Indolence And Intolerance

As with most of my musings, this one stems from interactions with "people" on the Internet. I grew up in a rather small community of around 500 or so people which dwindled instead of growing over time. As a result I could usually just avoid stubborn people that had minds so closed its a wonder they didn't asphyxiate. My arrival online really allowed me to gain a greater perspective on the diversity of people out there, or more accurately the lack thereof.  There seems to only be a few different types of people in the world. Mainly idiots, but also some people with a simple lack of knowledge. This mild revelation led me to make these observation.

There's a large difference between stupidity and lack of knowledge.  Someone with a lack of knowledge can always learn, provided they're not too stubborn to do so. Stupid people can't think for themselves. They can only regurgitate the information that's been hammered into them. They also seem incapable of actually learning, and get insanely defensive if someone tries to correct the faulty information that was forced into their narrow little minds through repetition.

Those with lack of knowledge generally have adaptive brains, whereas stupid people have static programming.  If you try to correct a stupid person their programming can't take it. They lock up and become defensive.

Religious people seem to be more akin to the latter than the former and usually come off as a more pretentious form of it. Barring some kind of traumatic life experience that forces them to convert, they are usually programmed from a very young age so as not to question the legitimacy of their forced beliefs. Upon trying to discuss existential matters with them they stop thinking and revert to their programming, spouting words like "sinner" and "blasphemy".  They are incapable of objective or critical thinking and become defensive as though looking at life from a different point of view would corrupt them or, in all actuality, free them from their brainwashing. 

There are just too many idiots on this planet and first world conditions have made it way to easy for them to continue living and breed.  Forgoing a rant about how we're doomed as a result, I'll just say that we shouldn't start caring about the murder rate until well after it's exceeded the birth rate.