How do you believe you can identify that someone lacks intelligence by looking at them? I would think that would at least warrant a conversation first.
You can't. You also can't prove this isn't a hallucination, or that gravity will work tomorrow, or that you won't win the lottery.
But statistically speaking, an average person is smarter than half the people around them. An especially smart person is smarter than even more than that.
I'm by no means cruel to people I find unintelligent, but I that doesn't mean I'm not allowed to be tired of them, or that I have to do a little song and dance about how great they are just because I haven't done a thorough investigation into their mind yet.
> But statistically speaking, an average person is smarter than half the people around them.
This is assuming you believe that a global ordering of intelligence is possible. Personally, I disagree with this belief since there are many different dimensions of intelligence. (It also assumes whatever global measure of intelligence is used is normally distributed, but that's a separate consideration.)
I wasn't suggesting you were cruel, although I think it's unfortunate to applying the terms "gormless" or "slack-jawed" to a person one has never met.
So, what? Nobody is smarter than anybody? We're all just totally 100% equal in every way, except at the same time special and different?
You're trying to high-road this shit. You think you're smart, and I think you are too. We both could probably "guess" intelligence with reasonable accuracy based off looks alone. And even if not, it's a fact that even complete morons have access to high tech. For sure we've both seen them before.
It seems like maybe you're trying to avoid a slippery slope or something, but I think you're slipping the other direction. It's a razor-blade mountain pass, on one hand idiots deserve to be happy, but on the other they probably shouldn't be empowered.
Technology is power, and I'm tired of watching morons poke away at it, applying their force to the world, and ultimately slowing everything down because they push backwards.
I haven't met anyone I would label as a moron. I think if you're talking about a specific kinds of smarts, then sure, some have more than others. I don't think I'm particularly smart, but if you're speaking academically, I have performed better than average. However, I've met many people over the years who most would not consider "smart" by the traditional definition, but they exhibit other forms of intelligence that are often less appreciated.
