Stupid is as Stupid Does

When I make a statement, I know that I am correct. The proper temperature for the bed of my 3D printer for PLA is 55°C. As far as I know, this is correct.

If someone were to question that statement, I would consider that I am wrong. Being wrong is part of being human.

Assuming that I am wrong, I will go verify the statement. And what I would find is that there are more pieces that go into that statement, for example, the build plate I’m using.

Having an open, learning mind allows me to self-correct when I am wrong. I actually do this so fast, in real time, that people don’t even notice that I had something wrong. Somebody says I’m wrong because of a particular reason. I evaluate and change my position, taking in the new information.

People remember the outcome, where I’m usually correct; they don’t remember the incorrect starting point. It is a process to get to the correct answer.

I’ve done this here. I’ve made a statement; one of you has corrected me or added more information. I verify, then move forward with the new information.

Unfortunately, we are surrounded by people that are incapable of doing this.

These people cannot conceive that they might be wrong. They argue by expert.

My second wife used argument by expert constantly in our interactions. Since she wasn’t able to support her opinions, she turned to an expert and would tell me I was wrong because this expert was saying what she was saying.

This would require me to locate experts who she would accept, which she never did.

The problem with this style of argument is that you are not looking at the subject. You are not investigating the subject. Instead, you are vetting a third party. You have lost the point of the discussion.

I don’t need an expert to tell me that dropping hot glass into cold water is a good way to end up with shards of glass.

The need for people that are so stupid they require an “expert” to tell them what they should think drives me bonkers.

An example. NH has no income tax. Most of the tax revenue comes from property taxes. You are taxed a certain amount per $1000 of value your property has.

For one area of the state, the tax rate is $34.37/$1000. With an average home/property assessed at $215,000, giving an annual tax of $7389.55.

Now consider a small farm with 40 acres at $5,000/acre. That puts the value at $200,000. The assessed value at around $120,000 with an annual tax of $4124.40.

Now NH wants to protect farmers from heavy taxes so they have an option for your land to be put into “current use.” This covers undeveloped land (hunting, fishing areas) and farmland. If your land is in current use, you only pay taxes on 10% of your assessed value. So the farmer won’t be paying $4124; instead, he’ll be paying $412.40. A significant savings.

This is all well documented in the state’s laws. There are people who do nothing but defend current use cases. The gist is that if you have at least 10 acres in current use, you get this tax break.

A person I knew worked for a town. The town was having a shortfall. They were attempting to raise revenue by getting more land pulled out of current use. This person was concerned about their land, 125 acres, 123 of which were in current use. They asked the town lawyer about their concerns about putting up a small 10×20 hunting cabin in the woods.

The city lawyer told her that the hunting cabin would cause all 123 acres to come out of current use.

Even when I showed her the statutes, even when she was presented with the literature from the current use defenders, she took the word of her “expert” over what the plain text of the law said.

Nothing I said would convince her that she was wrong. She didn’t need to consider that she was wrong because it wasn’t her opinion; it was her “experts” opinion.

She was stupid.

On the other hand, she wanted to post the land as no hunting. That would have taken the acres out of current use.

Because she never learned to read the law for herself, nor did she hire a lawyer to advise her, she didn’t know that posting the land could have taken it out of current use.

The left is full of stupid people. People that can’t think, but they can certainly regurgitate what they have been told.

COVID-19 is so deadly that healthy children must be vaccinated against COVID-19. And you should wear your mask when in your car alone or out on a surfboard or in a boat in the middle of a lake.

They could never apply logic to their position because they never evaluated how they got there.

The other day I heard from a teacher friend that they had observed ICE removing a student from the middle school. Except it turned out that she hadn’t observed it. Two of her fellow teachers had observed it.

I was concerned. Was this the mythical unicorn ICE action? ICE agents storming schools to grab kids, throw them into handcuffs, and drag them out?

Well, no. It turns out that the kid was an illegal alien. His parents have removal orders against them. They had been picked up while the kid was in school.

ICE came to the school, told the admin that they needed to pick up the kid. The admin walked the agents to the classroom; the ICE agents and the kid walked out together. No muss, no fuss.

They were making sure the kid didn’t come home to an empty home.

Still no unicorns.

These people do not know how to think for themselves. They are too stupid to hold an opinion, so they borrow other people’s opinions.

They think they know the law because they had a one-hour seminar taught by radical activists.

A deportation enforcement officer will have between 100 and 200 HOURS of training in the law, focusing on immigration law. ICE agents are required to be college graduates. Their training is provided by actual experts in the law, and they are tested to confirm their knowledge.

You can’t fix stupid.