General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Yes, We DO Think You ARE Stupid [View all]vlyons
(10,252 posts)When we call RWers "stupid," what they hear is that they are being accused of having a low IQ. That is not the case. Rather "stupidity" in the Buddhist sense is when someone holds onto mental delusions that are clearly false, illogical, close-minded, and just bloody wrong and unbased on evidence. So one can have a very high IQ and still be stupid in regard to holding on to certain beliefs.
My example to illustrate this is one time my chickens got outside the hen house. To lure them back in, I scattered some cracked corn on the ground INSIDE the hen house. The smart ones ran around and came back in thru the door. But one really stupid one kept sticking her head thru the 2 inch chicken wire, but obviously couldn't get her body thru to reach the corn. Stupidity in that sense is a close-minded adherence to beliefs that are contradicted by evidence. For example, the belief that trickle-down economics tax breaks creates jobs has no evidence that it is so. Or belief in a creator god that can perform magic tricks that are contrary to the laws of physics. Or belief that climate change and evolution are hoaxes. And on and on and on with so many stupid beliefs unsupported by evidence.
So when we tell RWers that their belief in such and such is stupid, we have to make clear that what we mean is that the belief is not based on evidence - not that they have a low IQ. (Although they may have a low IQ.)