Monday, April 18, 2011

Never underestimate human stupidity

Note to self - Pet peeve actualization:
Human beings that actively pretend to be stupid.
I'll elaborate: People who actually act like they are less intelligent than they truly are... Some people have been acting this way for so long, they cannot distinguish the difference between their "reality" and, well... reality. (These people are normally in the realm of the mid-life crisis age group range. The younger the individual is, the more likely they are to be "transparent" and easy to identify.)

I have put a lot of thought into this and I stand by my decision to label this pet peeve, as it has had a longstanding effect on my life in the workplace. I find it absolutely bizarre. I find it as more a nuisance than a threat in the greater scheme of things now that I've identified the demon.

That behavior impacts my moral/ethical brain nodes and the resounding synapse is a simple statement: pretending or acting can easily be found in the same action as lying. For me, lying brings everything to a grinding halt in terms of the natural progression of any interaction or relationship. For me, lying is pure ending in lieu of a complete and utter lack of malleability. What can you do with a liar?

Simple, obvious foundation realities about knowing a pathological liar:
-Go ahead and assume everything the liar has ever told you was a lie in one way or another.
-Take note of the quote: "All fiction is based on fact."
-Take note of my experience-based quote: "Never underestimate human stupidity."
(Their alternate realities are based on something, you'll just never know what.)
-Consider their intentions... not good or impure.
(Why? Well go ahead and you trust them if you want, but that is probably a bad idea because of words like "pathological.")
-Know there is a gradient to everything - not all pathological liars are easily detectable, consider frequency of lying.
-Good luck with continued correspondence. (I normally disengage all social interaction with an identified pathological liar, it saves time and energy as well as eliminating the negative element and, simultaneously, you are in the right by not enabling further pathological behavior.)

... It's just freaky when the person pretending to be stupid is your boss.
... I think that's what spurred this whole pet peeve actualization.

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