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Just how stupid can people be?

(101 Posts)
H1954 Sat 02-Oct-21 10:20:22

I've just read a news item.......a number of motorists followed a tanker for some distance.........to a building site. The tanker was carrying mortar but the motorist assumed it was loaded with fuel.
One of the motorists then had the nerve to berate the tanker driver for not stopping to say what his tanker was loaded with.

PippaZ Mon 04-Oct-21 15:15:36

inthewrongroom

Mark Twain said ...

"consider the average intelligence of the common man, then realise 50% are even stupider"

How true!!

It is true. But remember the lower 50% may contain some on this forum - or even on this post.

Callistemon Mon 04-Oct-21 15:15:32

You're on form today, LauraNorder!

LauraNorder Mon 04-Oct-21 15:06:37

I thought Freisan gave the best or was it an udder one

Callistemon Mon 04-Oct-21 14:54:06

SueDonim

Not following a tanker, Callistemon but one of my DC once thought full-fat, semi-skimmed and skimmed milk came from different types of cow! ???

Of course it does!

Full fat milk comes from Jersey and Guernsey cows ? ?
Or at least the best clotted cream does!

SueDonim Mon 04-Oct-21 14:46:10

Not following a tanker, Callistemon but one of my DC once thought full-fat, semi-skimmed and skimmed milk came from different types of cow! ???

inthewrongroom Mon 04-Oct-21 14:34:30

Mark Twain said ...

"consider the average intelligence of the common man, then realise 50% are even stupider"

How true!!

Callistemon Mon 04-Oct-21 14:30:29

LauraNorder

Fancy berating the driver, he’s not going to cement good relationships with that attitude.
Mortar the point he should have come up with a concrete proposal for signage on lorries.

Groan ???

Anyone followed a milk tanker yet?

Alegrias1 Mon 04-Oct-21 14:10:59

Actually I don't find it funny at all, check my posts. I find it disconcerting. I find it ridiculous that there are people who think its acceptable to drive for miles following a tanker that they know nothing about, then get upset with the driver for not being what they want him to be.

PippaZ Mon 04-Oct-21 14:03:39

Alegrais. It's fine. You find it funny. I don't. Life is like that and we still survive. You have said how you feel about the people concerned. No one is stopping you; I am just expressing a different opinion.

Alegrias1 Mon 04-Oct-21 13:54:59

I even wonder if it is true, as the internet survives on these sorts of tales that so often turn out to be the fruit of someone's imagination.

Maybe Mr Anderson was hallucinating,

www.bing.com/videos/search?q=following+tanker+bbc&docid=13913285565974&mid=78C429103C82F17612BF78C429103C82F17612BF&view=detail&FORM=VIRE

Minerva Mon 04-Oct-21 13:50:09

SueDonim ??

PippaZ Mon 04-Oct-21 13:48:23

Minerva

I can’t make out who is supposed to be attacking whom. It’s just a funny story. Even following a fuel tanker is silly since it could be empty.

In London it really is a problem now. I’m dreading the local garage getting fuel because the result will be that we can’t drive anywhere as the whole area immediately snarls up with delivery drivers and buses caught in the jams They had a delivery on Saturday, People were driving down the wrong side of the road to escape the queue and a big van was driving the wrong side and swinging on to the pavement each time it met a car driving the right way. I was walking and it was very alarming. By the way I haven’t bought fuel since this whole thing started up. If only everyone with half a tank full had waited until they really need fuel.

It's a nasty "funny story", Minerva. I even wonder if it is true, as the internet survives on these sorts of tales that so often turn out to be the fruit of someone's imagination.

Even if it is true, it is all over that same internet at the expense of the people concerned. It's a very negative form of so-called "humour".

Essentially it is there to boost the ego of the teller. They are saying "me good/clever/a winner/included in our group; you (the other person or people) are stupid/a loser/exclude from our group."

It is often a form of humour used by dysfunctional groups. I do hope that's not what we are.

Minerva Mon 04-Oct-21 13:48:00

I just remembered what this story reminded me of. In the days when we had thick smoggy fogs and little street lighting in the countryside, early 50s, my father was driving home and following the car lights in the distance as he was unable to see where he was going. After a long drive the car in front stopped and the driver got out and informed Father that he had arrived at his home, a huge mansion in the Sussex countryside. Poor Father had to crawl back down the long winding driveway and continue his scary journey until he reached a lit area and could work out where he was. He arrived home more than a little frazzled.

SueDonim Mon 04-Oct-21 13:47:46

grin Gabrielle!

Janejudge my local FB pages are an altogether more sedate affair. This morning’s excitement was a report of a cow heading westwards along a busy road. That post was followed shortly by another saying the beast was now heading east. ?

