April 29th, 2024
Human beings are objectively both the most intelligent and stupidest species on the planet and, yes, that includes you.
One of my favorite writers, Brian Klaas, wrote yet another phenomenal essay last week about this topic and, while you should read the whole thing, I just want to share the piece that proves how idiotic we absolutely, inarguably are.
When animals receive information from reality, they understand it as fact and change their behavior accordingly. See, animals don’t have the luxury of ignoring facts, because ignoring the truth of the world around them would likely lead to death.
Which leads us to the point:
Humans are the only species on the planet who will be presented with a fact and ignore or outright refuse it based on their beliefs. A large percentage of humanity is actually resilient to evidence.
And when you spell it out like this, you realize how utterly moronic we are.
At his show the other night, Daniel Sloss (per always) had a lot of insightful things to say about free speech and empathy and saying hard but true things and getting away with it.
Something I’ve seen with my writing as the years go on is that I appear to be getting away with it more frequently.
There are times, right before I hit the “post” button, that I think (while feeling my underarms pool with sweat), “people are going to be mad about this.”
It isn’t an unwarranted fear. I have, in the past, made people big mad. Sometimes it’s my fault, and sometimes it’s just not. So ultimately, over time, I’ve realized two things:
- I am responsible for my own words and actions, and as a human being and writer, I am responsible for having empathy for my fellows and for telling the truth to the best of my ability.
- I am not responsible for other grown ass adults’ feelings.
And those two points have informed what I do and they’ve served me well, and they allow me the ability to do things like start this essay by calling you stupid.
There’s a trust there and a sense that I don’t say things just to rile you up. Granted, I do try to rile you up, but not for the sake of riling.
Daniel also said that you will never find a good comedian who whines that you can’t say anything anymore. That pairs with another often-discussed sentiment: the idea that you actually can say anything as long as you’re talented enough to get away with it, like a student who makes the teacher laugh and avoids discipline.
People will always find ways to be offended, even when the reason they’re offended is true and supported by facts.
And we are not responsible for grown ass adults’ feelings when they’re hurt based solely on their beliefs, especially when even the stupidest animal on the planet knows better than that.
The Den 