If I go along with the premise that people are merely "acting" stupid, that is all the more reason to casually dismiss them. I can have patience with people that have limited capabilities, but people who choose to act stupid?
Being semantically correct isn't particularly relevant. It's how you deal with consistent stupidity (and I'm not talking about the occasional brainfart or error of judgement).
Whether or not casually dismissing stupidity is the right thing to do depends completely on the context, not on whether you use the correct semantics to do so. I people are being viciously stupid (as in "gay people shouldn't have equal rights"), I will dismiss them as stupid, and I don't give a flying fuck if they are acting or being stupid.
And on the flip side there are also situations in which it is useful to figure out why people do or say stupid things. It's context that determines if my judgement is poor, not semantics.
I can have patience with people that have limited capabilities, but people who choose to act stupid?
You assume it's a choice, as if at the brink of decision, someone says, "I'll do the stupid thing." But in real life, you see people motivated by ambition, pride, fear and desire. And if that drives you do stupid things, to argue for stupid positions, does that make you stupid? Well, if limit ourselves to "stupid" always being contextual, if we understand "is stupid" as "acts stupid in a given context", then sure.
Likewise, if someone doesn't care about the things you care about, and consequently doesn't focus their attention on them to the same degree you might, does that make them stupid? Or just uninterested?
It's not a semantic issue. You are dismissing people outright, you are creating an alternate universe in your mind that through hubris drifts further and further from reality. Invariably, there's something else going on, something more interesting and more true to reality than just "he's stupid", and you miss that. I'm not arguing that you necessarily should engage with such people, but neither should you box them off with pat pronouncements on intellectual capacity.
If I go along with the premise that people are merely "acting" stupid, that is all the more reason to casually dismiss them. I can have patience with people that have limited capabilities, but people who choose to act stupid?
Being semantically correct isn't particularly relevant. It's how you deal with consistent stupidity (and I'm not talking about the occasional brainfart or error of judgement).
Whether or not casually dismissing stupidity is the right thing to do depends completely on the context, not on whether you use the correct semantics to do so. I people are being viciously stupid (as in "gay people shouldn't have equal rights"), I will dismiss them as stupid, and I don't give a flying fuck if they are acting or being stupid.
And on the flip side there are also situations in which it is useful to figure out why people do or say stupid things. It's context that determines if my judgement is poor, not semantics.