Stupidity Knows No Bounds

Somewhere, I don’t remember where, I read the Internet is making us stupid.

I don’t think that is true, but it does seem to bring out the stupid remarks at times and I have come to believe that it certainly shows that some folks are really gullible and yes, some are patently stupid about some things.

The gullible category are those folks that don’t stop to think about what they read. These are the folks that thought “Wow!” when they read about the Chinese Money Bags. and dutifully forwarded it to a bunch of folks and may have posted it in Facebook. I don’t think these folks are stupid, but if they really believe this, they are certainly gullible.

The money bag hoax is only one of many that keep re-appearing. There are the hoax emails that claim if you forward the email to oh so many friends, you will get money from Microsoft, or some other entity, for every time the email is forwarded. Really folks? There is absolutely no way to track how many times an email is forwarded, but even if there was a way, it’s highly unlikely anyone would pay anyone any money.

There are the emails purporting to be written by some famous person, like Bill Cosby. and a lot of other folks.

Then there are the nasty emails denigrating a very prominent politician. I won’t go into that , but I am sure you know what I mean. I think that comes into the category ‘If you repeat something often enough, you start to believe it.’

I once heard someone say “It must be true, I read it in the newspaper.  They couldn’t print it if it wasn’t true!” I am afraid this is the attitude of a lot of folks when it comes to the Internet!

For some really funny stuff about stupid people, read some of the things on this site, Not Always Right.  While I am not sure all of the things written about folks here are entirely true, I am beginning to think it’s entirely possible!

My father once said “Don’t believe everything you hear and don’t believe half of what you think you see”. He was certainly right!

Martha