i'm continually shocked at how illiterate people are happy to be.
i'm not talking about folks in adult reading programs gleefully discovering the joy of printed verse for the first time, i'm talking "Well, Hell, how's i supposed t' know that things dangerous wit' all them warning and caution signs all over it?" kind of illiteracy.
Fact is, people hate to read. They can't be bothered to spend the energy to read something before firing off their own statements. It's not that they can't RTFM, they just can't be bothered. In some respects, it's like they suffer from a form of schizophrenia.
Kinda makes me wonder what these folks are like in real life.
Honey? Could you pass the salad?Why are you accusing me of Communism!That's nice dear. The salad?That's not true! i only said that social networks were started by Karl MarxOh nevermind, i'll get it myselfMyspace is like cheese!
No wonder "reality" TV has such a following. They probably think they're watching a Buzby Berkeley movie.
Along the same lines as Shep's story (pun intended!!!), there's invariably a crowd waiting in line to use the "fast-lane" automated checkouts at my nearby grocery store. Which means I can walk straight to the actual human checkout counters and be out in two minutes.
Continuing with the stories of stupidity…
I pre-paid my parking garage ticket at the little vending machine. I then drive to the exit, bypassing eight or so cars in the human line. This makes me feel a little smug for planning ahead.
There are two people in front of me in the automated line, so I think I'll be out there in 30 seconds max. Except that no one is moving. About 45 seconds later, the car in front of me (#2 in the line) has their passenger get out and go to the pre-pay machine. Car #1 is still oblivious to the fact that no one is coming to help their moronic selves. After about 2+ minutes of trying and failing to figure out the pre-pay machine (c'mon, it has PICTOGRAMS!), the driver of #2 gets out to help his (presumably) wife. Fortunately, the driver of car #1 appears to notice this and sends his (also presumably) wife to pre-pay as well, where the same cycle is repeated.
All in all, every car I passed smugly has gone through the human line and I was stuck behind 2 sets illiterate morons, having failed reading Spanish, English, and Pictogramese (simplified).
In total over 5 minutes. Either karma was trying to convince me to be humble or just trying to get me to ride my bike more.
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I think you're zeroing in on a subset of the eternal human condition of "people are deliberately obtuse."
Yesterday, f'rinstance — at lunch, I went to the bank machine in the lobby at work, which is in the entryway to the bank proper. There were about six people in line ahead of me, all with deposit envelopes and/or *&^% account books, which take forever to update in those machines.
Glance into the bank: there are two tellers at the counter doing nothing. Chatting away.
So I walk into the bank, give a teller my bank card, take out my money, and leave. The line at the automated teller hasn't moved. The person I was in line behind — who saw me get in line, saw me walk to the teller, and is now seeing me walk out, cash in hand, gazes at me with glazed eyes and a slack jaw. Not even processing what just happened.
People fail to amaze me with brainlaziness any more.