What's wrong with these people? Have they all been lobotomized or something? Done too many chemicals in their youth? What are they thinking?

I don't get it.

After Bozo the Bison Man's antics in Yellowstone the other week, I hoped we'd seen the end of this behavior for a while.

I was so wrong.

Now we have this latest incarnation of God's Own Fool who decides he wants to make selfies with Alaskan brown bears while they're feeding on the spawning salmon.

Luckily (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it), this clown wasn't attacked and mauled/killed. He'll probably face some stiff fines, and possible jail time. Alaska isn't very lenient with people who fool with its wildlife resources.

But really...is this the beginning of an epidemic of stupidity around wild animals? I guess maybe stuff like this is just getting more media coverage?

Then we have that character (is he a member of our species, I wonder) who spanks the hippo at the Los Angeles Zoo. I read that report and my eyes rolled so far back in my head, I thought I'd gone blind. I don't even wanna talk about it.

Someone's gonna get killed pretty soon if this keeps up. I reckon it'll show up on YouTube. No skin off my nose.

Natural Selection.

You know, I really don't care if the animals take out idiots like those 2 as I think it's just improving the gene pool, but the problem is that the animals would probably suffer or be put down because of the actions of these idiots getting killed by the animals. And neither brown bears or hippos are animals that you want to tick off as they can take you out just like that.

Stupidity bred from ignorance.
People are so removed from the natural world in today's society that they're completely ignorant of it.
Living in climate controlled homes with their only connection to the outside world being through their devices and video games.
The dumbing down caused by "smart" phone.
Makes me think of this:

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Keep on Chooglin'

If ignorance and downright stupidity were contagious, I'd have been dead years ago . . .

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Wisdom comes thru fear . . .

Well said. The most astute and sensible post I've read on this forum in years.

Bravo!

Snubby is dead on. Modern people are completely disconnected from the natural world. And then you add in the "Disney effect" where they actually believe that wild animals are friendly, playful creatures that just want to be your friend.
Ignorance of the natural world has led to many tragedies. These people just didn't know any better and did stupid things. Ignorance can be cured with education. But you can't fix stupid.

I find it a bit depressing that with the advent of devices capable of opening up views of the world never before possible it seems some become even more isolated without the benefit of interacting with people or nature one on one.
That and the fact these same people are out there breeding and voting.

I have living proof right down the street that it is passed from generation to generation. I wish I had pictures but they're camera shy. lee

The selfie idea as a tool to self-thin the herd has been around for awhile.

Some time ago the Russian police saw a need to publish the attached “safe selfie” guide.

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yesterday on yahoo ,side story reported a sexual assault on an adult Pit Bull.Needless to say no interest in reading story beyond headline.But there are some very sick people out there.

As a friend of mine likes to say "half the population is here to entertain the other half".

It sure could be contagious. There seems to
be a lot of it going around.

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In Omnia Paratus

Dunning & Kruger, in their semi-famous study, found, and I paraphrase: Stupid people are too stupid (lack the intellectual skills) to recognize just how stupid they are. This causes a false sense of self-assurance in their assessment of reality and their response to it.

Ignorance must be tolerated at least to some degree but stupid knew better and went right on, thereby forfeiting any sympathy.

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On the whistle draw and fire 6

these are the results when society labors under the delusion that humans are at the top of the food chain.....

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There's nowt so queer as folk

Stupidity, through casual contact on social media, certainly is contagious. It's an epidemic with/for people who spend a lot of their time seeking 'likes'.

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Thread Killer.

Had the guy been mauled by a bear he probably would have sued the state of Alaska for allowing the bear to maul him.

I'm thinking you also probably find it as incredibly ironic as I do.

The bad thing is...the more people do insane things like this, the more people see people doing it, the more people will think it's somehow "okay" to do it. In this look-at-me society, everyone wants to star in their own movie...they want their very own fifteen minutes.

As another forum member mentions here, it's almost always the animal who gets the blame and suffers the punishment when a human is injured doing stupid wild animal tricks. We punish the animal for being an animal, for doing what it's been doing since before we even knew how to build a fire.

More stupidity here:

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Smith. And Wesson. And Me!

Contagious? Maybe...Hereditary? Definitely!

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Why duck?? It's a 9mm!

You get it from your kids...

Contagious? Pshaw. Come on down to sunny Florida, where it's waaaaay past epidemic to endemic. As proof, I offer Florida Man | Daily Headlines about Florida Man, the Worst Superhero Ever. ... you can't make up this stuff.

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50 Years of DSOTM

The old saying was "I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy". That may not be the case any longer. The more news I read the more I just shake my head.

...the same thing a few weeks ago. It's plague proportions.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

Or the Coca-Cola commercials that that make grown polar bears look as friendly as beagles.

I think OSHA and the various safety agencies as well as product liability laws have helped to propagate stupidity. Before them, natural selection was allowed to do its thing. Now?

Hope this thread isn't going the "ban warning labels" and "stupid should hurt" route. Already beat to death.
Nothing wrong with ignorance. The rocket scientist knows very little of brain surgery. Mankind has advanced only by overcoming ignorance of the natural process and his own limitations. I think what we're seeing is deliberate ignorance combined with a lack of self control within what Watchdog called a "look at me" society causing a giant leap way past run of the mill stupid.
I can only hope this is a self correcting trend but for reasons of forum decorum I'll refrain from mentioning the obvious.

Yep, beat to death. It didn't take this thread long to veer off into areas I didn't intend for it to go. It didn't start off to be a stupidity-in-general thread with everyone giving examples of different types and incidents of stupidity.

I couldn't have said it better, myself. The key word there is "deliberate". That was indeed the primary point I wanted to make by starting the thread.

Too much edumacation, not enough smart.

Go Darwin!!!

What gets me is that many of these people have a normal IQ, an education etc. But, so many simply refuse to actually think.

If it isn't given to them by a TV program. Face Book or an App they will not figure it out on their own. A huge percentage simply refuse to engage their brains. Thankfully for them breathing is a reflex.

Simply ask anyone with a HS or higher education this question. I have a hole. It is 3 ft deep, 18" wide and 2 yds long. What is its volume. They all got taught everything they needed to solve this simple problem many times in school. Mostly you will get a blank stare, some will drag out their phone. Rarely will you get 27 cu ft.

An insult to beagles. 😎

Great white sharks call people
like these Happy Meals

I think Ron White the comedian said it best, "today if you eyes fail you can have lasiks surgery and restore your sight to 20/20 vision. If you experience hearing loss, they can instill a device that enables you to hear as well as the day you were born...but you can't fix stupid!"

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"The Dude abides"

As my grandma used to say.....Bless their lil'o heart it ain't all their fault

During my career, I saw similar acts of gross stupidity committed in national parks, beginning in the 1980s before anyone had personal electronic devices. Some people leave their brains at home when they go on vacation. Others simply decide they can flaunt the warnings and regulations to get the picture they want, or the attention of others. Approaching, hazing, and feeding wildlife were common offenses that continue today.