Stupid Is As Stupid Does
By Jim Bauer
@porwest (90234)
United States
December 29, 2023 6:40am CST
When one thinks of the utter stupidity of so many people it sometimes boggles the mind. When the very first troubleshooting question when you buy a TV asks, "Did you plug it in?" you have to immediately wonder why that's the very first solution?
I think of the same thing whenever I see a silica gel packet. "Do not eat," it warns. How many people have tried to eat a silica gel packet? Probably many. That's why the warning is there.
And by the way, did we ever think we'd see the day when we'd have to spend money on public service announcements to remind people not to eat Tide Pods? "They're deadly." No kidding. It's frigging detergent!
This comes to mind as we yet again near entering into a new year and all over the news are announcements cautioning people to not shoot their guns into the air during their celebrations.
"What goes up must come down, and those bullets will still come down at high enough of a velocity to potentially kill someone."
You really badly want to say, "Duh," but every year someone is struck by a stray bullet, and sometimes someone is killed as a result of it. As we always like to say, "It's just common sense."
But is it?
Because people might actually eat a silica gel packet. Someone will still try to ingest a Tide pod. Someone will unbox their TV and set it all up, grab the remote, hit the power button and wonder why there is no picture while their plug dangles inches from an outlet.
And people will shoot guns into the air. Public service announcements I suppose are still important. That they are necessary to some extent continues to remind us that common sense is not so common, and there are quite a lot of terribly stupid people in the world.
And as the saying goes, "You can't fix it."
11 people like this
13 responses
@LindaOHio (178124)
• United States
29 Dec
I didn't know Ron White retired. He was a bit much sometimes; but he was funny...and you can't fix stupid. Have a good weekend.
2 people like this
@LindaOHio (178124)
• United States
30 Dec
@porwest I have one of his stand-up routines in my queue on Hulu. I always enjoy them.
1 person likes this
@1creekgirl (41394)
• United States
29 Dec
It makes one shake one's head. Like you said, common sense is definitely not common.
2 people like this
@lovebuglena (44504)
• Staten Island, New York
30 Dec
Maybe these people use reverse psychology and will not eat those packets only if the label says “eat me”. 
1 person likes this
@lovebuglena (44504)
• Staten Island, New York
31 Dec
@porwest for fifteen (or less) seconds of online fame maybe.
1 person likes this
@porwest (90234)
• United States
1 Jan
@lovebuglena That might be the only reason. But they had that warning on silica gel packets LONG before the Internet was around.
1 person likes this
@Beestring (14533)
• Hong Kong
29 Dec
There are all sorts of people in the world.
2 people like this
@much2say (55582)
• Los Angeles, California
29 Dec
My daughter's friend (12 at the time) did eat silica gel packets (plural, yes) - on purpose - for the shock value. Stomach aches were inevitable, but it got her out of school 
. I seriously don't get how the Tide pods get anywhere near anyone's mouth. Bullets - fireworks - yah, no one listens. Too many stupids in this world - and growing.
. I seriously don't get how the Tide pods get anywhere near anyone's mouth. Bullets - fireworks - yah, no one listens. Too many stupids in this world - and growing.
@jstory07 (139590)
• Roseburg, Oregon
29 Dec
It is all common sense which a lot of people do not have. There was a young mother shopping at the grocery store yesterday. She had her cart close to the candy bars and her baby kept grabbing the candy. I told her to move the cart over where the baby can not reach. She thanked me as she had never though about that.
@moffittjc (121548)
• Gainesville, Florida
31 Dec
Makes you wonder how much longer mankind can last.
@dgobucks226 (35574)
•
31 Dec
I believe many of us are victims of doing stupid things without thinking them through. The difference is that they are not life-threatening as in the examples you pointed out. Now that is a whole different level of stupidity!
@BearArtistLady (6037)
• United States
29 Dec
I hate to count the times I've had people connect with me about their problems with something that is so stupid. Like at the laundromat I used to work at, the customer would put their laundry in the washing machine and shut the lid and wonder why it wouldn't wash. I would ask if they put their money in the slot...turns out they put the money in with the clothes. They get upset that they have to fish their clothes out to get to the change to feed it to the washer to make it work.
I reached the point that I believed that the public couldn't read. There are too many instances where you have to help people and when you leave you're laughing to yourself and stating DUH how come they are living on their own? Oh, the other favorite thing with the new TV is that they will plug in the television and not put the batteries in the remote (My own mother did that, and hollered for me to come and help her out. It was her bedroom television.). Or those people who buy a new vehicle and can't figure out why it won't back up, until you tell them that "R" doesn't stand for run.
@BearArtistLady (6037)
• United States
31 Dec
I have to add a more recent DUH occurrence, the ambulance had to come and take a neighbor to the hospital. The neighbor had an upset stomach and instead of taking "Tums" or something like that, they took baking soda and vinegar. Needless to say that if you happened to shake them, they foamed at the mouth. I remember using the mixture to blow corks out of tubes when I was a kid. I also use it as an adult to clean really tough stains out of glazed pottery and out of toilets. I wouldn't dream of drinking the mixture-the "END" results could be disastrous. Fortunately, the hospital managed to neutralize the effects of the substance, but the bill had to be horrible in comparison to what a bottle of anti acid would have been.
@TraveOnWorld (854)
• Georgia
29 Dec
About ten years ago some guy dived from a first floor balcony into a kiddies portapool for a Christmas celebration. One of those that clearly says do not dive. Broke his spine. When asked in hospital about the incident, he said "I don't know what I was thinking".
Same with the guy who set off a flare for a New Year's joke right next to a nature reserve whilst fire warnings were given out to every resident the same afternoon. The resulting fire destroyed almost the whole nature reserve. When asked in mitigation of sentencing, he said the exact same thing.
Right there, in their heads they are actually doing the thing called thinking. The scary thing is these people appear entirely normal when you first meet them
1 person likes this
