I get a lot of pushback when I call MAGA people “stupid”. If they aren’t “stupid”, then what is “stupid” to you?
My landlord and landlady are Trump supporters and fundamentalist Christians who are offended by alternative lifestyles, but I certainly wouldn’t call them stupid. I’d prefer to call them ignorant.
I think a lot of people interpret “stupid” as meaning overall poor cognitive functioning or low ability to process any kind of information.
While I’m sure that applies to some Trump supporters, ISTM that a lot of them have embraced specific stupid positions or arguments about politics while still being reasonably intelligent and well-informed about other subjects.
Trumpist-conservative conspiracy-theorist anti-fact anti-science delusionism is a stupid cult, to be sure. Its supporters are advocating stupid claims on the basis of stupid reasoning and often committing many stupid acts in the process. But that doesn’t necessarily make them “stupid people” across the board.
(Which to my way of thinking just increases their culpability in choosing to align with Trumpist delusionism, because they have the ability to see through it if they chose to use that ability.)
Well, the two aren’t mutually exclusive. What would you say “stupid” is?
Do stupid people exist?
“Stupid” is someone utterly lacking in intelligence. Or someone who constantly makes bad decisions and sabotages their own life.
Sounds like that’s describing people who are… somewhat slower. I don’t consider people like that as being stupid. I think “stupid” CAN include the, “you SHOULD know better,” types of people.
I’m not dismissing what you’re saying… just coukd use some clarity.
You mean, actually cognitively impaired or disabled in a clinical sense? That’s not quite what I meant.
I’m no cognitive psychologist, but my layperson’s impression is that there are some people who would be considered “normal” in terms of cognitive function but who just don’t particularly like thinking clearly and aren’t particularly good at it. Not just when it concerns a specific religious or ideological cult that they’re emotionally attached to, but under all circumstances.
I think you are attempting a far more precise parsing than is practical IRL. Also, you need to distinguish between people who ARE stupid, and people who do and believe stupid things.
So, you might think a Trumper is not stupid because he/she has an advanced degree. But I posit that a belief in Trump is all manner of negative - including stupidity.
Or a college student dives into shallow water and paralyzes themself. I don’t care how booksmart they are, they did something stupid.
So then, at what point is a single stupid act or combination of acts stupid enough to warrant applying the term to the person themself? As the joke goes, “But you fuck ONE goat…”
I don’t know if I meant developmentally disabled. I’m talking people who are slower at, say math… but understand how to investigate to find the answer they’re looking for. It just takes time. I don’t see that as “stupid”. I mean, even if I wanted to be mean… I would substitute “stupid” with “slow”.
Maybe I’m wrong on the meaning.
I agree, people who just don’t mentally process quite as fast as others but are still capable of, and interested in, doing the processing are not “stupid people”.
I actually think I understand now.
I would describe Trump supporters as ‘deluded’ or (generously) ‘captivated’.
It also occurred to me that when Liz Cheney was defeated recently, it could have been done by a ventriloquist’s dummy endlessly repeating “I support Trump! He was robbed!”
(Shame on the Republican voters in Wyoming.)
Taking a test is as energy exhausting as running a race and, for most things in life, you simply don’t need creative thinking, research, or any other mental exercise to go about things.
The desire to do things in a smart way is similar to having the desire to go out and run marathons as a hobby. If you’re in a particular clique then, maybe, you’ll be pulled into running despite not having any strong personal interest. But, outside of that sort of situation, you’re generally not going to get into a tiring and boring hobby unless you have a natural proclivity for running.
And then, among those who do take up marathon running, some are going to find it easier than others. Some will have a body shape that’s ideally suited and their body will adapt to the strain quickly.
Anyone can run and anyone can become better at running. The desire to become a runner and innate skill at running are both fairly key, though, to becoming what one might call “a master runner”.
Likewise, anyone could learn to go through the steps of research, founding opinions on evidence, etc. but most aren’t inclined to do that on their own and most won’t be innately gifted at it. I’d call the latter - the ability to ramp up on mental tasks quickly and easily - “smart” but a smart person could still be mentally lazy just like a person who has the genetics to easily put on muscle might still be physically lazy. Most people are neither and just like it would be fair to call someone who can barely exert themselves beyond a walk “weak”, it’s fair to call someone who can do little more mentally strenuous than watch reality TV and perform repetitive factory work “stupid”.
There is certainly an important distinction between “stupid” and “ignorant”, but I believe that it only applies to fairly specific domains of knowledge. An intelligent person may, for instance, be uninterested in a particular scientific discipline and, by dint of being exposed to bad information, form really wrong opinions about it.
But that’s not a defense of broadly-based positions like blindly supporting Trump and believing everything he says without evidence. That requires either willful ignorance or actual cognitive dysfunction in being unable to recognize untrustworthy sources spewing disinformation, and soaking it all in as indisputable fact. That’s just abject stupidity and I doubt that there’s any cure for it. These people always have been, and always will be, vulnerable to scams and to the con men who perpetrate them.
There are all kinds of definitions and it’s easy to conflate them even though they really are not that similar.
There are people who make the same kinds of bad decisions over and over. It doesn’t seem to have any correlation with measured IQ. Some of the very brightest people I know are like this.
There are people who are ‘slow’. Often they are slow at some things but not others. Reading but not math, or vice versa.
There are people who are not just temporarily ignorant but basically incurious. That they believe things that aren’t true doesn’t bother them even if it is pointed out. They get angry if someone tries to get them to understand or learn something. I don’t know if they’re stupid but they sure the hell are irritating.
I think it is inaccurate to call people like Trumpers “ignorant”, rather than stupid - or perhaps worse - motivated by any number of prejudices and unpleasant motivations.
To me, ignorant somehow implies unaware of information that is not generally available to anyone who makes a minimum effort to find out. I agree with wolfpup as to “willful ignorance” - at an extreme, the person who claps their hands over their ears and shouts “LALALALALA” instead of hearing something they don’t want to. Clearly that is different from - say - some unschooled poor person in a slum, who doesn’t know specifics about Asian culture or planetary movements or economic theory. THAT person - IMO - is well described as ignorant.
But what about someone who is aware of a diverse range of information, but they CHOOSE to accept the position which is poorly supported by anything reasonable or reliable. And which appears to be used on bias, or the self interest of those who advocate such position?
IRRATIONAL might be a term to use. But me, I’m good with stupid. IMO, it is better than many terms I suspect apply.
Finally, so many people misuse ignorant as a pejorative. I probably use the word do describe myself more frequently than anyone else I know. I am very happy to express my ignorance on any number of topics. Doesn’t stop me from having opinions on them, tho… 
Just to clear everything up, have we mentioned religion yet? 
Stupid is as stupid does.
Is there a term for “deliberately ignorant”?
Willful ignorance is defined thus: A decision in bad faith to avoid becoming informed about something so as to avoid having to make undesirable decisions that such information might prompt.
It’s also sometimes called is sometimes called ignorance of law, willful blindness, contrived ignorance, Conscious avoidance, intentional ignorance or Nelsonian knowledge.
Nelsonian knowledge, interestingly enough is named after Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson, and is described as ‘blind-eye knowledge’. Nelson once supposedly held a telescope to his blind eye and claimed to see no ships.