- Foolishness and stupidity are not remotely the same thing. - Adherence to norms doesn't necessarily take intelligence, it takes diligence. Those norms are mo

- Foolishness and stupidity are not remotely the same thing. - Adherence to norms doesn't necessarily take intelligence, it takes diligence. Those norms are mostly there as 'social rules' so that we all get along and prosper - and it's often difficult to tell 'which ones are important and not'. Sometimes norms are important merely as norms, i.e. 'standard modes of behaviour'. Language is like this - there's nothing inherently moral or 'good' about language but it helps immensely that we are all on the same page. It doesn't take intelligence to break norms either, but it definitely takes intelligence to develop reasonable opinions about them. Doing so is risky and can appear 'foolish' - which is not stupid. Sometimes we view arbitrary breaking of norms and 'not being serious' as stupid, when often it's not. - People have always been stupid, but we now have the internet to highlight stupidity - A lot of our own behaviours are influenced by emotional/ideological memes, which is why there are so many out and about, and even 'intelligent people' fall for them all day long. All major news outlets are written for a 'dumbed down' audience - which includes a lot of intelligent people. - Ideology. Even smart people are utterly confounded and made stupid by their ideologies. Carl Marx said some smart things, but a lot of utterly stupid things that continue to be 'orthodox' in some groups. Every 'touchy subject' is piled upon with stupidity because there isn't any nuance allowed in the discussion.