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SubscribeQuote of the Month Collection
Current:
"I've had at least 3 conversations with co-workers since Monday about Richard Jewell, all of which contained the phrase 'you mean he wasn't the one who did it?'" ~ Mike B.
Previous:
"If you seek to silence me through abusive suit in England, no judgment you secure will be enforceable here. If you seek to harass me in the United States, our vigorous protections for free speech will thwart you." ~ Ken ad Britanniam.
"They mostly legislate at night. … Mostly." ~Popehat on Facebook.
"I've made many judges laugh because I am a snarky asshole. The most recent time was during an appellate argument when I blew a second-grade math problem (converting my client's sentence from months to years) and snapped 'that's why I had to go to law school.'" ~Ken.
"Some behavior does not merely show bad character. It displays a level of stupidity so alarming as to render the bad character secondary. It raises a serious question as to whether emergency personnel should be rushed to the scene to equip the subject with a ventilator in case he forgets to breathe." ~Ken.
"There are stupid lawyers, there are bullshit artist lawyers, and there are crazy lawyers, but even crazy stupid bullshit artist lawyers sound different than non-lawyers, as a result of being dehumanized by legal education and the practice of law." ~Ken.
I agree about bad character being a problem, but I'm puzzled by your vehemence toward stupidity. People don’t get to choose how smart they are. There’s a continuum between profoundly retarded and pure genius. It’s just not right to pick on someone for their stupidity.
It may be better described as a lack of wisdom, rather than stupidity. We use "stupid" in all sorts of contexts where we're not referring to someone's intelligence at all but rather their common sense or knowledge. There can be an aspect of stupidity to BEHAVIOR or IDEAS without the person displaying or believing in them necessarily being an unintelligent person. I think that's what Ken is referring to.
If you examine the inmates in a prison you will realize there are profoundly stupid people without morals. Honest persons with a commitment to doing good will find a welcome spot in the world regardless of their intelligence. Intelligent sociopaths learn to function following the rules because they win more marbles and keep them that way. But stupid evil persons must be watched until they die.
Bill,
I think a distinction should be made between the honestly stupid, and those who have gone through life being passed because of their connections (race, family, ability to parrot political correct patter, etc.), and who masquerade as viable autonomous individuals.
The developmentally challenged who find work as shopping cart herders or bag boys are often charming and useful members of society. The developmentally challenged who have managed somehow to pass the Bar are gumming up a system that is prone to blockages anyway. They need to be remanded to appropriate keepers.
I believe the kind of stupidity referred to here is the kind that prompts parents to ask teenagers the rhetorical questions:
"What were you thinking? Were you even thinking?"
Regarding behavior that we're accustomed to calling simply "stupid," I like to make a distinction between people who have an intellectual disability of some sort that is entirely beyond their control, on the one hand, and those who are willfully ignorant by their own choice and remain so by their own choice. People who are more than intelligent enough to possess the capacity for developing common sense, wisdom, and knowledge about important events and issues that affect them and those they care about, but who instead choose to fill their heads almost entirely with inanities and the laziest possible thinking, I loathe.
If there were a deadly virus that would affect only the latter group, and I had access to it? Well, solving the overpopulation issue would be a lovely side-benefit.