Maybe we should make a list of things that make you stupid. Here’s a start: cocaine.
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
Ok, I’ll play.
A poorly rolled joint that your daughter brings to you after you mention that you haven’t smoked pot since the late 70s and you’re wondering if it still makes you stoopid. Yes, it does. 🙂
Indeed. Sniffing paint thinner works, too.
It’s like a virus or something. Since I’ve decided to cut out a lot of people in my life, I certainly feel like I have a higher brain capacity. My head’s not filled up with the drama and inanities of my friends.
Yes indeed!
Sex makes people stupid, especially men.
Is that sexist of me? 😉
it’s more observational.
heh. So if it’s true, it’s not sexist?
Not sexist. But it could become entirely gender-neutral by broadening it into its the uber-trap that Buddha pointed out: desire.
Absolutely. Someone very close to me has been a fool for desire. Oh wait….it is me.
not if a woman says it…
Oh wait…
now there’s a truth.
Although I think it’s pretty equal between men and women – it’s just manifested in different ways. And since men control the world it affects all of us more.
Oh Honey, ain’t that the truth!!!!
The Clinton campaign that won’t die…. at this point makes one stupid.
CNN
Hillary has threatened civil war within the Party
pulling tantrum, tantrum like a 3 year old. Shall we disown her?
CNN is practically drooling for “a civil war within the party.”
Isn’t this the Randolph Hearst approach to the news business? “You supply the pictures, I’ll supply the war.”
Rockstar Energy Drink, which is owned by Michael Savage and his son.
Forget the substances — they’re small distractions.
Here’s the Big Three:
TV
cars
unexamined belief
cars.
I like that one.
Oh I got one. Reading Taylor Marsh ….Larry Johnson too for that matter.
The drug itself doesn’t really make you stupid.
Now, addictions make you stupid.
I disagree. People that are high on cocaine are unusually stupid…and not just because they used cocaine.
Kind of a before/during/after thing.
Make me stupid? I don’t need anything to make me stupid. With me it’s just an inborn talent.
Now if I thought about it, I could probably name things in my life that enhance my natural stupidity.
how about an unnatural fascination with trains. That seems to have infected everyone in my family except me and my mother.
Actually, these days that’s not stupid, that’s forward-looking. On my way to work this morning I noticed the Chevron station I go past had raised their prices to $4.09/gallon. Ouch.
Now I will agree that it could go too far. If your family is trying to buy a locomotive and live in it, yeah, that’s a bit ridiculous. Everone knows you only do that will Pullman cars and cabooses.
Johnny Walker Black, Bombay Gin, especially when mixed.
{:)!
Chocolate…. I will do most anything for chocolate. Thank god none of you live in Texas. LOL
I’ll second that and add blissfully stupid.
Registering as a Republican.
Talk Radio
Soap Operas
Pot
Booze
Infatuation
Lead Paint
Fear, Apathy and Sloth. AKA: DHS, Dept of Education, MSM.
People generally operate at the minimum cognitive level a situation requires (conservation!), with some people’s assessment of that minimum being rather variable (one of the main differences between the ‘smart’ and ‘dumb’ folks). When required, we step up our abilities – the depth and complexity of cognition. Like stepping on the gas to get somewhere important.
When fearful, disengaged and/or trained to operate at a very low baseline we get stupid. We tend to focus on our immediate surroundings instead of the big picture, etc. Our immediate decisions are disengaged from the logic that a big picture context could provide. We make long term mistakes for short term gains.
When engaged, passionate and trained to operate at a high level, we are perform at a higher cognitive level on the same tasks. Big picture thinking and quotidian tasks are made at the same time, in harmony with each other. We make long term decisions with longterm benefits.
Same goes for moral judgements.
Guess what do the Dept of Education, Dept of Homeland Security and the SMS produce? A low-baseline congnition, fearful and disengaged populace: the stupids are multiplying!
Cable “News” makes you stupid.