this post was submitted on 15 Jun 2026
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Being old is not an excuse for being dumb.
I’m not talking about knowing stuff, but the inherent knowing-that-you-don’t-know.
Do you not know how aging works?
There's a line between having full blown dementia and being entirely helpless with out help. And a random 65 year old just being fucking stupid cause they are "old" and stopped trying to think for themselves.
A LOT of elderly are still entirely of sound mind and just even attempting to think for themselves. Hell it is not even just the elderly. People let themselves go fucking retarded the moment they have to actually use their brain for anything outside their expertise or day to day tasks.
Its insanely frustrating to watch.
Yeah some times the scammers just get lucky or someone has a brain fart. It happens we all have off days.
But dear fuck do some people just never try.
No they aren't, even without dementia or other cognitive conditions, aging causes mental decline. This is widely researched and known.
Yes Cognitive decline is well researched and starts way earlier than your 60s, but its also an umbrella term for a lot of things.
Reaction and processing speed goes down starting from your mid 20s, short and long term memory gradually declines in your 30s and your vocabulary decreases from the mid 40s. But the ability for complex judgement that's important here shouldn't start declining until your 60s. If you are in your mid 60s and are completely helpless when it comes to technologie that's been around for 10+ years, you either are in the early stages of a cognitive condition like dementia or you are willfully ignorant cause you can't be bothered to learn.
There are a few other causes, like excessive lead exposure (which is especially common for Americans) and malnourishment during you development (often the case for developing nations), but at least the former can be classified as a neurological condition.
All of the things you mention that decline are part of being capable of good judgement. Being disconnected from the latest changes is also extremely common the older one gets, which removes contextual information necessary for good judgment as well. For people who don't have kids in their life, or a connection to younger generations, that disconnect is amplified, as will be the increasing case for millenials all through Gen alpha.
Yep. Our parents always told us to not believe everything on the internet.
And now, they believe anything from some random shitbag overseas.
Something that the boomer generation is notoriously shit at
It kind of is. There is are a lot of people in the early stages of dementia or Alzheimer's who get easily confused and are aware that they can't trust their own memory. It's very easy to see how they could be talked into trusting someone they shouldn't.
Idk I think everyone is dumb somewhere and I dont think people can generally identity where that is.
Exactly.
“You just won Beyoncé tickets!”
“Wow I didn’t even enter a contest, but ok!”
—A certain percentage of people off the street regardless of age
You can wither use a credit card responsibly, or not have one. Credit card companies could probably do more here by making an "old person card" that can't be used to make online orders or phone orders, but until then, these people shouldn't be using credit cards with high limits.