The stupid people are winning. They are winning because of a lot of reasons, but the biggest one is that they are louder and do not seem to care (or know) they are stupid and should be quiet. This is happening all over what I call reality–from the classroom to the boardroom to the White House and every step in between. For example, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green tweeted recently about the average ages of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. She went on to list the ages of eight people she claimed to be signees. Only two were. Her awareness of basic history is abysmal, but to make matters worse after being repeatedly checked she refuses to take the post down. Remember folks, alternative facts became a thing less than a decade ago and it seems to have taken hold.
Stupid is painful and everywhere. I have students who ask me stupid questions all the time. Yes, I know there should be no stupid questions in learning, but if you read the instructions and then ask me a question that was specific bolded and answered in a form that you could not miss that this is the answer to your potential question… stupid.
I guess it is not only okay to be stupid anymore but it is okay to feel good about being stupid because the filter bubble allows you to reshape your reality to the point where you are never wrong and never need to learn anything, because Google tells all, and if it isn’t easily accessible there then what is even the point of knowing it? I mean, like how does it really effect my life?
I worry for my future grandchildren. I fear we have one good generation left in us and then that’s the game right there. No, AI isn’t going to kill us. This is more of a Wall-E situation. We may not all grow fat, but the lazy is certainly going to win out. More than anything, being stupid is about being lazy. It is about not reaching and instead yelling, like the commercial of the fat kid yelling to his grandma for a grape soda…