Yes, of course they stay, because there are stupid, lazy, crazy idiots. need words for them too.
this post was submitted on 04 Mar 2026
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Showerthoughts
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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
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- When you’re a kid, you don’t realize you’re also watching your mom and dad grow up.
- More dreams have been destroyed by alarm clocks than anything else
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You don't believe in free will, OP? Just curious.
No.
Why not, if I may ask?
So far as I have been shown:
People ask not to be born.
People ask not to be born to the parents they are blessed or cursed with.
People ask not for the environment within which their formative formative years occur.
So far as I have been shown, no angel descents from the heavens to bestow upon everyone equally the magical gift of just knowing right from wrong. Indeed, the very idea of right and wrong are wholly dependent on the circumstance of one's birth. Did their mother whisper them tales of evil men who would lay with another, or did a kindly neighbor teach them the value of kindness and friendship? Or were they beset by men addled by inherited hatred and were they taught to wield a gun before they even knew love? 'Tis true most people will know pain from pleasure, but even what you perceive as pain and what as pleasure depends upon how you formed before you set eyes on the world. As we share most other features that make us human, we can assume what hurts you will hurt another, what pleases you will please another - but there is ever an exception to every rule. It is but a human tendency to associate most pleasure with good, and most pain as evil. Useful one to be sure, if one values the well-being of one's kin. But an universal truth it is not.
If you say some people turn to evil no matter how they were taught: how then could they choose to be different? If you say some people turn kind regardless of any suffering they had to endure: how then could they have chosen otherwise?
Furthermore, you yourself do not even know the nature of the next thought before it has already revealed itself. Think now of an animal.
Did you know what animal would manifest in your mind before it already found purchase within it?
If you say you may deliberate a thought before a choice is made, how did the choice to deliberate come about? You do not know if you will ponder a choice for an eternity before you have already done so. You may say "I'll think about it" but you do not know if you have thought about it, before you have thought about it. You did not choose the tendency. And if you say, you chose to learn: how did you know you were going to choose to learn, before you were learning it?
No, I do not believe in free will. It is but an artifact of ideologies that cater to our more base desire of being utterly beyond reproach of other women and men. It pleases the zealot in our hearts who wants to think of itself as the paragon of virtue. For if there is no absolute good or evil, and no inherent ability to choose one from the other, how would it partake in the joy of judging others to be lesser than it? It could not. It would have to see itself as no better than the most heinous of criminals, but for the circumstances of its life. This is the bitterest of pills to swallow, and thus even those of us most conscious to these realities gag when faced with that which truly offends us. Which is why this is no mere lever you pull in your brain and have it be set once and for all. No, it takes lifelong vigilance, facing the zealot every time it reaches for the gavel and fixing it with your unrelenting attention, until it recedes back into the darkest corner of your heart. There is may merely be an advisor to your desire to do good in the world, but no more.
Now then, you're only upset about this because you were programmed to be. Those people calling other aren't bad for calling someone stupid or lazy if they don't have free will.
If you assume free will doesn't exist, evil or good doesn't either. Murder or curing cancer, it's like the sun shining, and inavoidable, neutral fact. Of course you may dismiss this as rambling idiocy, but I won't hold it against a clockwork automaton.
Those people calling other aren’t bad for calling someone stupid or lazy if they don’t have free will.
You have grasped it.
If you assume free will doesn’t exist, evil or good doesn’t either.
Correct.
Murder or curing cancer, it’s like the sun shining, and inavoidable, neutral fact.
Correct.
Of course you may dismiss this as rambling idiocy, but I won’t hold it against a clockwork automaton.
No, you have grasped exactly what I said, at least on the level of the intellect. I realize of course you resist as it goes against what you merely WISH to be true. This I cannot do anything about, as you said. But you have understood perfectly. Well done!
That makes sense.
I get what you're saying, but it's quite difficult when people are constantly doing so many stupid, stupid things.
Yeah exactly, the mentioned words like 'stupid' or 'lazy' aren't exclusive to describing neurodivergency at all. In fact I'd argue that's a tiny minority of their use.
I think in most cases people are using stupid to describe the action or thing a person is doing and not the person themselves, people are doing stupid stuff all the time, it's both bad and good of course, because often times the stupid things can be delightful as well. I guess it's just a part of being human but it's so very frustrating that we rely on some of those people to vote when they have chose to not take life seriously or think about the consequences for other people.
