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It seems that a lot of people equate education with intelligence. If you're more educated, you must be smarter than someone who's less educated. That's the way that a lot of people act, generally speaking.
This idea filters down into nearly every discussion on this board. In nearly every topic, we see claims that one political group is smarter than another, based solely on statistics regarding the education levels of the groups being discussed.
That's stupid.
I'm a high school dropout. I'm also college educated. Which group are you going to put me in? For most on the left here, that would depend on the topic and my position on it. If I took a conservative position, I'd be a high school dropout and stupid. If I took the Leftist position, I'd be well educated and intelligent.
My experience in life is that smart people are smart, and stupid people are stupid. Education has nothing to do with that metric. Bill Gates is a high school dropout and there are PhDs that can't figure out how to do more than flip burgers.
Being smart is about understanding how to use the knowledge you have. Being able to recite a fact or figure on demand isn't terribly useful. I can get that from Google. We don't need people who sit around and wait for a question to be asked before they put their knowledge to use. Those are the stupid people, and education doesn't play a part in that.
The smart people take advantage of the knowledge they have, whether it's a little or a lot, and apply it to everything. They don't have to be told that a piece of information needs to be considered. They know it intrinsically. They see opportunities where stupid people see obstacles.
What do you think? Do you agree? Disagree? Does a college education make you smart?
When I use "smart" and "dumb" in this forum, I only mean it in the political sense. There are people who are very smart in other fields and very dumb with politics, and vice-versa.
Education plays a part, but common sense and a basic understanding of human nature plays a much bigger part.
A "smart" political person knows that:
Going into debt is unwise, with the exception of defense in time of war.
It is better to let people provide for themselves than to provide for them.
People will tend to take advantage of welfare systems, so safeguards must be in place.
Immigration should be regulated.
Taxes should be low, reasonable, and easy to understand.
Government must be efficient and spending must be kept under control.
Etc.
For many, education today means looking up info on the internet and proclaiming to be an expert and claiming superiority over others because they parrot supposed experts.
If I research COVID and vaccines on the web, some info is deemed as valid, and other info is deemed as invalid. The people choosing the validity of this information are not "experts"... they are low level Big Tech employees with political agendas. This is not education.
There's a difference between educated (went to college and beyond), smart (could mean high IQ, skilled in one's field or well-rounded/ knowledgeable about many things) and street smart (common sense).
And people in any of those categories could be socially inept which makes them appear duller than they would appear if they had social skills.
For purposes of this forum if you want to be smart (imo):
1) Craft a logical point, support it with reasonable references.
2) Stay away from blanket statements about libs, cons etc. and you look especially dumb when you play silly name calling games like Trumptard or Heels Up Harris etc.
3) Don't make strong statements about things you have no education in such as economics or finance but ESPECIALLY statistics.
There's a difference between educated (went to college and beyond), smart (could mean high IQ, skilled in one's field or well-rounded/ knowledgeable about many things) and street smart (common sense).
And people in any of those categories could be socially inept which makes them appear duller than they would appear if they had social skills.
I work with a guy like that.
He's a human resources nightmare because he is unabashedly politically incorrect, arrogant and very vocal about it.
He uses it as an offensive tool to set control of a situation or relationship right from the start. It can be very off-putting to say the least and I have no idea why he hasn't been fired numerous times over.
Except he's also VERY intelligent and VERY good at his job and would likely be difficult to replace, which probably affords him some protection in that regard.
He probably could be working at a higher level position in a bigger more prestigious company but his personality keeps him from doing so.
Smart is being reasonably intelligent while also having common sense and street smarts. Being a genius is something different that not many of us are
I was friends With a genius and had the privilege of him being my coworker. He was really something special and now he left the corporate world to be a professor after getting his PhD. His mental abilities were unbelievable, He was very thoughtful but very quiet and reserved he didn’t seek attention and was very modest about his amazing intelligence. I felt like a complete dope in his presence but he was a really awesome person to be around and never made anyone feel like they were inferior to him. Although he was politically liberal he never got nasty or angry with people who he had a philosophical difference with. I wish more people were like him
Wise, experienced, common sense, academically gifted and 'smart' are all different things. Needs more context.
How much more do you need? The thread title is the question at hand. I spelled out pretty clearly in the OP what I think the answer to that is, and I only mentioned one of the terms you used, so I don't know why you brought them into the discussion.
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