As some will know, I have conversations with an imaginary character called Stupid. I haven’t explained much about Stupid before now.
The particular features of Stupid:
- Very immature and inexperienced.
- S/he knows not that s/he knows not.
- Driven by emotions but on occasions can look at things with a degree of reasoning.
- Is unreceptive.
- Makes wild assumptions, which are turned into facts. Hence my posts are littered with the question “Did I say…. ” followed by “I did NOT!“
- Totally infected with ‘social-media-type’ behaviours: easily ‘triggered’, has snowflake-type reactions, repeats stock phrases often found on social media.
- Has no gender – but will pop out with feminist type attitudes on many occasions.
- Always seeking to be in the popular view out there.
- Almost totally devoid of critical thinking skills – which most people lack but don’t know about it.
- Avoids deep thinking – hence struggles with complexity and is always seeking the simple answer to complex situations. This is of course what most people do or want.
- Self-referent in every way i.e. any general statement is taken as referring to the individual. Hence any critical comment about a group of individuals or a culture is taken personally. See: Echo responsivity.
- Lacks initiative, is lazy.
- Champions the under-dog just for the shear hell of it.
- Controlled by political forces.
The above is not a full list, of course.
How did this character develop?
Over the years I’ve heard so many stupid utterances from people, that I have had to expect what ‘people’ in general will say in response to any statement I might express. Whenever I’m writing or speaking, that expectation is alive in me. So, I decided to create a category and personalise it to an imaginary person – one that lives only in my mind. Stupid is not a hallucination, but anyone reading this is welcome to send the authorities to Section me. Imagination is not hallucination – end of!
For the last 10 years at least I’ve been studying errors in the applications of logic among ‘the humans’. This started off in my late teens to early 20’s. There was a book from the 1970 the FALLACY: The counterfeit of argument (now digitised and free) that we had to study for ‘Use of English’. I found it fascinating. I had to give up reading that sort of stuff for many years, in climbing professional ladders. But I came back to the study of these things in the last decade or so. Through all this study I came to really appreciate the sort of ‘stupid’ errors of thinking that most people make – the commonest is to take an idea or inference and turn it into a fact.
But why the interest in logic anyway? I grew up on the original Star Trek series from the teenage years. Mr Spock was fascinating in his application of logic – and sometimes he would be wrong. But most times his reasoning would be right. His interactions with Dr McCoy – Bones as he was called – made exploring logic quite fun. Captain Kirk would at times be parting fights (and insults) between Spock and McCoy. At other times he would be amused – and at other times he would seriously consider both sides of their ‘arguments’.
Stupid represents a lot of things that’s wrong with human nature, as I see it. To be clear, there are many good and bad sides of human nature on 7th July 2019 I have explored both, before this post. So, I’m not saying that all of human nature is bad or stupid. Stupid contains a spread of perceptions of me among many others- namely: stupid, arrogant, autistic, PD, moronic, OCD, callous, dumb, thick, dense and several like that.
The impact of Stupid
It becomes extremely effortful to think, speak and write because in the background of my mind this character is there, imposing probable responses from (real-world) so-called intelligent persons and fools. I struggle with my emotions. I have to self-censor a whole lot when interacting with the real world of people.
This blog is a place where I can deal with Stupid, hence on occasions I am brutal and insensitive to the stupidity that Stupid generates. Most times I keep Stupid locked away but on occasions it is useful to allow a release. It is a bit o’ fun for me to be appear to be intruded upon by Stupid. Of course, always it is I who allow Stupid to come forth for my own purposes.
I have to be aware in my self-censoring when having real-world conversations, not to react as I would to an imaginary figure when some real-world person behaves a stupidly as Stupid. It’s very effortful indeed. It is tiring.
I avoid real people as much as possible, in order to limit the above.
I avoid so-called ‘friends’ because I find it difficult to cope with their Stupid-type thinking and behaviours.
Purposes
The purposes of this post is not to convince anybody or to explain to anybody why Stupid. I do share my posts with some people. If that helps them to understand me a bit better, that’s fine. If not, it matters not to me. Why? Because externalising this in a blog assists me in in understanding myself.
Disclaimer & Guidance
The reading of posts on this blog is subject to the Terms & Conditions. Unpalatable truths and personal experiences may be told. Nothing posted on this blog is directed at any identified person. On occasions individuals are quoted anonymously. That does not mean that they have been identified to the world. Should any person or organisation reading this blog find something that makes them feel or know that they are being referred to – any such perceived identification does not mean ‘identified to the world’. ‘Stupid‘ is an impish figment of my imagination who occasionally is allowed to pop up – and does not represent any known individual, individuals or groups. The treatment of ‘Stupid‘ is not representative of the way people are treated in real life. Adverse inferences made are dismissed in advance.
