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Let’s be honest. At some point in our lives, we’ve all likely done or said something that didn’t make us feel like the sharpest tool in the shed.
Though, it’s safe to assume that those things couldn’t have been as bad as the ones on today’s list. Below you will find stories shared by members of the ‘Ask Reddit’ community, after one user asked them about the moments that made them go “Wow, people really are this stupid”. Covering all sorts of cases of “Error 404: Brain Not Found,” they ought to make you feel better about the times you were being stoopid yourself. So scroll down to browse them, and feel free to share your own “Wow, people really are this stupid” stories in the comments section.
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#1
The 2024 presidential election.
In 2016, I thought "There's no way people are stupid enough to vote for THAT guy..."
In 2024, I thought "There's no way people are stupid enough to vote for THAT guy AGAIN..."
RELATED:
#2
The pandemic. I used to really have trouble suspending disbelief watching apocalypse movies or shows. I used to say people aren't that dumb. People aren't going to behave like that.
I guess in a way I was right. It's actually much worse.
#3
I work in info security. That should be reason alone, but here is a good one. My company is very large, maybe 150,000 employees in the healthcare sector. So security is tight. We stick to HIPAA, ISO, NIST, CISA, every abbreviated standards and governance body you can think of.
We routinely send out fake phishing emails to everyone. Some are terrible: Misspelling the company name, nothing but a link and some gibberish, 3rd grade grammar, and so on. The links usually bring you to a website we host that says "You clicked on a phishing link! If this were a real phish, you would have potentially infected our organization, put patient information at risk, cost us millions, and DEFINITELY lost your job. Please visit the HR training page and retake the security training program" or something along those lines.
Sometimes, after they click, people with reply to the original phishing email "I think the webpage is broken. Here is my user name and password so I can sign up for the raffle to meet Taylor Swift."
One of them was my boss's boss.
#4
There have been so many recently, but the one that stands out the most to me is people actually believing that some schools are providing litter boxes for students who identify as cats SO MUCH SO that there is actual legislation being proposed to ban the practice...that isn't actually happening.
#5
There’s a tweet from a national park talking about people complaining how hard the trash cans are to open that read:
“there is considerable overlap between our parks smartest bears and our parks dumbest tourists”.
#6
Lots of great answers, here's my anecdotal story...
I used to work in a bookstore. A woman comes ina asking about the "true story" of Lord of the Rings. I assumed she meant a biography of J.R.R. Tolkein or a book about how the books/movies were made. No. She goes on to explain that she is looking for history books about the Middle Ages that talk about the elves and dwarves. She is specifically interested in elves because her whole family is tall and she thinks she might be descended from elves. I very politely explained to her that the book is fictional (aka not true) and that it calls it Middle Earth not Middle Ages. The books are shelved in the fantasy section because they aren't true. She was visibly taken aback and had tears in her eyes as she left the store. I'm not sure if she was sad that it wasn't true or because she wasn't an elf.
That person *drove* to my store. Someone gave her a driver's license and a job and money.
#7
Any time someone tries to board public transport without letting people off first, then acting indignant that they can't get on.
#8
When i see moms posting about hosting “measles parties” so all the kids can purposely get measles and then become immune. They believe the measles vaccine is dangerous so the obvious answer is then give your kids measles on purpose?
#9
One time, I was in Rome and stopped by a cafe outside the Pantheon for a bite and some coffee. It was early, so I was the only one at the restaurant at this point.
A young woman (like, 25 years old) stopped to eat and she was in a hurry, asking if anything could be prepared to-go. The server declined and said (as an alternative) she could order something easy to prepare, like a salad, to expedite her meal.
The woman agreed, sat down, and asked a series of questions:
- “Can you make a sandwich?” (“yes”)
- “Can I take it to go?” (No, I already said that”)
- “How long will it take” (“a few minutes”)
- “Hmmmmm”
- “What’s a caprese salad?”
- “What’s arugula?”
- “What’s mozzarella?”
- “How long does it take to cook?” (the server started huffing at this point - “it takes NO time to cook, it’s a salad!”)
- “Are you sure it will be fast?” (“Yes, the ingredients just need to be assembled”)
- “How long will it take?” (“Under two minutes”)
- I’m vegetarian, is there any meat?” (“No...”)
The exchange went on for well over 5 minutes as the server described each of the 3 ingredients in the caprese salad and constantly reassured her that it’s quick to make. I was eating a caprese salad, so I tried to interject by showing her what it looked like. The woman kept asking the same questions on a loop, yet she was acting like she was about to miss the bus.
Eventually, the server takes her order (the caprese salad), goes to the kitchen, walks out and tells her she won’t be able to make the salad because the kitchen isn’t open yet.
The young woman perks her head up and cheerily says, “oh! Really? No problem!” and walks off.
I was crying laughing. I was literally eating a caprese salad right next to her, so obviously the kitchen wasn’t closed. I had even showed her the salad a few moments ago. After she walked off, the server turned to me and said, “I’m sorry, I just couldn’t deal with her anymore.”.
