Dr. Martin Hash Podcast

Calling someone stupid has never been acceptable, and it certainly isn't now in our hyper-sensitive society, but that doesn't mean that stupid people went anywhere. Stupidity is usually defined as having less intellectual capability than everyone else. Autistic people can be smart and still have low emotional intelligence, which is an important part of the package. Stupid people have to be specially provided for in a functioning modern society; this can cost a lot of time and money, and unfortunately, the numbers are huge; at least the bottom quarter of the population needs help, tens of millions of people.

How much of an impact stupidity has on a society depends on the underlying ideology: focus on the most talented, as with liberty and Capitalism, which encourages progress, or focus on the least, as with Marxism and socialism, which would slow life down to a stand-still. There's also a cultural component: in an Identity Politics hierarchy, where people are accorded benefits depending on what group they are in: race, sex, disability, etc.; stupidity is NOT one of those groups, so stupid people only get attention after all the special people are taken care of. Stupidity is a much larger burden on society than folks realize; how much is too much is a fatal question?