Calling people stupid these days is considered politically incorrect and socially unacceptable, and it raises the hackles of people on both the left and the right—perhaps one of the few areas where the left and right disagree.
At the risk of being the target of brick bats from all sides I have to say that my observations of human behavior currently leads me to the unavoidable conclusion that a large percentage of our population is . . . stupid.
I once wrote a tongue-in-cheek essay, ‘The 20-60-20 Theory of Human Distribution, which was a kind of satirical take on the breakdown of intelligence and usefulness of most populations, with the 20 percents on either end representing the best on the left and the absolute worst on the right—referring to the sides of my distribution curve, not political leanings. The 60 percent in the center, in my view, shifts to one side or the other, with a significant number moving to the lower side, but not quiet moving into the 20 percent who are a threat to the smooth functioning of society. In other words, in that 60 percent are a lot of people an old army buddy of mine once described as ‘too dumb to know that they’re dumb.’
Following are some examples of behavior that I firmly believe supports my position.
Republicans in Congress pushed for defunding the IRS to the point that it doesn’t have the resources to conduct audits of the wealthiest taxpayers—expensive to audit because of the complexity of their returns. The GOP hardliners who insisted on this condition for signing on to the debt limit raising maintained that it would help reduce the budget deficit by the $20 billion multi-year reduction in the IRS budget. According to research done by experts from the Treasury Department and Harvard University, though, this action has the exact opposite effect because while it is more expensive to audit a rich person’s return, the payback for that audit is as much as 12 times the cost of audits of the top 0.1 percent of taxpayers as opposed to merely breaking even on audits of middle income taxpayers. In big numbers, it means that Congress gave up an estimated $240 billion in revenue for a net loss of $220 billion (240 – 20). I’m no CPA, but I know enough math to know that this is stupid.
What about ordinary citizens: how smart are they these days? Ask the US Park Service which recently issued a public appeal for visitors to Yellowstone National Park, “The park calls on visitors to protect wildlife by understanding how their activities can negatively impact wildlife. Approaching wild animals dramatically affect their well-being and, in some cases, their survival.”
What motivated this impassioned plea? There was one incident of a shirtless man harassing a black bear which was posted on Instagram. Very recently, visitors to Yellowstone carried a newborn bison up a river bank. The young animal was then rejected by the herd and had to be euthanized. At Assateague Island National Seashore, located in Virginia and Maryland, officials last year had to relocate one of the wild horses that roam the barrier island to Texas because of a food aggression that had developed because visitors insisted on ignoring the rules and illegally feeding it.
How many animals have to be put down, how many children trampled by buffalo, or adults slashed by bears will it take for people to understand that wild animals are not pets? You can’t ride them or pet them without causing harm for them or yourself. If you aren’t sure, read the rules. They’re posted where only a blind person would miss them.
And still, people ignore and violate these rules. It’s not all stupidity. Sometimes it’s willful action designed to get publicity or ‘likes’ on social media – oh, wait, doing things like that is still stupid.
Sorry. I’m not PC. I call it like I see it. Homo sapiens is not as sapient as we think.