Gabrielle56 Mon 04-Oct-21 13:41:43

SueDonim

Let’s not throw any more brick bats around at these poor benighted drivers. grin

My dd was telling me about her local Facebook group. Someone had posted a rant about anti-social behaviour by kids in the local park and commented that ‘the little sh*ts should be birched’.

In the responses someone said ‘Do you know where your own little sh*t was last night? Because I can tell you - he was in the park, behaving anti-socially with all his pals.’

Ranting Man replied ‘How dare you call my son a little sh*t?’ and then a general free-for-all broke out online. My dd said it was most entertaining! ?

Maybe if he'd called him a "big sh*t" he'd be more receptive?????

katy1950 Mon 04-Oct-21 13:40:20

To quote Forrest Gump stupid is as stupid does

sazz1 Mon 04-Oct-21 13:32:08

This is mainly 'fuelled' by the media. We have had no trouble getting petrol or diesel in my family. May have had to drive to 2 or 3 different garages or go early morning/late afternoon but have always found one with fuel. Family in a large city have found the same.
In Devon where we are there isn't a problem- some villages have problems but towns ok. Panic buying has caused this with idiots filling cans when they already have full tanks. Pure stupidity.

Minerva Mon 04-Oct-21 13:30:56

I can’t make out who is supposed to be attacking whom. It’s just a funny story. Even following a fuel tanker is silly since it could be empty.

In London it really is a problem now. I’m dreading the local garage getting fuel because the result will be that we can’t drive anywhere as the whole area immediately snarls up with delivery drivers and buses caught in the jams They had a delivery on Saturday, People were driving down the wrong side of the road to escape the queue and a big van was driving the wrong side and swinging on to the pavement each time it met a car driving the right way. I was walking and it was very alarming. By the way I haven’t bought fuel since this whole thing started up. If only everyone with half a tank full had waited until they really need fuel.

Lucca Mon 04-Oct-21 13:23:23

Scottiebear

The older I get the less I cease to be amazed by some people's stupidity. Although, once in a while, I see or hear something that leaves me incredulous.

Sorry in advance but my first thought was “yes me too, when I heard the Brexit referendum result”.

SueDonim Mon 04-Oct-21 13:21:50

Even if it had been a fuel tanker, you wouldn’t have known if it was petrol, diesel or even jet grade fuel.

Plunger Mon 04-Oct-21 13:20:02

Just driven passed a petrol station , coned off and tanker unloading. Am I going to post online where? No way! The petrol station 300m from our house has fuel plus a 200m queue blocking a major roundabout and driveways. I am not going to aid idiots who don't need fuel to the detriment of those who do. I have approx 120miles left in my tank, normally I would fill up when a quarter full but will wait until things improve which should be in a couple of days.

Alegrias1 Mon 04-Oct-21 13:19:13

No, I'm sorry. There's no doubt at all in my mind that the current shortages, lack of drivers and all the rest of it can be laid at the feet of the government. I subscribe to the idea that governments are there to make things better, not make them worse.

But I really have no sympathy at all with anybody who thinks following a mortar truck is a sensible thing to so. Or even something who sees a queue and thinks they'll join it.

I don't really want people without rational brains driving around, either, if we can help it.

PippaZ Mon 04-Oct-21 13:13:50

Alegrias1

PippaZ

Grandmabatty

Maybe they were desperate? I know it's a funny story but I can imagine if you had been desperate for fuel you might follow a likely tanker. It detracts from the very real problems we have just now.

Just another nasty, attacking thread Grandmabatty. Obviously some people never make a mistake.

I think if I were desperate for fuel I would know better than follow a random big truck, using up my fuel at the same time.

I hope I would too Alegrais. But there is no knowing what anxiety and insecurity will do to us and our thinking. They can cut off our rational brain.

Suggestions:

1) Don't add to people's already heightened anxiety after living with a pandemic for nearly two years.

2) Don't be surprised when people stop expecting a government to help them. If you show yourself unable to anticipate problems, manage difficult circumstances without lies, and then still not handle them appropriately, then that is what people will learn to expect.

3) There is a saying about poverty: "Bad decisions don't make people poor; poverty leads to bad decisions". I imagine the same applies to insecurity which many feel under this government.

Ali08 Mon 04-Oct-21 12:55:38

Yup, I'd say that was very stupid indeed!!

Alegrias1 Mon 04-Oct-21 12:39:49

PippaZ

Grandmabatty

Maybe they were desperate? I know it's a funny story but I can imagine if you had been desperate for fuel you might follow a likely tanker. It detracts from the very real problems we have just now.

Just another nasty, attacking thread Grandmabatty. Obviously some people never make a mistake.

I think if I were desperate for fuel I would know better than follow a random big truck, using up my fuel at the same time.