It's a rare person who has ever called me "stupid" in this life. I can literally count on one hand the number of times it has happened, and I've usually done my utmost to swiftly demonstrate otherwise to the offender. But as one who has frequented nearly every corner of the internet, I've run across so many accusations of stupidity being thrown back and forth in debates and arguments, that I can only conclude that there is either an epidemic of ineptitude in our society, or a lot of people who are both obsessive and highly insecure about questions of intelligence. It has never been an accusation I have ever personally resorted to though, and there is a very important reason for that.
But I'll begin with the obvious reasons not to insult the intelligence of others. First, because unless you're a six-foot four-inch, blue-eyed, male superhuman (which I'm not), you are at risk of winding up the butt of your own bad joke. Like an ant that mocks the size of a mite, you just might find yourself receiving as much if not more ridicule from much greater beings than yourself. Because, let's face it: no one is infinitely intelligent in this world, and there's always a bigger fish in the pond. There's always someone who knows just a few more digits of Pi than you, or who can memorize just a few more lines of Shakespeare.
Moreover though -- and this is a general rule of life that is worth following -- it is never a good idea to underestimate in any way the capabilities of an adversary. They may be stupid. Then again, they may also be feigning ignorance in order to lure you in your arrogance into making a foolish blunder. And I've witnessed the latter strategy being employed everywhere from internet debates where hubris is on the line, to political campaigns where fame and fortune can be lost overnight, to battlefield tactics where lives are at stake. One only underestimates an enemy at one's own peril. So why do it?
Placing all of those obvious problems aside though, there is an even more important reason not to resort to the most vicious of all ad hominens: the risk that you are, in fact, correct. What if the person actually is mentally impaired? If so, then it's not something that they can help about themselves, and you've just done the equivalent of mocking a short person for being short, or a disabled person for being disabled, or an obese person for being obese. All of those things are genuinely recognized as both villainous and ultimately self-destructive, instantly marking the offender as someone whose opinions cannot be taken seriously. And while our society struggles with that last logical step of condemning the mockery of impaired intelligence, that in no way means that people who cowardly resort to it will escape justice for their casual and careless causticity. For in the end, the human heart, which is the ultimate authority over such matters, recognizes it as being deeply immoral.
So, that is the rundown of why I don't rely on accusations of stupidity, ignorance, or mockery of intelligence in general, and why I don't think others should either.
Add new comment