# Society for stupid people. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 4, 2004, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/society-for-stupid-people/238212 "2004-04-04T18:47:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![county](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce7236/32.png) [@county](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/county)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2004, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/society-for-stupid-people/238212/41 "2004-04-05T12:47:53Z")
> [@AngelicGemma](#): > > If we got rid of dumbing down of instructions you just _know_ that some idiot will stick their hand in the blender and try and sue the company for it. > > “But it didn’t tell me _not_ to stick my hand into the moving blades!” I prefer the theory that those people will actually kill themselves off. ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2004, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/society-for-stupid-people/238212/42 "2004-04-05T13:05:48Z")
> [@netscape 6](#): > > stuff costing “4 easy payments of 39.95”. Thats just 20 cents short of hundred and tweenty dollars. Does’nt seem so easy now, does it bucko? Nope, $159.80. I guess it really isn’t that easy. ---
**Author:** ![UselessGit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/74df32/32.png) [@UselessGit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UselessGit)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2004, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/society-for-stupid-people/238212/43 "2004-04-05T14:28:18Z")
> [@htns](#): > > Stupid lawsuits. So ya got injured after you got way too drunk and pissed on a light socket? Too damn bad - YOU are at fault. Don’t try to hold General Electric and Coors Brewing collusively responsible for your stupidity. > > Credit cards. Tell me why these can’t be replaced with debit cards tied to your checking account? You run out of money, card gets rejected, no debt incurred. > > 2WD SUVs. The SUV was designed for a reason - and that reason is NOT “taking little Tyler to kindergarten” or “picking up Dakota and Destiny from their wind lesson”. If you don’t go offroad, you do NOT need an SUV. It’s the fucking yuppie scum responsible for the 2WD SUV. Come to think of it, those things ain’t SUVs. They’re minivans. > > The Atkins diet craze. I swear, if I hear one more damn thing about carbs… > > The QWERTY keyboard. Why are you still stuck with a 120 year old hack that has since outlived its usefulness? [Try a Dvorak instead.](http://qwerty.su.cx) I have decided to read up on that Dvorak thing, just because I agree _so_ wholeheartedly with the rest of your post. I would just like to mrntion _Extreme Makeover_, or whatever it’s called in your country. Sick, sick, sick, sick sick. _“You’re too fat, and you’re not pretty enough. Buy plastic surgery. It’s safe, you know? It will make you feel better about yourself and others will love you unconditionally. Buy plastic surgery… you know you want to…”_ You can’t imagine my joy when the Icelandic Surgeon General Thingamajoe stopped the Icelandic version of this …mess being produced. Did I mention that it’s sick? Sick, sick, sick… ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2004, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/society-for-stupid-people/238212/44 "2004-04-05T15:43:13Z")
“But hurry! This offer is good only for the next ten minutes!” Televangelists. Most local car dealer commercials. “Factory blowout sale! All the oh-fours must go! All credit applications will be accepted!” Products displaying American flags on the packaging, with text below reading “Proudly _distributed_ in the United States.” Enzyte. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2004, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/society-for-stupid-people/238212/45 "2004-04-05T15:43:14Z")
> [@Miss Gretchen](#): > > Pre-shredded cheese in a bag. Why is this any worse than, say, pre-sliced bread in a bag? I’m surprised nobody’s mentioned bottled water yet. ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2004, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/society-for-stupid-people/238212/46 "2004-04-05T16:02:32Z")
> [@Thudlow Boink](#): > > Why is this any worse than, say, pre-sliced bread in a bag? > > I’m surprised nobody’s mentioned bottled water yet. My beef with preshredded cheese is the stuff is dusted with anticaking agents to keep the little shredded bits from sticking to each other - making for a different texture, (more rubbery, IMHO) and poorer melting ability. ---
**Author:** ![overlyverbose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9dc877/32.png) [@overlyverbose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/overlyverbose)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2004, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/society-for-stupid-people/238212/47 "2004-04-05T16:08:48Z")
Britney Spears CNN’s Web site & those stupid news titles in their scroll bar. I almost fell off the treadmill a few months ago when a news program on CNN was interrupted to announce: “Prince Charles denies allegations…Allegations undisclosed.” ---
