Bingo. Even racist, fascism-lover Henry Ford understood that concept.
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So, actors or other artists who need to pay the rent while having the mental freedom to work on their art/performance are ‘dumb’? And parents trying to fit paid employment around their kids’ schedules (and the other parent’s, to avoid paying for childcare)?
Did you know that people registering as having ‘genius’ intelligence often have these kinds of jobs? And of course people with disabilities, including neurodivergence, who are often well above average in intelligence.
The job of middle manager can be a lot easier than retail or restaurant work because it doesn’t require so much constant thinking and planning. Customer service is hard, especially because so many customers are dumb.
ETA: Party’s on me, everyone!
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A lot of people seem to feel personally attacked here, I’m not making any kind of value judgement or saying a particular job is dumb. I’ve worked in a supermarket though, and that was definitely dumb work. It’s hard to automate because packaging has a lot of different shapes. Note that I never suggested that dumb work doesn’t require physical effort. I was also initially thinking more about the old-timey factory work that’s largely been automated already. You know, “move a thing from this tub to this drying rack, repeat for 8 hours.”
@Bonivus_elderheart re: throw in heathcare. As a non-American, I kind of automatically assumed that. UBS would be pretty useless if it wouldn’t cover basic needs.
@smulder Someone else thought that I meant actors who can’t live off their passion are dumb, which I’m pretty sure I didn’t write. That’s one of the examples I think UBS would be great for. I didn’t mean to suggest everyone should equate their worth with what ends up in their bank account at the end of the month, just that there are many people who, absent of work, don’t find themselves having anything to do all day, and that that’s not necessarily something they feel good about.
@anon29537550 My dad was a nurse and I’ve worked in a hospital myself. There is some dumb work in hospitals, but being a nurse definitely isn’t it.
@MagicFox Not a cardiologist. It’s a reference to Aztec human sacrifice practices. I’ve cleaned floors for a living. It’s dumb work. Hard to automate effectively up to a point, sure, but it doesn’t require a whole lot of smarts.
@anon67050589 I wasn’t talking about any of that, so I’d really prefer if you didn’t put words in my mouth. The things you’re listing smell more like failings of the system to me.
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Emphatic disagreement with your opinion ≠ personal attack.
Calling anything “dumb” (let alone anyone) is a signifier of derision, regardless to intent.
Phrasing matters.
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:: nods ::
To put the US back on par with the rest of the world, We’d need to implement (in no particular order):
Fix the insane tax loopholes that allow the rich to get richer (along with their associated corporates)
Universal Basic Income (UBI / UBS)
Universal Health care
Universal Housing
However, each one of those is an electrified rail that will vaporize any politician that touches it, because that is unfortunately how this country currently operates. We’ll have to be sneaky about it, and do it in such a way that it can’t easily be undone by the next Regan / Bush / Trump wannabe that oozes into office.
I do apologize for how I phrase things; even though English is my primary language, it’s run through an ADHD muddled brain and at times comes out not quite how it was intended. (hence the /sarcasm and other emote tags.)
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I’m honestly not sure why you’re apologizing.
That wasn’t you who posted such a poorly phrased sentiment there.
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… and if we make sure these people run out of money and end up homeless as well, surely that will rectify this critical lack of meaning in their lives
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… I’ve done stupid things in the past that have turned right around and bit me.
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Okay…
That’s understandable, though not very relevant to this current conversation.
There was a statement made which practically reeked of apathy and classism, and you were not the person who posted it…
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That’s still missing the point. Doing most of the work you’re characterizing as “dumb” is just as challenging to do well as being a business executive or architect. Doing a public or customer-facing job is very difficult to do at an expert level and is often at or just above minimum wage regardless of the skill level of the person doing it.
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That, along with the argument that paying a living wage would shut down those businesses, putting the workers out of work.
Why do you hate workers so much, Citizen? /s
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That’s very true. I’d also like to add the notion that, even if a job doesn’t require much thought to complete, it still requires some degree of knowledge and skill to do well. Take cleaning floors as an example: use the wrong product and/or method and it may do damage to the flooring material, requiring expensive repair or replacement. Doing it incorrectly may also create slip-and-fall hazards, and that can lead to injury and, possibly, lawsuits.
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I will say there are in fact turn-off-your-brain-and-just-do-the-task labour jobs, as I have done them when I was between jobs in a highly technical professional field.
What has always struck me is how differently I was treated as a labourer vs as a professional. I’m the same person at both jobs and deserve the same dignities.
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Please, show me where I say that, because I distinctly remember saying the opposite.
This part is true.
This part is incorrect. A lot of idiots work as corporate executives and other so-called “elite” jobs. And a lot of really smart people are working in fast food.
The idea that one’s job reflects one’s intelligence is an elitist stereotype that tricks us into believing that the execs deserve to be where they are while the minimum wage earners deserve to be where they are. But that’s not actually how the world works.
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I like the 2nd part, but disagree with the first. I mean, technically there are dumb people, but I don’t think it’s an inevitability.
I think people grow up in the wrong circumstances and don’t get the opportunities they might need to “un-dumbify” themselves.
In the “nature/nurture” argument I fall strongly on the side of “nurture” when it comes to this kind of thing.
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Oh, yeah, with the right education, any child can grow up to be just about anything. Some people just never get the chance, while others cover their ears and yell “La, la, la!” at the first mention of education, but the preponderance of stupidity is not predetermined in our DNA. It is the culmination of a great many personal and societal choices.
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They aren’t. People are disagreeing with you. Those are not the same thing (full credit to @Melizmatic for saying it first)
It should also be pointed out that there are plenty of options when you feel you are being misunderstood other than digging in. You can edit the wording of your post that was miscommunicated or just make a correction in a later post. Interpreting the disagreement as a personal attack and complaining of being misunderstood has proven to not be a successful strategy on the BBS, historically.
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