As Forrest Gump's Mom always said, "Stupid is as stupid does."

The Quotations Page gives three from Friedrich von Schiller (1759 - 1805), German dramatist and poet:

Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain.

It does not prove a thing to be right because the majority say it is so.

Keep true to the dreams of thy youth.

May the Creative Forces of the Universe have mercy on our souls, if any.

I must point out elitist tendencies in the article.

1. Ignorance=stupidity?

There is enough evidence that one could almost conclude -- though admittedly this is a stretch -- that we are living in an Age of Ignorance.

There is ample evidence that with innovation and modernity comes complexity. To be able to catch up with the "important" daily events supposes that we all have unlimited time devoted to quashing some particular ignorance. Lucky for us that think-tank brainiacs and academics have time sufficient to stay ahead of the complexity.

But in fact only a small percentage of people take advantage of the great new resources at hand.

Apparently staying ahead of complexity is a full time job in itself.

2. The normal state of information is dishonesty.

Second, is negligence: The disinclination to seek reliable sources of information about important news events.

Reliable sources? That's a full time job in itself when the general assumption in the article appears to be that conventional news outlets are unreliable. And they are. Therefore, we must navigate the internets and stay perpetually on The Google to discern the reliable sources from the unreliable.

I've been around the world a few times. I find American's are less concerned about the rest of the world (except when it comes to ideology), but not significantly stupider. They delude themselves, but it's out of self-serving convenience.

And Americans do demonstrate a noticeable incuriosity in things of concern to the rest of the world, but that's not rooted in stupidity as much as social manipulation.

I probably wouldn't have gotten 'petition for redress of grievances'.

Only one in five Americans can name all members of the Simpsons family? What, are you morons?

Jacques Brel, a Belgian singer, said that stupidity is like fat, it's only there cause you're not exercising enough.

Or something like that.

So indeed, there is no more "stupidity" in the American public than elsewhere. There is a lack of attention, that makes you look stupid.

When ya git greedy, ya git stupid too, AND ya git a little hypocritical on the "side" as the occasion demands. But mostly its 'cozz ya got greedy.

I agree -- ignorance and stupidity must not be conflated. Frankly, imo, your average human is "stupid" by average human standards. How is this possible? We edit out the errors of ourselves and people we like. Thus, most of us fail to measure up to what we think the "default" human should be like. I think this is why the reasonable person standard in law is inherently ironic: the reasonable person isn't average, he or she is ideal: such a person is functionally perfect, or at least as perfect as anyone can seek to be.

Knowledge of current events requires a significant amount of intelligence to process, as well as leisure time or a profession affiliated with such information. Due to propaganda and the perversion of intellectual issues in general (bias against "smart" people and passtimes associated with them) our average citizen can't tell fact from fiction. The harder he tries, the worse he may fail: remember the poll that showed Fox News viewers were _less_ well informed than those who didn't watch the news?

I'd argue that ignorance, stupidity, wooden-headedness, etc. are a greater danger now that it's harder for the powerful to control information and decision-making. Presidential candidates aren't picked by conventions of insiders anymore. Seniority doesn't mean nearly as much in Congress as it used to. The media don't help Presidents hide strokes/polio/extramarital affairs from the public. Bad ideas and false information that used to get rejected by editors get circulated widely.

I'm not arguing that we should return to those days. But if people have greater access to information (which still equals power), it might mean that the consequences of stupidity are greater than they used to be, even if the actual level of stupidity is the same as it has always been.

The stupid people get caught, that's why they call it stupid. If YOU knew YOU were to be caught, in theory, YOU wouldn't do it, in theory. If YOU don't get caught how could be called anything. FACE FACTS GEORGE AND DICK just got caught, that's all. Simple---it only gets complicated when WE decide what to do about it.