**Author:** ![htns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ba8739/32.png) [@htns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/htns)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2004, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/society-for-stupid-people/238212/48 "2004-04-05T17:21:20Z")
> [@Nutty Bunny](#): > > If my piece of shit Toyota can take that fucking sinkhole by the Price Chopper, then your fragile, widdle–I’m sorry–_gigantic truck_ can take a fucking manhole cover!! GAH!!! :mad: Amen! My '99 Accord can run through that massive pothole over by the Catholic Church in my town, why can’t someone in his brand new Smallpenis Excursion do the same? Granted, I do have to slow down, but I can do it. ---
**Author:** ![NailBunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecae2f/32.png) [@NailBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NailBunny)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2004, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/society-for-stupid-people/238212/49 "2004-04-05T18:06:34Z")
Personalized license plates. I really don’t care if you think GIRLSRL, it’s just stupid, and 9 out of ten times you can’t even tell what it’s supposed to be. Every kitchen accesory ever designed to help people who, if they can’t do this stuff on their own, probably shouldn’t be in the kitchen anyway. Examples include the perfect pancake maker, the electric vegetable peeler (christ almighty, that one bugs me. YOU’RE STILL DOING THE SAME THING YOU’D DO WITH A NORMAL PEELER, only it’s vibrating! What’s the point, man???), the egg peeler, and the pasta pot/colander. Cell phones. Yes, I appreciate their usefulness in an emergency situation, but are you really such a fucking rock star that people need to be able to reach you at EVERY MINUTE OF THE DAY? Especially when 90% of every cell phone conversation I’ve ever overheard consisted of: “I’m at the movies! No, I said I’m at the movies! THE MOVIES! Just a sec, I’m going to call you back on the payphone.” :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2004, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/society-for-stupid-people/238212/50 "2004-04-05T18:35:11Z")
> [@NailBunny](#): > > Personalized license plates. I really don’t care if you think GIRLSRL, it’s just stupid, and 9 out of ten times you can’t even tell what it’s supposed to be. This one gets worse in California, where we now have [rebus](http://www.dmv.ca.gov/forms/reg/reg17.pdf) license plates. People use the little heart to stand either for ‘A-R-T’, or in various “I Heart Whatever” constructs. The little hand, of which I’ve seen only two, stands for H-A-N-D or A-N-D. I posted earlier about the "R(hand)IS MOM (“Randy’s Mom”). ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Gretchen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Miss\_Gretchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Gretchen)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2004, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/society-for-stupid-people/238212/51 "2004-04-05T18:59:53Z")
OK,OK, As for my cheese-beef! 1. The cheese (mostly parmesean, i’ve noticed) seems to lose its flavour after sitting all shredded in a bag for a while 2. It may be different at supermarkets in your area, but the unit costs on that stuff tend to be at least twice the cost of a plain ol’ hunk o’ cheese. 3. I wasn’t aware of the anticaking stuff mentionned above, but now that I think of it that may have something to do with the “off” flavour I associate w/ pre shredded cheese. So in short: inflated price, inferior product. (Although I’ll admit it would be faster than grating a small taco-ish amount 😉 ) ---
**Author:** ![OneYogini](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/b9e5f3/32.png) [@OneYogini](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneYogini)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2004, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/society-for-stupid-people/238212/52 "2004-04-05T19:10:18Z")
> [@UselessGit](#): > > I would just like to mrntion _Extreme Makeover_, or whatever it’s called in your country. Sick, sick, sick, sick sick. _“You’re too fat, and you’re not pretty enough. Buy plastic surgery. It’s safe, you know? It will make you feel better about yourself and others will love you unconditionally. Buy plastic surgery… you know you want to…”_ You can’t imagine my joy when the Icelandic Surgeon General Thingamajoe stopped the Icelandic version of this …mess being produced. Did I mention that it’s sick? Sick, sick, sick… I can’t agree more!! There’s another sick show on MTV now involving plastic surgery on, IMHO, very young people called “I want a famous face”. Girls and guys in their early to mid-20’s are wanting to be made-over surgically to look like Britney Spears, Brad Bitt, Kate Winslett, Pam Anderson, etc. It’s very sad really. And now they’re doing an “Extreme Makeover” show with a group of “ugly ducklings” and after their collective surgeries, they’re going to have them all compete in a beauty contest to see which one of the group turned out to be the hottest, I suppose. Can’t remember what the show will be called (don’t care). :rolleyes: And I can’t stand vanity plates either! ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2004, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/society-for-stupid-people/238212/53 "2004-04-05T19:25:33Z")
Disposable face cloths from Oil of Olay or whoever. Cause using a regular face cloth and then washing it is just so haa-aard. I second the bottled water. The water in Calgary is among the best I have ever drunk\*, and there are hundreds of thousands of ninnies with more money than brains that buy bottled water by the gallons here. I’ll give you a couple of people with fluoride allergies who can’t drink tap water, but the rest of them are just poseurs who fall all over themselves trying to hop on any bandwagon that rolls by. Doing just a little research over this issue informs me that bottled water is actually held to a _lower_ standard than tap water. \*The water here comes from the Bow River which originates at the Bow Glacier in the Rocky Mountains, which are less than an hour away. Yes, that’s right, we have glacier water flowing from our taps here. One of my other peeves is designer coffees. I’m sure all the fancy coffees that are now available are absolutely scrumptious, but I am still having a very hard time paying $3-4 for a cup of coffee. Actually, I’m not having a hard time at all, since I never buy them, but I’m having a hard time justifying that whole industry. Yet another of my peeves is those cds with only a couple of songs on them (and often just different versions of the same damned song) for nearly the price of the whole cd. I just find these things completely useless. ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2004, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/society-for-stupid-people/238212/54 "2004-04-05T19:36:54Z")
> [@county](#): > > And, the dumbing up of instructions “Do not put your hand in the moving parts” or “blades” I was stopped at a red light behind a landscaping truck towing some sort of machinery - a tree mulcher, I think. It had a big intake place and you could see the blades inside, and of course it had the requisite pictures: a hand and foot in circles with slashes, and said “Do Not Put Hands In Machinery When Blade Is Moving.” It had other pictures on the outside part with the hand with fingers cut off and blood dripping from it, and the foot with the front part cut off and blood dripping from it. My 15-year-old daughter looked at it and asked why they had those gruesome pictures, and I explained it was so whoever was operating the machine would know not to put their hands and feet inside the machine, and she commented, “Well, if they’re smart enough to get the job and use that machine, shouldn’t they know enough not to put their hands and feet inside where the blades are?” Yes, sweetie, you would think so… On the shredded cheese issue: I do buy shredded cheese, (I hate shredding it myself, and I use it in salads and make nachos a lot) but what bugs me are the pre-cooked hard-boiled eggs. Six for $1.29. You can buy a dozen raw eggs for less than a dollar and cook them yourself. Is it really that much trouble to make hard-boiled eggs? ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2004, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/society-for-stupid-people/238212/55 "2004-04-05T20:02:57Z")
> [@NailBunny](#): > > Cell phones. Yes, I appreciate their usefulness in an emergency situation, but are you really such a fucking rock star that people need to be able to reach you at EVERY MINUTE OF THE DAY? Especially when 90% of every cell phone conversation I’ve ever overheard consisted of: “I’m at the movies! No, I said I’m at the movies! THE MOVIES! Just a sec, I’m going to call you back on the payphone.” :rolleyes: No, cell phones are useful! If I’m out shoppping and I see something that my boyfriend mught want, I can call him and ask. If he decides to go out for dinner, he can call me and consult on a meeting place. If I’m out to meet a friend, he can call me and let me know that he’s stuck in traffic. And shredded cheese does seem at first glance to be a waste of money, but for those of us who cook our own breakfasts, it beats having to waste time to hunt down a grater and grate cheese onto scrambled eggs. Anything that saves me time in the morning is a good thing. I nominate smoothie makers as a stupid product for stupid people. My sister-in-law gave us one and it’s a big, bulky, malfunctioning piece of junk that I’m sure costs more and does less than a freakin’ blender! And **Una Persson** beat me to the math correction. ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2004, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/society-for-stupid-people/238212/56 "2004-04-05T20:13:50Z")
