No one knows how to talk to each other anymore. I have always thought of myself as a good conversationalist. But people are dumb.
Now, mostly what I hear when I say something is: “What did you say?”—because the geriatrics (who will be 82 million strong out of an entire population of 342 million according to the Census Bureau) can’t hear anything. “Where is this all coming from?”—because if I switch topics suddenly, people are confused because they’re dumb. “You have such a weird of speaking.”—because, I admit, I do tend to mumble and want to get everything I have to say out of my mouth all at once. But also people are dumb.
I’m desperate to communicate with people, to try to explain myself. But I rarely feel that I have conveyed what I wanted to convey. It’s “The Problem of Red,” as I call it after some blowhard philosopher whose name I can’t remember, because when I try to ask someone, they don’t know. Because they’re dumb.
When I say, “red,” are you seeing in your mind the same thing I’m seeing in my mind. What you should take from that is that communication is not only fraught, but virtually impossible. It’s just like that the dummies of the world, i.e., all of us, manage to understand each other. Because we’re all dumb.
And some truly vicious comments in response to things I have tried to say: “Have you ever had a thought that you didn’t immediately verbalize?..Why do I need to know that?…You talk way too much.” That’s what I’ve been saying: people are dumb.
FUCK. YOU. SO. HARD.
Those are not valid responses to things people say. Maybe THEY don’t talk ENOUGH. Besides, I’m really smart and have smart things to say. Or I’m trying to find out about the world. Or I’m parlaying vital information. But don’t nobody wanna hear it. They’re stressed out from work (give me a freaking break!). They can’t handle the overstimulation of more information. I actually get that, but they need to manage that feeling, not lash out at me. But, again, people are fucking dumb.
When someone asks me a question, I’ve now come to a point where I say, “No one asks questions anymore. Google it!” Of course, then there’s the problem that people don’t know how to vet information on the Internet, and now AI provides those ridiculous answers without sourcing them. Because people are dumb.