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Surely bonhoeffer would want the word stupid to stay in the vocabulary.
He contends that Christians have relied so much on Christ's forgiveness that they do not challenge themselves enough in actually following his word to their best ability, instead relying on God's grace to save them when they fall.
Whoa that guy nailed it.
You can be autistic, ADHD, have some horrible upbringing, have some other genetic thing.. you can have any of those things, but you're still accountable for your actions.
Knowing that someone has those things absolutely helps increase empathy and understanding and assist them with those things.
But a killer is still a killer, even if they did it while suffering with other issues.
Accountability? Yes, accountability is good. It’s proper and necessary to address harmful actions and ensure steps are taken to prevent recurrence. This is entirely possible, and likely more effective, without resorting to insult.
Insults are just punitive justice in a social context: a counterproductive way to discharge outrage rather than foster change. It is to temporarily soothe the egoic zealot lurking within the hearts of all. The research is clear: whether in criminal justice or interpersonal conflict, rehabilitative approaches (clear boundaries, restorative dialogue, support) reduce harm more effectively than punishment alone.
To believe that hate may be remedied with further hate is to mistake fire for water.
Ah, first world boredom.
Stupid, idiot, crazy, and lazy(?) have not been used for mental health long enough that their meaning has diverged significantly enough that they are no longer comparable to words like retard.
I still suffer from the Dunning Kruger Effect...
It seems like every single person these days is neurodivergent so I just treat them normal. I guess thats normalising it.
When we call people stupid/lazy we aren't describing them as a person its usually describing their behaviour or actions in the moment. If an "normal" person doesnt want to get out of bed thats lazy. If an adhd person doesnt want to get out of bed thats still lazy.
There is genuinely a prevailing theory which basically asserts that the genes that make us neurodivergent are uniquely human, that neurodivergence doesn't exist in other species, etc.
Sci show did a little video on it the other day. Better info here than what I know, undoubtedly. Sci show is well vetted content. Im some guy laying in his bed avoiding the start of his day.
Interesting I'll check that out. Also I'm some guy laying in bed avoiding the end of my day
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Add to the list:
Asshole, cretin, piece of shit, maniac, psychopath, pedophile, pervert, jerk, narcissist, self-centered prick, dickhead, douchebag, and incel.
There's probably some history behind why people act the way they do. Maybe they were molested as a child, so that's why they find sex with kids appealing.
Edit: I just remembered I made a similar comment in an Ask Lemmy thread recently.
I'm not one to call people names with the intention of hurting their feelings, and I don't even believe in free will to begin with. But if I were to call someone an idiot, it wouldn't come from the assumption that they actively choose to be one or that they could choose otherwise. No, they're helplessly an idiot - and I'm just making a factual statement about the world.
I’m not looking in their file and saying “ahh yea it says you have the stupid. I guess I’m calling you stupid.”
"Retard" has been making a comeback, too, I think.
Ehhhh, idk about that one, I’ve only heard it in alt-right social circles of high schoolers that I left long ago (I was never really part of the group, but they were the only people I knew). Everyone else I know would kill you if you called someone a “retard”
This is why I try to be mindful of using those words. They're really stuck in there but I understand that it would be hypocritical of me to call for understanding towards mental health and cognitive issues and then fault people for not having the cognitive capacity I think they "should" have.
I definitely fail frequently because I get angry when people spout total nonsense, even hateful stuff. I try not to let that get the better of me though.
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Society is confused and their issue is that lazy stupid and crazy people are using the label neurodivergent to offset their deficiencies, taken away actual help from true neurodivergent people.
I hate to say it but those words, especially said by someone else to describe a person they refuse to empathize with, I take it with a grain of salt.
Stupid & insane can mean not by choice and as we’ve seen in the case of politics, it can also be a choice, or more like very stupid and insane decisions.
That said it can also be words used by a shitty society meant to extract as much “value” from everything as possible and sees people as a commodity to be used up and discarded.
So every asshole with a LinkedIn calling people stupid, lazy or insane has me wondering if they’re not the ones who are so unaware they call anything that questions the status quo sTuPiD, or refusing to follow others blindly and just do what their told, LaZy.
If those who refuse to participate in this assbackwards “community” we’ve created are iNsAnE.