> [@gobear](#): > > I nominate smoothie makers as a stupid product for stupid people. My sister-in-law gave us one and it’s a big, bulky, malfunctioning piece of junk that I’m sure costs more and does less than a freakin’ blender! I don’t know what a smoothie maker is (how is it different from a blender?), but I have a stick blender that’s great for making smoothies. You make them right in the cup. I think it was about $15 and is easier than using (and cleaning) the regular blender all the time. I have a really small kitchen and can’t keep my blender out on the counter. ---
**Author:** ![Winnie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e480ec/32.png) [@Winnie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winnie)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2004, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/society-for-stupid-people/238212/57 "2004-04-05T20:15:47Z")
> [@featherlou](#): > > Disposable face cloths from Oil of Olay or whoever. Cause using a regular face cloth and then washing it is just so haa-aard. Actually these are very useful to me. When I go to the gym and don’t want my makeup sweating off in dirty pools down my face, using one of these is nice and tidy, and I don’t have a funky wet washcloth smelling up my locker. I second the vote for the smoothie maker. How is this different from a blender? ---
**Author:** ![dnooman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/839c29/32.png) [@dnooman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dnooman)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2004, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/society-for-stupid-people/238212/58 "2004-04-05T20:34:06Z")
> [@gobear](#): > > No, cell phones are useful! If I’m out shoppping and I see something that my boyfriend mught want, I can call him and ask. If he decides to go out for dinner, he can call me and consult on a meeting place. If I’m out to meet a friend, he can call me and let me know that he’s stuck in traffic. Please don’t say that you’re one of those people that read off **every fucking movie title** to their SO at the video store! That’s a whole new pit thread in and of itself. That annoying shit is part of the reason I do Netflix now. And you don’t know what rage is until you’re behind some dumb bitch at subway asking her sweetie what he wants on his sub **one fucking ingredient at a time !** These people need to learn some cell phone manners. Or, have their phones rectally implanted by whomever they’re enraging the most. ---
**Author:** ![agiantdwarf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8c91f0/32.png) [@agiantdwarf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/agiantdwarf)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2004, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/society-for-stupid-people/238212/59 "2004-04-05T20:36:06Z")
> [@netscape 6](#): > > stuff costing “4 easy payments of 39.95”. Thats just 20 cents short of hundred and tweenty dollars. Does’nt seem so easy now, does it bucko? Pricing stuff that ends in 99 or 95 cents so some people will round down and underestimate the price. ---
**Author:** ![NailBunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecae2f/32.png) [@NailBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NailBunny)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2004, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/society-for-stupid-people/238212/60 "2004-04-05T20:36:49Z")
> [@gobear](#): > > No, cell phones are useful! If I’m out shoppping and I see something that my boyfriend mught want, I can call him and ask. If he decides to go out for dinner, he can call me and consult on a meeting place. If I’m out to meet a friend, he can call me and let me know that he’s stuck in traffic. See, all things that didn’t occur to me because I have NEVER ONCE heard someone have a useful conversation like the above. Okay, in my world, you’re allowed to have a cell phone, but you can only use it, say…three times a day for under five minutes at a time. Any real business should be able to be handled in that time frame, and you can save your allotted phone calls for a good reason rather than having the boring, obnoxious, this-could-totally-wait-until-later-but-I’d-rather-have-this-conversation-now-and-annoy-everyone-around-me calls. Sound good? 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/society-for-stupid-people/238212.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/society-for-stupid-people/238212.md?page=4)