People ridicule about other people's stupidity..

I have said and done some really stupid things in my time, and I have no doubt there are more to come at some point in the future. But then again, I've avoided doing some really stupid things out of fear of not the consequences, but of how it would "make me look."

For example, I avoid alcohol and I've never done any form of illegal substance. I would like to say it was a well thought out decision, I come from a family of hard core alcoholics and to indulge is tempting fate. The truth of the matter is that I avoided alcohol in my youth because I didn't want to be a fool that said "can you believe what I did last night?" Later in life came the intelligent reasons to avoid these things.

I actually like it when people disagree with me. You can learn more from a person that disagrees with you than you can from someone that agrees with everything that comes out of your mouth. I respect differing beliefs, with few exceptions. I do believe it is possible to respect an opposing opinion. When we got married 25 years ago, my husband was a staunch Republican while I was a confirmed Democrat. Now we are both somewhere in the middle but there are still some issues that we do not agree on.

I'm not sure we ever really DID determine if the OP meant mistakes that the person couldn't help making. All I read were innocent mistakes. This means to me to be mistakes with only general good intentions all the while, only learning at some later time that the action was not in the person's or in another person's best interest. We covered the gammit from mental illness to stupidity to ignorance to intential harm. So, I would tend to disagree that the thread may have wavered from the OP's original intention. I've thoroughly enjoyed reading everyone's contributions, including yours, oh, Packy wise one. But maybe we've covered it all now?

That quote is from TheByzantine, not from me:

http://forums.psychcentral.com/showp...9&postcount=43

Good post

I have to agree that you can learn more--certainly things you hadn't thought of--from people who disagree with you. I've learned to be more open because people presented things to me in a way I hadn't thought before.

Oops. A thousand pardons. My bad.

From the original post and what others have written I think that it is another situation of bullying. Anyone who feels the need to belittle or attack another person is a bully simple.

Is there anyone in this world that is over 40 that has not been "stupid" or "ignorant" or "intolerant"?? I don't think so. Ridicule does not teach tolerance...It just promotes anger and intrenches the negative. Until you have walked in someone else's shoes..you have no idea what has shaped their thoughts. I see such diversity in people every day and I have learned to value it. I belive that most people can learn that their belief system isn't the only way. It just takes maturity.

It is true that many haven't had much of a chance to educate themselves, and they may have justification for that. But what troubles me is that a lot of people lack basic common sense (which you don't need to read to acquire) or try to act like they are knowledgeable in some subject when they are not. And the stupid people tend to be the mean ones...just take a look at WoW.

Sometimes people make ridiculous or do ridiculous things. Again, I have to wonder what the orginal statement/act was and why it was omitted from the post. I do think it makes a difference, offensive things make a bigger impact.

If I make the statement that I believe that dog saliva is the cure for wrinkles. It's silly and harmless. Are you going to lose sleep because I let my dog lick my face? In fifteen minutes are you even going to care?

Ewwwwwwwwww

What I struggle with most with in regards to this topic is not people's belief systems but their presentation of their belief system as fact, particularly when they are wrong. For instance, as most of you know, my wife is in prison. I hear so many 'facts' about the prison system from people who have no idea what they are talking about. My family has lived this for twenty-three years and someone who watched a 60 Minutes special is going to educate me on what REALLY goes on in prison? Hardly.

That would be easy enough to walk away from but many times I hear ridiculous opinions presented as facts that have the power to influence others - others who vote. Others who help, by their belief systems, to form public opinion that is harmful and based on erroneous information. Even on this forum I have seen ridiculous notions presented about inmates as fact by people who don't know what they are talking about but apparently has a sister-in-law whose dentists second wife's cousin used to be a superintendent of a prison back in the 50's so they KNOW.

I picked prison because it hits close to home and I am struggling with a difficulty right now, but the topics are endless. But even with that - the problem I am having I posted about in another thread, and by the way - everyone was wonderfully supportive and caring in that thread and I appreciate it very much - but there is shock in those responses, people find it hard to believe that they would deny someone who needs mental heath care help - or even to help themselves. I can only assume that the reason people are shocked is because they have heard so many opinions about what it is really like in there (country club with free medical or whatever) that they subconsciously took it as fact.

If people knew the truth (not just about prison but many, many things), I think it would be different but they don't. Rampant ignorance spouted with conviction drowns the truth and people suffer as a result. That type of ignorance (or stupidity) does get me angry.

Another thing I struggle with is opinions surrounding the idea of diversity. Admittedly I do get frustrated when someone talks about diversity in glowing terms and then goes off on a tangent about how horrible it is that such and such country or culture has these horrible gender roles (or laws or whatever) and we need to change them. They may think this is a clear case of human rights violations but if they look back in their own country or cultures history they will very likely find that changing this was a recent development in their own history. It wasn't a human rights violation in their own country till thirty, fifty or eighty years ago. We were allowed to find our own pace, but now that we know what is best for the world, let's force them to change to be like us.

I recall when Nelson Mandela stood in front of a Senate subcommittee meeting on aparteid and declared, "To be black and to be South African means to have a prison record." We were appalled as a nation and began the most expansive economic embargo in history to force these people to change their diverse ways. Now I don't know everything about that time in South Africa's history or aparteid but I do know this: The United States had, at the time he was giving that speech, more black people in prison per capita and in every demographic, than South Africa ever had in the history of their country. So if the way South Africa did things was wrong, then the US was even more wrong...but ignorance won again.

Sometimes I think that when people talk about celebrating diversity they're talking about the extra holiday they get to celebrate with the inclusion of Cinco de Mayo or someones pretty costume but not really a different way of thinking. At least here in the United States, and in my opinion, we are more about assimilation than diversity.

Okay, way off tangent... sorry .

IMO The people who deserve to be called idiots & be ridiculed are people who are jerks. People who ridicule & call idiots to the vulnerable are most likely jerks.. It shows that some people can be cruel & disrespectfull which may result in anger or violence..

Agree with sunset and thanks to AkAngel, who hit another nail on the head. Everyone can have strong opinions about things they don't know much about, but the refusal to realize that they are wrong and to, in somecases, render the proper apoplogies is that which really sets me off. I too have made some really dumb comments, but I have learned that if I am wrong or someone who know more about it is offended, then it is time to eat crow and ask forgiveness, chalk it up to a learning experience. The ones who can't do that have real issues and call on bullying again to shore up their "knowledge".
Ak, my sympathy. Such a situation sounds like a nightmare, regardless of why or how. Huggss

I will be the first one to volunteer if someone needs a little information to come to me, I have as little as anybody.

Bertrand Russell said, "The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt." He also said, "The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts."

It also takes a certain amount of arrogance to be so cocksure of your own opinions. John Maynard Keynes supposedly said:"When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?" And Tryon Edwards, "He that never changes his opinions, never corrects his mistakes, and will never be wiser on the morrow than he is today."

I ask again, who are the anointed, the ones who speak of others condescendingly, as though they themselves are incapable of fallibility?

I note that this thread has returned with renewed vigour to calling people idiots and such...paying much less respect to the original post than it should be...

All that has happened is that people are defending their abuse of others because of a set of circumstances which they think are immune to the "I don't like it when people are abused" sentence

Thanks, rhiannonsmom. Guilty as charged. Goes to show that the thread has touched a nerve. Huggs.

I don't like it when mini-feuds broil up and turn into battles that go on and on without end. For the observer, it all starts to sound like this.......