I was thinking about this. I went to university, and I worked in tech for decades. I met many assholes but I didn’t meet anyone that would fit on the left half of the bell curve (less than 100 iq).
Since I’ve been living in that bubble my entire life, I’m curious of your stories. Have you met someone who was actually quite dumb (not just having opinions you don’t agree with) and do you have an example situation you remember you can share?
Hopefully this becomes more funny than hateful since intelligence is not the value of a person, but it can be funny to read the stories.
I think anyone who spends any time in rural areas has seen plenty. Not just under or uneducated, but literally humans who might seem on par with a dog when it comes to understanding things or curiosity in general. I know you’re trying to keep this light-hearted, but truth is, they often run rural areas and it’s kind of dark (to me). I think the closer you are to suburban or urban areas, the less enlightened people are more likely to be forced into obscurity. Society just doesn’t have a lot of use for people who can’t be peers. The inverse is true in rural areas. More intelligent people are suppressed. I knew plenty of farmers who were intelligent or intelligent enough. They didn’t socialize much. It’s better to be under educated, you are more likely to get along. You don’t see much creativity or art in rural areas. Conformity equals comfort and safety. There are, of course, socio-economic factors in rural areas as well, but art finds a way in even the most impoverished areas.
Go visit towns with a population under 1,000 and you’ll find plenty.
Don’t confuse “intelligence” with conformity. There are lots of farmers’ kids who are intelligent by common standards, but either got conditioned into pretending, or deliberately pretend to fit in. I’ve met someone in college who was very intelligent, had a well-paid job doing ML stuff, and decided to go back to the countryside with their partner because they simply enjoyed life and the people there. As you said, conformity equals comfort and safety. I’ve met at least one guy who could turn the “redneck” on and off at will. One moment, he would enjoy doing complicated engineering shit or talking about politics and philosophy, the other he would enjoy bragging about the dumbest shit while drinking the local liquor.
Yeah. Because most smart people leave those towns.
They’re just conditioned to not think for themselves
As a person who grew up in a town of 800, this matches my experience. The artists, the creative thinkers, and the smart kids got out as soon as possible.
The people who stayed were the conformists and the people who couldn’t imagine a better life than living in their tiny hometown.
When I go back to visit my family, I see some of them, and they seem happy.
Yeah ive never experienced that and sure, it would scare me a lot.