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© Copyright 1999, Jim Loy
In my essay on Suicide, I said that I thought committing suicide was "stupid." A person who was contemplating suicide wrote to me and objected that I was calling people like him "stupid." Of course, he was misreading what I said. I pointed out that doing something stupid does not make the person stupid. I think everyone does stupid things. He thought that the word "stupid" was still too harsh. I disagree. At least suicide is often "illogical" in the way it often relates to a person's mood more than it does to reality.
But this article is about my personal use of the word "stupid." I am careless with language, even though I try to be careful. I call myself "stupid" when I do a stupid thing. I recently set aside an ankle wrap to use for tennis, as I had pulled a muscle in my leg. When it was time for tennis, I could not find the ankle wrap. And I was very harsh on myself for being stupid, "a complete and utter moron" in fact. The ankle wrap is still missing. I can be similarly cruel to other motorists, when my windows are closed. But, I really mean that other people and I do stupid things, not that we are any more stupid than other people.
Other people seem to associate stupidity with low intelligence. If I say you did something stupid, they think that I am criticizing your intelligence, or maybe your education. I don't think that makes sense. I think Einstein probably did stupid things. In fact when he forgot something or tripped over his own feet, it was more obvious, because he was so brilliant.
We expect "stupidity" from people with low IQ. I recently had to get out of the way of a mentally handicapped person in a wheel chair. She said "Sorry, but I'm worth it." That is not original. But she believed what she said, and so do I. She was, at that moment, very wise, wiser than other people.
My pseudoscience (astrology, UFOs...) pages begin with this: "The Idiot's Guide to Stupidity?" It is just a joke to show, right away, before you read the articles, what I think of some people's beliefs. It is no use reading the articles, if they are going to cause you distress. Hey, these may be bright people. But they have some stupid ideas, in my opinion. Sorry I am so harsh about it. That harshness is probably just an example of my own stupidity. OK?
Addendum:
I just saw this on a car windshield sunshade:
NEED HELP
CALL POLICE
The car had been parked there for a couple of days, so I didn't call police. I confess I didn't call police, two days ago either. Isn't it great that they put that message on sunshades? Imagine this: A couple drives by, "Look Honey, we'd better call police. Sorry, false alarm, it was just a stupid person who put his/her sunshade up backward." I don't know if the public's IQ is dropping, but there seems to be a lot of supidity out there. Also on the same sunshade was this: "Warning: Do not drive with sunshade in place. Remove sunshade before inserting key in ignition." Evidence of stupidity is running rampant on that car. Would someone ever drive with sunshade in place? Probably. Will the warning stop them? Probably not. The warning is there to protect the sunshade company from stupid lawsuits which waste their time and money. And they might even lose one of these lawsuits, because there is nothing to prevent a jury from being stupid too. All of these people may be relatively intelligent, but they are also stupid. Do you see why I use the word "stupid?"