Why do smart people believe stupid things?

Maybe I put this in the wrong forum because I'm not really interested in talking about Bible verses non Bible stuff that's for other threads. I understand you're responding to someone that brought it up I didn't respond to that post because I felt that was better to not engage as to not drag my thread off topic.

 

people with Jacob's syndrome or klinefelter's syndrome have some sort of chromosomal issue but they're not the definition of male even though they are male. Those are issues that only affect males. They aren't some third sex or some in between there and anomaly.

Same with the XXX thing but that only affects females.

after they're born it pretty much is. There is extremely rare cases where someone was born with ambiguous genitalia and they turn out to be male or female when they get a little older but I'm willing to bet if you tested their DNA they'd either be male or female.

I'll never understand why people bring up sexual orientation in this discussion the only reason I think people do is because it's in the initials and people think well they're related somehow. Sexual orientation has nothing to do with gender.

I don't think anybody should be giving a hard time for anything there's people that do that but you know there's people that give you a hard time for your religion or the way you eat your steak. There's simply are just jerks in the world.

 

What does ‘smart’ mean?

You might have a prodigious memory, but be unable to solve a moderate mathematical problem. You might be a genius of some kind but have no friends and be unable to form meaningful relationships with others.
You might be in some other ways brilliant but rubbish at personal hygiene and stink to high heaven.

There was a person on the internet who was asking questions from students who tended to say they were a seven or eight out of ten ‘smart’ but thought 3 cubed was nine, that there were 25 minutes in a quarter of an hour, that 73 plus 37 was 100, when asked how many dimes in a dollar couldn’t answer, and when asked to name three countries other than the United States would come up with two, Africa and Europe!
These guys were headed to be your next doctors or whatever.
There were some who got the questions right, and on the up side some of the ignorant guys were nice warm friendly people.

 

But I don't agree that smart people generally do believe stupid things. I don't think anyone smart actually believes the general examples of stupid things you gave. The first step in answering your question is establishing exactly what and who you're talking about. It is perfectly possible that some people say things you think are stupid but you are mistaken, or people saying stupid things you think are smart but really aren't. It is also perfectly possible that I'm mistaken, and you do have examples of smart people saying stupid things, but unless you're willing and able to identify them, how are you going to correct me?

I agree, which is why I'm not convinced any smart people actually say them (as you're interpreting them at least).

 

You don't need the information you're asking for.

If you do I'm sorry this discussion is not for you.

It seems you wish to distract with unimportant bickering about these false beliefs people have. I'm not interested in excuses for why you believe in false things or how you've been taken for a ride by people who trick you and to believing false things.

They are objectively false there is no truth no validity No nuance no nothing that will make them anything but false.

That has already been settled.

 

Having or showing a greater capacity for intelligence

so?

Again so?

So what?

Are you making a point here?

 

Yes, my point is ‘intelligence’ is a fluid concept.

 

Okay. What does that have to do with a thread

 

I guess that is a round-about way to demonstrate that apparently smart people can say stupid things. I've no idea why you're doing it though.

 

If you want to make excuses for believing false things that's your business I'm not interested.

I don't know why it took so long for you to take that hint.

 

What does 'smart' mean? I'm not entirely sure, but during my visit to my son's university graduation, I observed a correlation between the number of Asian graduates and their academic performance.

In the PhD classes, Americans were in the minority.
If all foreign PhD students remain in the US - they will Make America Less White, but Great Again.

 

Regarding the topic, and Bruce Jenner and the moral decay in America, I quote Paul because of his sound reasoning regarding the good and evil that men do. Essentially, smart people believe stupid things because they take "pleasure in unrighteousness". He likens their belief to "strong delusions sent from God". There is no denying that the morality of Americans is decaying. But those therein call it progress. That is delusional to believe. It is counter intuitive to give godlike reverence to the wickedness tromping about our nation, corrupting all it touches, and then to say it undermines ones position to make mention of the truth or true God in contradiction to that decay. Religious liberty isn't the right or obligation to exalt evil. If we are to be free from the religions of men, we should also be free from their devils.

 

There's no such thing as your truth and my truth. There is only the truth. And if you aren't aware that the homosexual movement is a movement, then you haven't been paying attention, because it has gone from a baa at its inception to a growl over the past couple decades. People feel compelled to accept that Jenner is a woman because otherwise the entire clown show of the deviant homosexual movement with all its offshoots and letters begins to unravel. Not to mention being compelled to uphold it rather than face the scorn, mockery, physical violence, and financial ruin from its faithful worshippers and supporters.

