:38:33Z")
Parent overheard describing contrails to a child, “Look, that’s the jet-stream.” ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2018, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pure-unadulterated-stupid/811030/22 "2018-03-22T23:46:12Z")
Has a thread been opened to discuss [“How America Lost its Mind”](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/09/how-america-lost-its-mind/534231/) ? I think it’s worth at least a skim. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2018, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pure-unadulterated-stupid/811030/23 "2018-03-23T00:18:33Z")
[Here](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=20861059&postcount=27) is some grade A stupid, right here amongst us. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2018, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pure-unadulterated-stupid/811030/24 "2018-03-23T00:55:29Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > That’s where some shithook cons you into buying a $1200 vacuum, but will give you a discount if you become a “representative” and you agree to try to con all your friends and family into buying one also. > > He tired to sell me one, and I almost resorted to violence. Ah. The vacuum version of Cutco knives. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2018, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pure-unadulterated-stupid/811030/25 "2018-03-23T01:36:33Z")
Back when Dubya was President, I was walking past one of the break rooms at work and overheard the vending machine guy drop this little nugget to someone he was talking to. “I don’t know why everyone thinks Bush is so stupid. He’s a Rhodes Scholar too, y’know.” ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2018, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pure-unadulterated-stupid/811030/26 "2018-03-23T02:17:39Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > Ah. The vacuum version of Cutco knives. Ah, funny. The “special gift” I got for letting him try to sell me a vacuum was… … a cheap set of knives. I guess he fell for that one, too. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2018, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pure-unadulterated-stupid/811030/27 "2018-03-23T03:21:33Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > And here we have the reason Evolutionary Psychology is the joke of academia: So many just-so stories we can’t falsify, but which sell well at the checkstand. It’s no different from Natural Philosophy, a logically consistent theory, based on social prejudices, with jack all facts to back it up. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2018, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pure-unadulterated-stupid/811030/28 "2018-03-23T08:28:31Z")
> [@snfaulkner](#): > > [Here](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=20861059&postcount=27) is some grade A stupid, right here amongst us. I only skimmed the link, but it’s got to be a pretence, a _parody of a hypothetical crazy stupid person_. Yes, the parodist may himself be a crazy stupid person, but it’s still parody. Things like “letters in the real alphabet” and the valediction “Merry CHristmas” in March give it away. Got to be parody. … Right? ---
**Author:** ![kferr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/71e660/32.png) [@kferr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kferr)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2018, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pure-unadulterated-stupid/811030/29 "2018-03-23T12:53:53Z")
I once knew a British guy who was convinced the moon landing were a hoax. Not because of any dodgy shadows on photos, but because if flying to the moon could have been done then the British would have done it first. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2018, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pure-unadulterated-stupid/811030/30 "2018-03-23T14:39:52Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > A local preacher here in my home city had a radio program for a while. He insisted that since our ZIP codes started with 666 that meant we were doomed. And the motto of the city “The Golden City” was a reference to evil Babylon in the book of Revelations. The local university has a mascot called the Ichabod, and since the means "God’s glory has departed(according to the OT) it’s another sign we are doomed. The dude is several years dead, but his cult carries on, although not quite as active. He was a very hateful man, and boy did he have a potty mouth on him. Is this Fred or did you guys actually have multiple crazy religious cults? ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2018, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pure-unadulterated-stupid/811030/31 "2018-03-23T14:56:16Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > A lunkhead on the news last night, re the grass roots attempt in Oregon to ban the sale of military style weapons and registration of same: “The 2nd amendment doesn’t say that these guns are for hunting; they’re in case the government needs to be overthrown because. . .stuff.” :smack: Multiple actual Dopers have posted the same sentiment. Scary and sad. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2018, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pure-unadulterated-stupid/811030/32 "2018-03-23T15:37:45Z")
A lot of the examples listed in this thread aren’t exactly stupid, they’re misinformed or outdated. 1. It is not unreasonable to argue that someone who was a Rhodes Scholar is not dumb. Yes, Bush was never a Rhodes Scholar, but if someone had been told, or mistakenly thought, that he was, then for him to say that Bush can’t be dumb because he was a Rhodes Scholar is a legitimate and sound argument. Hard for a dumb person to get that scholarship. 2. The 2nd Amendment indeed does not say that guns are for hunting; it says they are for militia. Now whether that militia means for use in defense of the nation, or for resistance against tyranny, is its own debate. But the gun-supporter’s argument wasn’t entirely unsound, nor was it stupid. One can argue that the 2nd Amendment was a bad idea. But the interpretation that the 2nd amendment is for resistance against tyrannical government is not unreasonable. ---
