The Basic Laws of Stupidity

Interesting paper. I quibble with his definition of "stupid" and "intelligent" (I think "incompetent" stands well for his definition of "stupid"; "competent" is a better fit for his definition of "intelligent", at least in English, but it doesn't quite capture the "net gain for all"), but once you get past the naming it's a good article.

Love it!

He left out our currents society's bent on producing more bandits and stupids. An enjoyable read with morning coffee.

Wes

The only thing missing are corollaries for people who are clearly not stupid in some areas, but clearly stupid in others.

Dave

On Tue, 12 May 2009 04:01:20 -0400, the infamous Wes scrawled the following:

Ayup. Society is protecting both the stupids and the bandits with thousands of laws (and lawsuits.) Thank liberalism for much of that. They're bandits who (attempt to) get all the votes of the stupids.

-- No matter how cynical you are, it is impossible to keep up. --Lily Tomlin

As opposed to the neo (i.e. fake) conservatives, who are bandits attempting to get the votes of the stupid bandits?

As a libertarian friend of mine said -- there's no question that both sides want to tear pieces out of the Constitution when they get voted in to power. Each side desperately wants parts of the Constitution gone. It's only a question of which pieces they want to tear out.

I'm fairly conservative, I like a Constitution that is static and only changed by amendment, not by judicial interpretation.

I tend to get along with Libertarians since the Constitution is a fairly Libertine document. The blot where we corrected for slavery and womens sufferage, has been corrected.

I think we blew it on that part where we didn't put a limit on income taxes but there is a way to change it that is subject to the peoples will.

How did I do Larry?

wes

On Tue, 12 May 2009 17:55:49 -0400, the infamous Wes scrawled the following:

Great, Wes, except I don't recall income taxes being mentioned in the Constitution. Well, OK, 'cept for that li'l 16th thingy. Yeah, limits would have been a good thing to include there, but folks were more rational back in 1913, I believe.

They believed in usury laws way back then, too. Can you believe the 33%-interest cards that are out nowadays? Bloody 'ell!

-- No matter how cynical you are, it is impossible to keep up. --Lily Tomlin

Whoa, I'm no libertarian, but I can't imagine anything more anti-libertarian than laws regulating interest. Except perhaps in the Islamo-libertarian party.

sounds like a well written constitution!

Civilized parts of the world still have laws regulating abusive interest rates and loan terms :-)

Mark Rand RTFM

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| | | He left out our currents society's bent on producing more bandits and stupids. An | enjoyable read with morning coffee. | | Wes

These should be added to the list.

Stupid people generally just couldn't realize that they are stupid even when someone told them so. Stupidity is a natural trait for many, if not most of human beings, regardless of race or national origin. What may be stupidity in the opinion of smart people is really just a normal way of life for stupid people.

Interesting observations.

They might just think the person that said that about them was stupid. Or, perhaps they're just too stupid to give a damn what someone told them -- though that may actually be a rather intelligent response.

Then stupid is the norm and smart is aberrant? Dang, let's gang up on them smart guys and stomp 'em good!

Well duh! Stupidity is natural for stupid people by definition, regardless of the opinion of smart people or anyone else.