"Stupid" is a learning disability.

[AstIsis]

They may not necessarily be stupid, but like the rest of this country they have forgotten what "personal responsibility" means. Everyone is dealt good and bad cards in life, what you choose to do with them is important. Then again, no one is accountable for the bad choices they make. It is generally the parents, or societies fault.

 

[Looney]

Originally posted by: Tyler

Originally posted by: KingNothing
That said, my uncle is dyslexic, but he learned to deal with it and is incredibly smart. Has patents on machines he made, renovated a house himself, etc.

Good for him. But, just as an example, if he had failed out of school and got a job at McDonald's and never learned to read, all the while saying "I can't do it cause I'm dyslexic" you could see why "stupid" would be a good description.

Lots of things can be overcome by someone who is intelligent. Those who use them as excuses for thier stupidity really aren't fooling anyone into thinking they're actually smart.

You're generalizing people... you're generalizing people by your assumption that people always generalize those with a learning disorder as saying they really are intelligent, if it weren't for their learning disability. But that's not true. Similiar to how there are intelligent and stupid people in the normal population, there are intelligent and stupid people in those with learning disabilities as well. You can tell the difference because stupid people are always stupid... but those that are intelligent with a learning disability, you'll see them occasionally as intelligent... it's a spark that you see now and then, and you always say to them 'but you can do so much better... i've seen you do good work.' I was ALWAYS told this when i was younger... unfortunately back then, ADD wasn't as well known.

 

[dighn]

Originally posted by: Tyler

Originally posted by: dighn
crazy? not necessarily. for example being lazy != being crazy

you are simplifying this issue way too much

Laziness is an emotional issue?

maybe not. i'm not sure, but the point remains that this is a complex issue

 

[Hanpan]

I'm not saying someone with ADD is stupid, I'm saying that someone who uses ADD as an excuse to not even try is stupid. I've seen people with ADD do just fine in school and work and whatever they try to do. Actually, they hardly ever mention ADD and they definitely don't think of themselves as disabled.

Again, one should consider the case a bit more carefully. It could be that these people have tried to conform to the rigid parameters of traditional education and have been unable to do so, and have therefore given up. To judge them as stupid or lazy again shows a lack of understanding for the situation. However I do agree that to simply state "I Have ADD therefore I cannot do this" is a simpletons excuse for lack of effort. There are however legitmate cases, where a disorder such as ADD may in fact preclude someone from achiecing acedemic sucess in the traditional form.

 

[Looney]

It really does annoy me that people like you are so shortsighted. That just because you're not afflicted by it, that it can't possibly be true. There are much more intelligent people than you, who have spent years studying this, who say it exists and is true... that learning disabilities are affecting some children from achieving. Yet you, who probably doesn't know anybody with the affliction, but who's information probably comes from daytime talk show, claim it doesn't exist and it's only an easy way out.

 

[SagaLore]

Originally posted by: Tyler
I'm tired of all these dumb people claiming that they're really intelligent, except that they have some learning disability. If your disability manifests itself solely through your inability to understand things, follow directions, and pay attention, then I'm sorry but the disability you have is commonly referred to as "stupidity". If you're claiming things like "He's actually very smart, but he's failing all his classes because he has ADD", he's not actually smart. He's stupid. If you want to claim that the specific type of stupidity affecting him is ADD, go ahead and claim that, but he's still stupid.

Stupid is the ultimate learning disability. All these "diseases" and "disabilties" are just subsets and offshoots.

If I see any of you people who were in the "California Insanity" thread complaining about PC BS in here disagreeing with me, I'm calling you a hypocrite. You know that "learning disability" is just a PC term for "not smart".

And yes, I already know I'm mean and insensitive.

I agree and disagree.

I consider myself extremely intelligent (no ego here) but I failed a lot of my classes in college because I'm lazy and didn't do the homework. Of course, the laziness on my part was rather stupid...

There is no ADD. It's another made up medical term. It's a combination of parental irresponsibility, food allergies, electronic media, and typical behaivor. I'll explain:
1. More and more parents are paying less and less attention to their kids. When you have both parents working fulltime, and then spending a lot of their personal time doing recreational stuff rather than just spending time with their kids, the child feels ignored and beings to crave attention. Attention deficit? You bet yea, but not the way it's defined.
2. Everything has color additivies and preservatives added these days. Especially kids food, when even ketchup has to be colored green or purple. Recent studies have shown that "jumpy" kids can be caused by a very subtle allergic reaction to these dyes.
3. Commercials every 6 minutes. Shows only 30 minutes long. As TV becomes the major passtime for kids, they are literally trained into paying attention for only short periods of time.
4. Notice that only boys get diagnosed with ADD? The average young male child naturally is more hyper. It's just the way we are. The male brain is literally wired differently than the female. Males are directly connected to the physical aggresiveness response, whereas females are directly connected to the emotional interaction response. Girls can site there and learn for hours straight without doing handstands in their chair because they're made that way. Why do we insist on drugging kids for being... kids?

You're not being mean or insensitive in this case. You're just being blunt and justified.

 

[notfred]

Originally posted by: Moralpanic
It really does annoy me that people like you are so shortsighted. That just because you're not afflicted by it, that it can't possibly be true. There are much more intelligent people than you, who have spent years studying this, who say it exists and is true... that learning disabilities are affecting some children from achieving. Yet you, who probably doesn't know anybody with the affliction, but who's information probably comes from daytime talk show, claim it doesn't exist and it's only an easy way out.

What exactly is it that annoys you? Does it annoy you that I think you're stupid? Unless you failed out of school and blamed it on ADD or whatever, then I'm not saying you're stupid. Does it annoy you that I equated "learning disability" and "not smart"? Are you disabled? if not, the statement doesn't apply to you.

 

[SagaLore]

Originally posted by: Viper GTS
How are you off base? Re-read what you said:

You know that "learning disability" is just a PC term for "not smart".

If you'd ever dealt with someone with ADD you would know that is not the case. If you used an example other than ADD perhaps I could agree with you.

There are lots of truly stupid people out there, right now you're acting like one of them.

Viper GTS

He didn't say people with ADD are stupid. He said that people who choose not to overcome ADD and use ADD as an excuse is stupid.

 

[Looney]

Originally posted by: Tyler

Originally posted by: Moralpanic
It really does annoy me that people like you are so shortsighted. That just because you're not afflicted by it, that it can't possibly be true. There are much more intelligent people than you, who have spent years studying this, who say it exists and is true... that learning disabilities are affecting some children from achieving. Yet you, who probably doesn't know anybody with the affliction, but who's information probably comes from daytime talk show, claim it doesn't exist and it's only an easy way out.

What exactly is it that annoys you? Does it annoy you that I think you're stupid? Unless you failed out of school and blamed it on ADD or whatever, then I'm not saying you're stupid. Does it annoy you that I equated "learning disability" and "not smart"? Are you disabled? if not, the statement doesn't apply to you.

Did you not read my above posts? I do have ADD, and had a horrible time with it.

 

[chiwawa626]

What i hate even more is the kids who have no reason to be dumb but do it on purpose...then they say "I can be smart if i want to, but im too lazy"...that is damn stupid.

 

[Looney]

Everybody thought i was stupid when i was growing up... only a couple of teachers, and my friends thought i was smart. Even i thought i was stupid. But sometimes when we talked about stuff we learned in class, even though i scored the lowest and got the worst grades, my understand and retention of the stuff was better than theirs. I wouldn't even have gone to university if it weren't for them... i always thought of myself as stupid, because i always failed in class. But thankfully they at least boosted my ego enough for me to try.