Why are so many people stupid?

We seem to have a massive stupidity problem in the United States.

Many believe and know fellow humans to be stupid, wrong and immoral, in massive numbers, all the time and all over the country, including our own neighborhoods.  It's an epidemic.

In politics and public policy, as an example, many (most.. all?) often believe 50% of people(!) on a given issue are stupid, wrong, bad, immoral, and possibly evil.   

We don’t stop with perceived enemies.  We often think acquaintances, colleagues, friends, family, and neighbors act stupidly.  You probably called someone stupid today, at least inside your head.   

Our frustration and anger is real, and it negatively affects our relationships, our happiness and our ability to achieve our personal and collective goals. 

What is going on?  Why are there so many stupid people? Can we do anything about it?

There are No Stupid Animals.  Only Animals.

I’m a huge fan of wildlife programs.  

The narrators on these nature shows always point out crazy things animals do when trying to mate, eat or survive.  They are often counterintuitive, surprising, raw and to be honest, sometimes brutal. 

Yet no animal species or individual member has ever been sincerely considered stupid, immoral or wrong in their behavior, irrespective of what they do.   When an animal exhibits behavior we do not understand, or haven’t seen, or better, appears odd on its surface, it is noted as an interesting observation worthy of further study.  

A dog that bites a child may be scolded but we all appreciate its unique biology, breeding and experience likely influenced the incident more so than the likelihood that the dog is somehow “bad.”  

There are no stupid animals.  Only animals.  Yet we feel certain there are millions of stupid people.  And we’re all just technically animals.  How could this be?

First, animals are foreign to us in purpose, life and experience.  It is obvious there is much uncertainty and difficulty in understanding who these animals are, how they think, how their environment affects them, and why they act the way they do.  

Secondly, animals are known to be biologically limited in intelligence and ability to control their environment.   These limitations are an important part of their identity.  We would unnecessarily limit our understanding of animals if we assumed perceived flaws that were in actuality attributable to their biology.

Given the enormous challenge to understand animals, it makes sense to be humble in our analysis.   We are slow, methodical, and bias our focus on understanding group biological traits over assuming or identifying personal defects.  

Perceived Greatness and Hidden Fallibility

Humans in contrast to all other animals have a massive intelligence advantage and a demonstrated ability to control their environment.  We are so capable, we demand the best behavior (and to know what that behavior is).  We tend to believe we know what ails the world and what we should do about it.  

It is because humans are so smart that we:

• Believe we are smart enough to judge those that disagree with us as stupid, dumb or carrying some personal defect and 

• Know who among us fails to hit the requisite standards for intelligence and behavior.  

This cultural posture is a bit too convenient, so I considered -- how smart are we humans? How much can we control or know? Are we each deserving of such a lofty status?

Human intelligence is impressive, but can only be understood relative to animals and what humans themselves have previously accomplished.  We don’t know that much about our intelligence and capability relative to what we want to know and accomplish.    

Yet there are strong signs humans have massive limitations and issues.

Serious questions like “what is the world”, “what are humans”, and “how should humans act” are considered too philosophical to discuss despite their clear relevance to our lives.  Do you have an objective answer humans can collectively agree on?

People also struggle with issues of personal identity such as “what is my purpose” and “what should I do” over years, decades and sometimes their lifetime.  If we have difficulty conclusively answering fundamental questions about ourselves, are we equipped to judge how other people can and should act?  

Worse, the tools (the human body) we use to understand our world are known to be flawed.  We have identified approximately 47 human biases that affect humans, pre-programmed and unconscious biological traits that limit all humans’ ability to analyze and understand things objectively. 

If we are honest about the uncertainty permeating our lives, we’d realize that most humans are foreign to us in purpose, life and experience.  It's obvious there is much uncertainty and difficulty in understanding who humans are, how they think, how their environment affects them, and why they act the way they do, including ourselves. 

Humans are also biologically limited in intelligence and ability to control their environment.   These limitations are an important part of our identity.  We would unnecessarily limit our understanding of humans if we assumed perceived flaws that were in actuality attributable to our shared biology.

Yet we all tend to do exactly this. Labels such as “stupid”, “wrong”, “immoral” and “bad” are an excuse to quickly ignore those people and ideas that differ from ours, assuming personal defects over understanding biological characteristics.  Perhaps they also offer us the feeling of greatness and control we expect of ourselves but implicitly know we lack. 

Given this enormous challenge of being and understanding humans, we should instead be humble in our analysis.   We should analyze humans slowly, methodically, and bias our focus on understanding group biological traits over assuming or identifying personal defects.  

So why are there so many stupid people? 

Maybe there are no stupid people. Only people.  Maybe all the people we believe to be stupid simply reflect those people and human traits we do not yet understand.