i still having a hard time accepting that there are that many voting americans that stupid. of course i see it as a possibility I'm simply denying, but i also see the magat type as an individual who can grasp the reality of it, and talk magat trash until they get in the voting booth and vote no on the chump. its important for enough of these folks to belong to a crowd, family and friends, to misrepresent thier feelings for the sake of inclusion. For enough of them, i hope, to belong, its better not to stand out amongst the fervently dipshitted. i also wonder about how significant who it is that runs on the opposing ticket. i sense this election is largely a referendum on the chump. a simple yes or NO. America or something else.

@hankster I live in Missouri and I've had to accept that there are just that many stupid people. I am not crazy about Biden, but I will vote for him if he gets the nomination.

and I'd reckon anyone else before the chump? i would agree there never seems to be a shortage on stupidity. i contribute my share, always have, but the magats are a group including numbers defined by the crowd around them on the outside who privately arent charmed or fooled by the chump any longer on the inside yet keep their mouth shut to preserve a personal peace with their people. maybe thats just wishful thinking, but I'm going with it for now. his rally crowds have withered it seems.

@hankster ANYONE else except the chump!

There is stupidity and there is ignorance--two separate aspects. I am ignorant of the complexities of rocket science, but I am not stupid. I know my limits, though, and am not willing to tackle learning rocket science. There are about nine types of intelligence and mine is limited in math.

Sometimes, I say or do stupid things. When I do, I slap my forehead and exclaim (aloud or silently) "What the heck was I thinking?"

When ignorance and stupidity mix and the stupid think that they are smart, it is a bad mix.

@Gwen_Wanderer its the stupidity i am ignorant of that concerns me most.

@hankster is stupidity in others or your own "stupidity"? I cannot conceive of you being stupid--just ignorant.

@Gwen_Wanderer i appreciate that but ive done some stupid stuff. had a lot of fun doing some of it. some not so much - married once.
sometimes i suppose ignorance can lead to stupidy given the appropriate incentives and conditions, even knowing can be overcome by overconfidence and desires. stupidity can be a persistent quality. you have likely heard the adage that "stupidity can't be fixed" that may be, however, "if properly maintained a good stupidity can last a lifetime."

@Gwen_Wanderer another thing that i realized a few years back- all of us have brilliance and dimness in us, however there is the matter of consistency to consider.

@hankster ignorance is a state of unknowing. Stupidity can a bit more complicated, i.e. is delusion an aspect of stupidity? When people who have been in an abusive relationship, get out, and then go back to it, is that stupidity or delusion?

Learning from our mistakes denotes intelligence--some lessons are more concrete than others and there are different levels. If I do not know that fire will burn me, I will know after I stick my hand into the flame. Sticking it into the flame again is stupidity.

There are at least nine types of intelligence--social skills and working on cars are types of intelligence. I don't understand advanced algebra, but I don't want or need for various reasons. Some people do not seem to have any of the types of intelligence.

@hankster yes--my example of the fire is about consistency.

@Gwen_Wanderer i would consider returning to an abuser denial, false hope, desperation or some combination thereof. seldom are those situations that simple. in fact, stupid and ignorant can usually only portray some particular aspect of stuff, not the whole. simplicity is handy, but not comprehesive by its very nature. sticking your hand in the flames is something only an experienced burn vicim can do stupidly if they don't want to be burned. it isn't a certain assumption to make they don't. emotion and perception isn't like math where it all adds up and follows rules. can an individual having reasons for doing what seems stupid make an action less stupid or even logical? there is not much pure in black and white thinking. we must take care to use, yet temper what seems.

@hankster I agree on the abuse issue. Sometimes, fear also plays a part.

A person can have an explanation for doing "stupid" things, but nope, it doesn't make the action less stupid or make it logical. On the other hand, when I was a girl, I could get the answers to math problems, but the teachers would tell me it wasn't the "right" way to get them. I was told I MUST use the accepted process. Why? It I got the right answer, why did it matter how I got it? They even said their ways were "easier," but they weren't to me. I still wonder if this is why I developed a dislike for math.

What is logical to one person might not be logical to another even if they get the same result. I will say, though, that there have been times when I was shown how to solve an issue (not math) and the process was easier; likewise, I have shown the same to others.

What REALLY annoys me is when men tell me that I am doing something the wrong way and their way is better and won't leave it alone even though I am adamant about the issue. Women have never done this to me.

This also falls into the category of "mansplaining." In a flea market, a guy once told me how to refinished a cedar chest I was thinking about buying. I asked him if he had ever refinished a piece of furniture (I had refinished quite a few); nope, he hadn't, but dadgummit, he knew how to do so. He was basically telling me that I was either stupid or ignorant--maybe both.

@Gwen_Wanderer fear and love are terrors in these scenarios. i think perhaps your mention of logics flexibilities is is at the center of mis-communicated meanings. another brief thought - characteristics like loving, forgiving, and generosity can park us much closer to peace. not in every moment but for most. I'm seldom huffy, but often kinda grumpily calm. peace.

@hankster I am bemused in situations such as the guy and the cedar chests, but he (like some others) wouldn't let it go. He kept talking to me even when I moved away. THAT is annoying.

@Gwen_Wanderer of course it was. maybe better to not have told him what you were planning. does it make you ignorant, because you didn't know that would be his reaction? sharing is crucial to the human experience, but ive grown careful. i figure what i'm up to just don't make that much difference, especially to some stranger.

@Gwen_Wanderer I have taught mathematics, and I can say that your mathematics teacher was an incompetent wretch. Moreover, he was blind to his own mathematical ignorance.

@anglophone this was over 60 years ago. However, it continued for decades and I was told the same in high school. When I took tests to get into a teaching program, we didn't have work sums, but it was still the status quo. However, when a neighbor of mine took the same tests a few years later, the emphasis had changed to allow for variations.

When I took the GRE to get into an MA program, I only had to score high on the sections on writing/English, but I still had to complete the other sections. One was on logic and the questions ran along the lines of if groggles are googles and all googles are poodles, are groggles poodles? I bombed the logic/math sections. When I retook the test about two years later to apply for a PhD program, the logic section had changed to figuring out the best way to solve a given scenario. I aced the logic section that time.

However, I didn't get into the PhD program because the school said none of their profs understand my MA thesis on Mary Shelley and Virginia Woolf's works and archetypal myth. They told me to check out the areas of expertise of their profs and to reapply. It was no loss as I was still able to reach college/university courses (including grad classes) and I would have been an adjunct just as I am now.