**Author:** ![x-ray\_vision](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/x-ray_vision/32/351_2.png) [@x-ray\_vision](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/x-ray_vision)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2018, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pure-unadulterated-stupid/811030/33 "2018-03-23T16:33:40Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > But the interpretation that the 2nd amendment is for resistance against tyrannical government is not unreasonable. There are some ways I can interpret that sentence and agree with it, and other ways I can interpret it in which I won’t agree. However, this is what Chefguy said: > [@](#): > > A lunkhead on the news last night, re the grass roots attempt in Oregon to ban the sale of military style weapons and registration of same: “The 2nd amendment doesn’t say that these guns are for hunting; they’re in case the government needs to be overthrown because. . .stuff.” :smack: I agree that the statement shows some lunkheadedness. ---
**Author:** ![txjim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f07891/32.png) [@txjim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/txjim)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2018, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pure-unadulterated-stupid/811030/34 "2018-03-23T16:36:44Z")
> [@snfaulkner](#): > > [Here](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=20861059&postcount=27) is some grade A stupid, right here amongst us. That was some mighty fine cypherin’ in that post! ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2018, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pure-unadulterated-stupid/811030/35 "2018-03-23T17:15:21Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > But the interpretation that the 2nd amendment is for resistance against tyrannical government is not unreasonable. It’s also utterly unsupported by the text, given that nowhere does the Constitution mention a right to revolution and that the Founding Fathers themselves rather denounced that right during the Whisky Rebellion. The notion that the “militia” contemplated by the Second Amendment must be an organized paramilitary force is better-supported, given that the text itself describes said militia as “well-regulated”, but I suppose that text has been interpreted into a nullity. If you don’t see the “well-regulated”, it can’t eat you. If you don’t see the “well-regulated”, it can’t eat you. If you don’t see the “well-regulated”, it can’t eat you. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2018, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pure-unadulterated-stupid/811030/36 "2018-03-23T17:38:06Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > This isn’t a dumb theory, though. Some of the traits of OCD - such as being overzealously cautious around anything that could be a threat - would be useful for survival in a brutal world. Traits such as being extra-careful not to eat any plant one is not familiar with, to make sure water is drink-able, to avoid giving away one’s presence to potential enemies, to always err on the side of caution. I agree it isn’t dumb. Didn’t mean to imply that. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2018, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pure-unadulterated-stupid/811030/37 "2018-03-23T18:12:01Z")
It’s those damn commas and lack of conjunctions that confuse the issue: > [@](#): > > A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. It is poorly written and too ambiguous to make sense. If they had put an “and” between “free State,” and "“the right”. It would be perfectly clear that neither a well regulated militia NOR the people’s right to bear arms should be infringed. If they had put the whole phrase “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms” first, then added “as part of” before “a well regulated Militia”, then it would be clear that the right to arms was dependent on being in a well regulated Militia. Heck, if the first word were “For” it would be clearer. I tend toward the first - there should have been an “and” - view, primarily because guns were a necessary tool for everyday citizens. The FF, I believe, did not foresee a situation where it would be good for the government to take them away or make the process to obtain one overly onerous. That, to me, makes more sense than simply establishing a militia - at least as written. I’m honestly surprised that there are no “here’s what we were thinking” accounts written any any of the FF involved. ---
**Author:** ![Kelevra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/97f17d/32.png) [@Kelevra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kelevra)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2018, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pure-unadulterated-stupid/811030/38 "2018-03-23T19:34:29Z")
I believe I have reported this conversation before, but it never gets old (to me, anyway). Dumbass: Hey Kelevra, you’re a scentist. So tell me, which is bigger, a kilogram or a kilometer? Kelevra: Uhmm, those are different things. One is mass, the other is distance. DA: Yea, but one of them has to be bigger. K: OK, tell me this. Which is bigger, a pound or a mile? DA: A mile obviously. K: Well there you are, a kilometer is bigger than a kilogram! ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2018, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pure-unadulterated-stupid/811030/39 "2018-03-23T23:45:02Z")
This isn’t stupid, but just odd (and something I posted about before): A little over a decade ago, I knew a Chinese man who was posting on an Internet message board, and exulting over the fact that China was making significant progress in producing its own stealth jet fighters. Now, given that he was a military enthusiast, this was nothing surprising, until he explained his thought process further: He felt that Western women would now be more interested in dating Chinese men, because surely such women were following global aerospace and military developments of this sort, and now that China was making its own stealth fighters, they would be more attracted to Chinese men as a result. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2018, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pure-unadulterated-stupid/811030/40 "2018-03-24T00:58:23Z")
> [@Inigo\_Montoya](#): > > …Corn muffins… This? Is completely awesome. My hat is off. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pure-unadulterated-stupid/811030.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pure-unadulterated-stupid/811030.md?page=3)