How to Live Beside Stupid People Without Losing Your Damn Mind

Their stupidity isn’t worth your time or your blood pressure

image created out of a wee bit of frustration

I recently read two Medium articles about stupidity. Both explained why it spreads and why people with a functioning brain sometimes keep their mouths shut just to survive the day.

But neither told how the hell to live beside stupid people. That was the part I wanted.

Unless you’ve found an island with no internet, no neighbors, and no election season, you’re stuck with them. After enough coffee and years of watching this shit, I’ve learned one thing. Stop trying to win every argument, even though it ain’t easy.

Sometimes you have to speak up, especially when the crap being said could hurt someone. But you don’t have to waste half your day arguing with someone who has no interest in being right and no ability to admit being wrong.

Ask what would change their mind. If the answer is nothing, or they start throwing unrelated crap at you, you’re done. Don’t argue, don’t pull up another study, and don’t let your coffee get cold.

You need to know the difference between someone who doesn’t know and someone who refuses to know. Someone who doesn’t know may listen and change their mind. Someone who refuses to know will stare at better evidence and still choose the bullshit.

Those people will waste every minute you give them and still walk away convinced they won. Let them think that because your time is worth more than their need to be wrong in public.

You’re not the unpaid fact-checker for every relative, stranger, or loudmouth who thinks confidence counts as proof. Correct the claim when it could hurt someone, affect a real decision, or fool people who may not know better.

The best clue comes after they’ve been shown they’re wrong. Some people stop, think, and admit it. The idiots start scrambling for another excuse because being wrong isn’t the problem. Admitting it is.

And before anybody gets too smug, we’ve all had our moments. We’ve repeated crap we never checked, defended something stupid, or kept talking long after the facts had already killed the argument.

The facts catch up with all of us. Own it and move on, or keep making an ass of yourself because you can’t spit out three words: I was wrong.

Living beside stupid people isn’t about winning arguments. It’s knowing when to speak, when to stop, and when to walk away before somebody else’s stupidity raises your blood pressure and ruins a perfectly good cup of coffee. I speak from experience.

What’s your method?

[embed]The Orwellian Pushback The Government Orders You to Swallow the Rewritemedium.com

[embed]Trump Found the Red Scare and Called It a Thought Communist is the baitmedium.com

[embed]The Most American Thing We Do What Is America?medium.com

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