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Curing Willful Stupidity in America
Why some people cling to bad ideas, and what we can do.
One of my cousins insists on placing his coffee on the dashboard when he drives. He refuses to use the cup holders. Not because they’re too small. “It’s not safe,” he tells me. This after literally dousing his wife last year during a hard turn, giving her second degree burns.
With his own eyes, my cousin has observed what happens when he doesn’t use the cup holders. But he won’t change his position.
And his wife still rides shotgun with him.
So there’s really two cases of willful stupidity at work here.
Another of my relatives brags about throwing trash on the side of the road. “It helps me find my way around,” he says.
One day I finally questioned him on this logic. He admitted that he’d never actually been able to tell the difference between his trash and what could’ve been someone else’s. So littering actually didn’t help him navigate.
A few weeks later, he was back to bragging. And I had to lock myself in the bathroom for ten minutes to silently scream.