 

Oh, please. I pointed out that there is NOT one factor and I didn't suggest there is a continuum.

 

Well, my truth in this case is founded in biology, psychology, etc.

For centuries through today, there are societies that would discriminate against and in some cases actually kill those whose physical and psychological nature doesn't happen to align with the preferences of the society.

That can not possibly be the path of "truth" on this issue.

As for the idea of movement, the objective is to reduce the "scorn, mockery, physical violence, and financial ruin from" the faithful worshippers for whom YOU advocate as promulgating what you view as "truth".

 

Fair enough

 

Well, your attempt at a treatise is far from complete. But, it couldn't be in the space available.

The fact of the matter is that in the USA and across the world there is very serious and detrimental discrimination against those who are not of the same human "pattern" (shall we call it).

THAT is where the "movement" comes in. The idea that these factors MUST be used for the purpose of discrimination and removal from our society is EVIL.

My lovely daughters are not benefitted by being taught hate for same sex orientation anymore than being taught hate for skin color, religion, or other factors that can be used to divide our nation.

 

I'm not saying it's right to discriminate against people because I recognize that there's a pattern.

Recognizing the pattern does not condone any behavior.

This is more of a civil Rights comment and it's not really relevant to this thread.

 

I do see this as a civil rights issue.

 

What smart people believing stupid things?

 

The belief in superiority, of self congratulatory claims of "smartness" held as a central tenet of white supremacists, MAGA and the like could not POSSIBLY be more profoundly stupid.

 

I wasn't thinking more along the lines of college professors and academics. Do you find a lot of maga white supremacists in that crowd?

 

You think rare, intersex anomalies is the origin of the trans movement? What percentage of people who identify as trans are intersex?

 

There are tests for intelligence, personality, rationality, wisdom, aptitude and more. Yet in essence, all those tests do is rate some people so others can categorize them for their own purposes. Gives some tested an excuse to brag and others a reason to feel lacking.

Consider 'Likes' and 'Followers' in social media for the last 20+ years. Aren't they, like the tests mentioned above, an integral part of social media, intended to non-verbally provoke emotional pleasure and pain, worthiness and unworthiness?

I think it's the emotional need to appear, as you posted, "sophisticated, high brow, more learned," and avoid appearing like a nobody. That driving emotional need created cottage industries of professionally written profiles and buying followers. There are a ton of articles on how addictive social media is and its emotional coercion, but how many read or believe them?

I don't think it's an attempt to change reality. Rather, it's an attempt to suppress critical thinking far enough to ignore reality. Like an 8 yr old who watches his alcoholic dad keel over at the dinner table. Saying nothing, his mom pretends to ignore it and act as if nothing unusual happened. The kid knows what happened but with the emotional need for parental approval, he learns to suppress his critical thinking and ignore the reality of his dad's behavior.

I think what replaced critical thinking with today's nonsense is what successfully sold cigarettes to women in the 1930s, despite the prevailing taboo. Although a big difference in sophistication and reach of current tech, the methods used today are the same methods used 90+ years ago.

Torches of Freedom: How the world’s first PR campaign came to be
August 06, 2014
https://yourstory.com/2014/08/torches-of-freedom
- and/or -
The Century Of The Self, Part 1 (video)
October 2008
35:18
https://archive.org/details/Europeanposte-TheCenturyOfTheSelfByHeinzDuthelI583-2

There's an old saying in sales: 'Sell the sizzle, not the steak.' Whether they realize it's being done to them or not, there's no better way to influence peoples' beliefs and decisions than through their emotions. Con artists, email spam, cults, social media... other than scale they're all pretty much the same. The power of social media, with the help of MSM, is what I think convinces smart people to believe, and motivates them to do, stupid stuff.

More info:

Edward Bernays' books
Crystallizing Public Opinion (1923)
Propaganda (1928 )
The Engineering of Consent (1955)

Noam Chomsky's books
Manufacturing Consent (1988 )
Necessary Illusions: Thought Control in Democratic Societies (1989)
Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda (2002)

Media’s Manufactured Consent
July 2015
https://orrinwoodwardblog.com/medias-manufactured-consent/

Search 'social media addiction' and 'manufactured consent' for more.

 

Are you suggesting that one of those should have protection from discrimination and the other should not?

I don't know what you mean by origin. Are you suggesting we were better country when we treated anomalies with violence and exclusion?