Intelligence and Retardation: The Difference Between Being Smart, Ignorant, Stupid or Batshit Crazy
The most fascinating people are other people. Who is you?
The first month of 2025 was a most eventful one, from start to finish. This is of absolutely no surprise and should not be to any slightly retarded person. Indeed, I deploy embarrassing terms because you see, the terms are yours, and you define them at your leisure. If these terms, of your language, mean nothing and are something that you do not represent, why do they exist in your lexicon?
Any impoverished soul thinking I will ever be complicit in helping others lie to themselves is stupid. Though it is likely there be a reason and pathology, genetically, clinically, socially or otherwise for such stupidity, I haven’t the luxury of concern nor sympathy for it. I am fully challenged with the preoccupation of making certain that I don’t lie to myself.
That makes me smart, albeit mildly.
Of the retarded, the stupid, the smart and the ignorant among us, it is the ignorant that are statistically most innocent and, in the grand scheme of things, ignorance is often benign. Because to be ignorant simply means not to know(ledge). Place a rudimentary textbook in front of me on quantum mechanics or nuclear physics, and I will show you the most ignorant specimen one might conjure even if they were tripping on acid. The caveat emptor to the former being that more often than not, especially in this society, ignorance is willful if not induced.
Bummer, dude.
Intelligence: The Intelliphant In the room
I often tell the tale of my middle child of which there are three; all of whom are Black Women in the United States. That child was a hellion from the day she entered the world. Not in any sinister sense, but she was the polar opposite of her older sister who was so quiet and mild mannered that her mother and I often had to check on her to see if she was alive.
The middle child of whom I speak, owned the universe and her most valuable holding was her father. All of my girls are “daddy’s babies” (as was I), but that middle one was a tyrant. As such, she would often follow me into the kitchen (I am a fairly accomplished chef) as a toddler. She and her older sister are from my first marriage and our home had an exceptionally large kitchen. So, knowing that the most dangerous place in a home for young children is the kitchen, I would keep close eye on her as there was no denying her entry.
She would watch me, from a distance, and I would give her a wooden spoon or some other such implement to play with. If she dared come close to the stove/oven I would sternly admonish her: “that’s hot, stay away.” But, alas, toddlers get quicker everyday and their advancements in mobility quantitatively multiply.
One day I took my eyes off of her for no more than five seconds, and that little heffer stealthily got past me and touched the oven door. She screamed in agony and I was beside myself with concern. I snatched her up and yelled: “that’s hot! Daddy told you…hot!” Luckily, she was uninjured but she never, ever forgot the meaning of “hot.”
She would see vapor coming from one’s mouth on a cold day and say ”hot!” She would not come near the fireplace. If she saw steam coming from the shower, she would run screaming “hot!” She is now in her early 30’s and I am willing to bet she has similar behavior.
My point here is, the kid was intelligent in that she had/has the ability to learn from past experiences. That, in my subjective opinion, is what intelligence is at its core. The opposite of which is retarded. The retarded toddler would have touched the oven door, the pain would have registered, the distress would have been experienced but…that child would continue touching the hot door because of an inability to learn from past experience. Thusly, making the child retarded. That rather lengthy preamble leads me to the United States and “Western culture.”
The United States, in particular, seems incapable of learning from past experience. So much so that it appears to double down on prior bad acts. One term I did not expound upon is “insanity.” The quote "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results" is often attributed to Albert Einstein, though there is no evidence that he actually said it. An inconsequential and minor annoyance at best because whoever said it, said it and lieth they did not.
Later today, I will expound on this first month of 2025 in what is known as Amerika. It has been profound and there is more profundity to follow. From domestic and international policy, to global threats, to justice itself. However, before tackling these matters I find myself grappling with the most primary and fundamental query of all and that is: does this society possess any intelligence or is it, by default or design, simply retarded? Or, is it smart, ignorant, stupid or batshit crazy?
A hybrid, perhaps?
Who’s who in this zoo?
Amerikkka is profoundly broken. Bread and circus will keep most at bay until the Gazpacho comes for them.
Mr. Kenyatta I had a similar experience with my kids. For some reason, my 18 month old daughter, would bite her baby sister when she nursed. I said, no, that hurts, but words did no good. One afternoon, I was distracted and my toddler bit her baby sister hard. When I saw the bite marks, I picked up my toddler's arm, bit her hard, then pointed to baby's bite marks and said, that hurts.
The look on my toddler's face told the story. Since she had never been hurt before, she did not know what the word hurt meant. Once she'd been bitten she understood what hurt meant, and never hurt her sister again. I learned to help connect words with reality so that my children understood me.