#10
I had a client i was working with. she was on her 3rd pregnancy, we were on our way to a doctor's appointment and out of nowhere, she says " i didn't know having s*x could get you pregnant till my 2nd baby" i had to fight for my life to control my expressions. because WHATTTTTT.
#11
I used to say conspiracy theories were my guilty pleasure. I got a kick out of how silly they were… that was until they became mainstream “common knowledge.” Jeezzus m*’s… those are just supposed to be funny stories for the cover of National Enquirer, not s**t we actually believe. I am no longer tickled by conspiracy theories.
#12
Coworker had maxed out her credit card and didn’t know how to be able to use it again. I asked her if she was just making the minimum payment, and she said, “What payment?”
She DIDNT KNOW she had to pay back the money she used on the card!!! Just thought it was “free money”!
#13
I think COVID really opened the floodgates for science/medical disinformation. It's honestly really disheartening as a scientist (toxicologist) working in the biomedical field. I think the disinfo currently circulating that's making me heavy sigh the most is the people who are convinced that the ~chemicals~ in sunscreen is what causes cancer, not the UV rays from the sun. There's absolutely nothing you can say to convince these people otherwise. They heard it from a wellness grifter on TikTok, so it's obviously true.
#15
The church my now ex was attending started a collection for a married couple that was having problems conceiving, and they thought it was time to consult a fertility doctor.
Turn out this couple in their late 20's were not having s*x. When this was discovered, no one at that church thought it was ridiculous. My sexually active girlfriend's reaction was that "It could happen to anyone.".
#16
Before the internet, I used to work in a bookstore. A college age student came in and asked for a book called "Raft of Mice". I looked it up on the inventory system. Nope. I asked her what class was requiring this title. She didn't remember. I asked her if she had a syllabus. No such luck. But...she had written it down and had her notebook with her. Great. I looked at the note and it said "The Wrath" and "Many Mice". Aha! I asked if the author was John Steinbeck. Maybe.
I explained to her that while there were no books with any of the three titles, she had given me, there were two books called "The Grapes of Wrath" and "Of Mice and Men" and both books were by John Steinbeck.
She insisted I was wrong. O.k. She left without purchasing the books. She returned two hours later all huffy and rolled her eyes at me when she purchased the two Steinbeck books. I rang her up, giving her my best smile.
#17
Years ago, someone posted a video of a water spraying from a sprinkler system. She said "What are THEY putting in our water?". She didn't understand why it made a rainbow.
#18
I was trying to tell *anyone* a fun fact I learned about Australia so I started with “you know how the seasons in the southern hemisphere are opposite from ours?” And it took me like 6 people before someone already knew that. THAT WAS NOT THE FUN FACT THATS JUST COMMON KNOWLEDGE. (or so I thought).
#20
Working IT and a guy comes up to me and says that the color printer is not making color copies. I asked to see the original. It was black and white. I asked the guy what color he'd like to show up on the color copy.
#21
I work in healthcare. One very commonly prescribed cough syrup and anti nausea medicine is called phenergan, chemical name promethazine. The number of times a patient or their family member has accused us of giving them m**h because it had m**h in the name is way too d**n high. They insisted the reason they felt sleepy after taking a medication known for causing drowsiness was because we gave them m**h.
Yeah, because m**h is known for making people sleepy /s.
#22
Freshman year in college, I took an astronomy class. The professor gave a "free" funny question at the end of our final. It asked how many moons does Earth have, and one of my friends after class was serious saying that was the hardest test ever and asked me what I put down for the last question. I had to reason with her , like how many moons do you see at night girl???
#23
Coworker refused to vaccinate against COVID because of the microchips in the vaccine... AFTER she had almost died after spending six weeks in the hospital with COVID.
My mental definition of "average intelligence" took a nosedive that day.
#24
I was like 16 in High School French Class.
I can’t recall the exact specifics but someone must’ve asked something along the lines of why certain French words appear to be spelled the same but have slightly different sounds. Anyway, the teacher tells us this is the case with a lot of English words too but we may not realize it. She then writes “See” and “Sea” on the chalkboard.
She tells us that, if we listen closely, when we say the word “sea”, we’ll notice that we’re actually saying “See-ah”. She then had the entire class say “see” and “see-ah” repeatedly to demonstrate this. A lot of my classmates were like “omgggg how have I never realized this!!! That’s so cRaZY!”
This was very much a “everyone is stupid except me” moment. I could not believe what I was witnessing. The teacher was serious by the way.
I was like “has this woman never heard of homophone as a language teacher???”.
#25
I've told this before, but I was training a guy (mid 20's) at work. I was explaining how anycast works, where we'd advertise an IP from multiple locations, and the traffic would typically go to the closest site. We had DCs in Amsterdam, Singapore, San Jose, and Virginia.
So, if the traffic was coming out of Russia, where would it likely go?
"Well, I haven't travelled very much.... I don't know where Russia is."
Ummm, ok, how about if it was coming out of China?
