a modest proposal

Recently there've been some issues on my mind about the nature of intelligence and stupidity as the only truly undeniable qualifiers of human value.

There is absolutely no pursuit imaginable that could ever benefit from stupidity, even if intelligence is not the answer. Stupidity destroys everything; it creates nothing. It is, by definition, failure itself. Simply, stupidity is the inability of some idiots to cope with the world around them. What's worse, they drag everyone down with them. Idiots do not exist in a vacuum. Their failures create causal chains that destroy much more than their mistakes, which are only characterized from regular mistakes by being inexplicable in any rational framework---solely the result of poor (and often just plain wrong) reasoning.

I'm not afraid to say I HATE stupid people, and I wish they would all die. Quickly.

So, I guess the "ethical" question I want to ask is: why exactly are we NOT euthanizing the unintelligent? Can anyone come up with a good argument that makes rational sense? Can you really deny that getting rid of all the stupid people would make our world a better place?

Discuss.

p.s. bring up Hitler and you fail; Jews were probably smarter anyway

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"Loves them? They need them, like they need the air."

No matter how smart you think you are PN, you're always going to be dumber than someone else. So, unless you're willing to be first in line for your own euthanization program then your point is almost moot. Agree? I doubt you will but I sort of get where you're coming from.

The bigger trouble is, of course, that "stupidity", is a by product of civilization. The more advanced we get the dumber the masses become. A person can be and often is smart but people, oh people... don't get me started on the stupidity of people.

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We are both the source of the problem and the solution, yet we do not see ourselves in this light...

I rather live in an imperfect world than in one where people think they have got everything figured out...

Why not discuss if one should blow up a mental asylum or not?

Intelligence and stupidity are both relative terms and subject to interpretation. Someone could be the top of the field in one area but not be able to put two and two together in another. Everyone has gifts and everyone has faults. Anyone who feels they're better than someone else because they're "smarter" has already proven they're not.

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Family DVD Collection | My Top 100 | My Movie Thoughts | Frank Capra

I think part of the problem is "jumping the gun". Many things which are considered intelligent now were once considered stupid and vice versa. Who gets to be the arbiter of stupidity? The flavor of the month? That sounds "stupid".

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It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
My IMDb page

What a stupid poll. It needs to be put down.

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“The gladdest moment in human life, methinks, is a departure into unknown lands.” – Sir Richard Burton

This thread is obscene. To even consider, discuss, or vote on this is obscene. I doubt that a truly intelligent person would even have this as a transient thought, much less give it this kind of time. Somehow, I can't see people like Einstein ever having thoughts like this.

You have to remember that it's planet news and he's pushing buttons. He wants to see our reactions. I don't for a minute believe he's advocating what he "proposes", however "modestly" he's going about it. Yoda might want to kill it though. Do we need to put pn at the top of the "Suspicious MoFos"?

Yeah I figure the same. It is blatantly obnoxious, but he tries to hide behind that with witty banter. He needs to learn to be more subtle with his misplaced anger - I could teach him, he has the raw power and the talent, but his patience is lacking - no finesse. A jaunt into the philosophy of button-pushing and reactionism can a dangerous and short excursion.

I'm a huge loser, so I found this funny. Troll spotted; /thread.

I'm not worthy to be around most of you guys anyway, so I just troll youz for attention, which I lack in real life. Basically, dat how my mind works.

I'm not proud. Scum of the earth gonna scum earth.



ELL OH ELL MY LIFE HAS MEANINGZ

No u!

U Bipolar?

>Bipolar?

Probably something like that, sure. There isn't a lot good tossing up there in my coconut.

is anyone else having a hard time not loving planet after the way he just admitted he's trolling because he's incredibly lonely and starved for attention in real life? most people just like to chastise people who Troll, but when they admit this ****, i just want to give them great big hugs. i can relate.

you're worth our time, planet.

Well, I thought we were here for coconut relief, but I agree that college-level Physics homework is often obscene.

I am so glad noone's harming the Stupids.

nope

Poll closed.

I for one can't stand stupid people, or those who fail to attempt to put fourth an effort in life. I'm not going to go out and kill them or want to kill them because of that. They'll just continue to drive me crazy.

This thread is on life support.

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"I was walking down the street with my friend and he said, "I hear music", as if there is any other way you can take it in. You're not special, that's how I receive it too. I tried to taste it but it did not work." - Mitch Hedberg

Hitler had similar ideas. If you are going to euthanize people for being stupid where is the cut off. I actually have a disorder that causes faulty reasoning. I am not stupid my IQ is above average but if I don't take my medicine my reasoning becomes muddled. Should I get in line for the euthanization booth or 'baths' as they called them in the concentration camps. Why stop at euthanization of the stupid. Lets make sure only the highly intelligent can breed. We can breed stupidity out of the species. C'mon all aboard the eugenics train. We have the technology. All we need is the will. Heil PN!

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Louise Vale first woman to play Jane Eyre in the flickers.

I assume this is another intellectual exercise of some sort, but what the heck, it won't take long. This one's easy, PN.

The first problem is measurement: IQ tests, for all we talk about them, might give us a range, but they break down at high levels and there's plenty of reason to question their validity. So, we can't reliably determine intelligence.

The second problem the is the one PW made: there's always someone smarter than you. If killing "inferior" people is to be the right of the superior, I see no reason this shouldn't apply across the board, resulting in a genius being allowed to kill slightly less intelligent people. For any number of legal reasons we have to have a standard of intelligence below which someone is classified as having a condition, but that's a necessary social invention, not an intellectual reality. The only thing that separates Forrest Gump from Stephen Hawking (apart from their 40-yard dash times) is degree. So, even if we could measure intelligence, all but one person would have to be ready to forfeit their lives for this idea.

The third problem is that intelligence has not always meant success; some of the people with the highest recorded IQs in American history, for example, have led pretty modest existences, perhaps because by being able to do anything, nothing stood out as worth their time. So, even if we could measure intelligence and most of us were willing to die for the idea, raw intelligence would not always translate into success.

The fourth is that intelligence is not the defining positive trait. It resists humility, and it has no correlation I know of to things like honesty and bravery. So, even if we could measure intelligence and bunches of us agreed to die and raw intelligence translated into success, we'd be ignoring other virtues.

The fifth is tied to the fourth: to exalt intelligence above all else is to assume that anything done intelligently is good. And you know what? Screw Godwin: Hitler. Or, if you don't like me mentioning him, how about Pol Pot? It doesn't really matter which terrible dictator you use, they all make the same point. Intelligence is fuel; it can be used to take you anywhere, both good places and bad. Confusing intelligence with goodness is confusing gas with your destination.

To summarize: even if we could measure success, bunches of us agreed to die at the hands of more intelligent people, intelligence translated into success, and we were willing to ignore the importance of other virtues, there's no guarantee a group of intelligent people would use their intelligence in a positive way.

So, yeah: terrible idea.