"Like I said, I really haven't travelled very much.... I don't know where China is"
I mean, I've never been to Russia or China, but I can pick them out on a map....
"I just haven't travelled, so I don't know where those are."
Ok.... this is your homework for tonight. You need to be able to name all of the continents by tomorrow.
I will give the guy credit, though. he knew them the next day. And then we started working on countries. :~).
#26
The moment that really made me say, "Wow, people really are this stupid," was when people started eating Tide Pods for internet fame.
#27
Seeing an Instagram influencer promoting turpentine as an all natural, true & trusted way to detox and get rid of parasites and encouraging people to drink a shot of turpentine every two weeks. I guffawed until I saw the like count. Over 250k likes, thousands of shares and hundreds of “natural is best, why did we ever stop doing this?!” comments. I can tell you why; we finally figured out that while turpentine is great for varnishing or uses as a solvent, it really isn’t ideal to ingest.
#28
I was working at a dark sky park and a woman asked me if the statues on the self guided nature hike had RFID. I said no and she started gushing about how nice it was to find a place she wasn’t exposed to cell service or power lines because she is allergic to them. They give her migraines apparently. She needs to be really far away from cell towers or power stations or she suffers miserably.
I didn’t have the heart to tell her we were about a quarter mile from a small power station, she just couldn’t see it because it was behind the tree line.
#30
People online passing around AI images as legitimate photographs when they should be obviously AI to anyone with eyes and a brain.
#31
Worked at a garden center and had multiple people come in asking for their plant to be repotted for whatever reason, prettier pot, “outgrowing its pot” and I had to break the news that their plant was fake. First time I thought I was being pranked.
#32
Whenever people on the internet believe something was intended specifically for THEM, as though there were roughly 3 dozen people on earth and their existence matters as part of every happening and solution. Sometimes this takes the form of "Keanu Reeves" personally trusting them to borrow their money, sometimes that they won 3 million dollars randomly in a lottery they didn't even enter, sometimes that a politician is depending on them personally to share copy pasta or some kind, or drawing some kind of "connection" (ie, looked at 2 different websites) that is supposed to solve a crime hundreds of people have been investigating for decades, or "asking chatGPT" on behalf of another poster as though chatGPT is their own personal secret weapon ... people's inflated sense of personal importance and exceptionality despite living in places where they have first hand knowledge every single day of how many people inhabit the earth. Certainly this cannot just be a survival mechanism, because it certainly isn't promoting survival? How do people believe they are this important ALL the time?
#33
I had to explain to multiple grown adults on separate occasions that no, hippos aren't just female rhinos.
#34
Realizing why most products have warning labels like not to stick a curling iron into any orifice.
#35
I used to work at a pizza shop.
People would REGULARLY gauge a pizzas size by the number of slices.
They wouldnt ask its diameter.
How many slices.
"Hello, could you tell me how many times you cut a pizza? Thats how I determine how big of a pizza it is".
#36
4th Yr at uni. I'm on the top floor of the library and the fire alarm goes off. I'm sure it's just another unwelcome drill, but you have to react as if it's not, right? So I head to the nearest visible fire escape - it turns out to be the main stairwell - and start heading down.
By chance I look down the stairwell at the lower floors and see that a long queue is forming - but the queue of students is trying to leave by the usual entrance/exit, and NONE of them are heading to the actual fire escape, which is in easy line-of-sight of the usual entrance/exit, and down half a flight of stairs. Literally, it is a straight line and a short distance from the entrance/exit on the ground floor of the stairwell to the actual fire escape.
So what do I do? I start heading downstairs to the f*****g fire escape, as you're supposed to. There were at LEAST 40 students in that stairwell, and ALL of them were forming an orderly queue to go back out of the building the same way they came in, and NONE of them were actually heading to the fire escape at the bottom of the stairwell, just a few steps further down from the usual entrance/exit.
To this day I remember getting disapproving looks as I passed the long line of students that was backing up on that stairwell, as if I was "skipping the queue". To this day I remember some of them turning to companions and saying something in their ear - if the alarm hadn't been blaring I'm sure it would have been some withering comments about me. I was so looking forward to Sparta-kicking that fire escape open and shouting "get the H**l out!" at their gormless faces; in a savage twist, a librarian beat me to it by about five seconds, and she ended up chastising not just the hapless queue of students, but also me as well as I walked past her.
Folks, when the fire alarm goes off - or if there really is a fire - don't stop thinking, and don't just look at what everyone else is doing. That library was full of paper and carpeted floors and flammable ceiling panels, and it would just have taken one burst of toxic smoke going into that stairwell and about 50 students would have been found by firefighters stacked up like cordwood, and their exit would have been blocked by the bodies of people who had been struggling to get out, when an actual fire escape was in easy line of sight if they had just turned their head to the right 90 degrees, or if they had cared to read the actual f*****g sign on the wall, which consisted of the words "FIRE ESCAPE" and an arrow pointing in the relevant direction.
#37
Someone asked why teamviewer didn't work when their pc is off, I guess some people think pc's are magical.
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