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Some people like to think the world of themselves. And while there's nothing wrong with a healthy dose of self-assurance and a little bit of cockiness, we might sometimes think we're a tad bit smarter, more good-looking, and better at things than we actually are.

When it comes to intelligence, one study found that 65% of Americans believe they're smarter than the average American. And not all of them are wrong: more educated respondents, for example, correctly assumed their intelligence is above average.

But how do we measure intelligence? Are there any signs that betray a non-intelligent person? Two people online were probably wondering the same thing when they decided to ask what the giveaways of low intelligence are. What do you think, Pandas? Do you agree that we can measure intelligence by a single behavior? Let us know in the comments!

#1

40 Things That Signal Someone Is Not As Intelligent As They Think They Are Using complex words without fully grasping what they mean. I do it sometimes, it makes me sound photosynthesis.

DBD1906 , Anna Shvets/pexels Report

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Savahax
Community Member
2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yeah sometimes I masturbate difficult words into my sentences without knowing what they mean

BrunoVI
Community Member
2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'm not sure I agree with this one. Absorbing new words from conversations with other intelligent people is a definite sign of intelligence, but it may depart you with some vogue motions of con notations.

Sand Ers
Community Member
2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

HeII, it’s not even complex words. If I see “aloud” used one more time to mean “permitted, I just might have an aneurysm.

María Hermida
Community Member
2 months ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I just can't stand spelling mistakes in normal, everyday words. Except if you have dyslexia or a learning disability, being unable to write your own language properly should disqualify you for a lot of things. Making mistakes every now and then is ok, but consistently ignoring basic spelling (their-there, your-you're, and the like) is a sign you don't care. People who have atrocious spelling have zero reading comprehension, and we all know what that leads to.

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linda harbin
Community Member
2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My son used to ask me when he was a young boy, “mom, why do you use such expensive words?" 😁

Greenmantle
Community Member
2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Hmm... I think using plain language to explain complex topics is a sign of greater intelligence than using complex words to describe simpler topics.

J C
Community Member
2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I agree, because in order to teach it, you need to really understand it, not just regurgitate something you read.

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quentariel
Community Member
2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I always talk using really complex words and in writing it's even worse. The problem comes with using foreign languages, where even if I kinda know the basic meaning of the word, in certain context the meaning might be something really wrong.

J C
Community Member
2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

If someone is speaking english and I know that's not their first language, even the attempt that they make to use a complex word scores points for them. I have a lot of respect for people who speak multiple languages, I'm trying to learn a new language now myself.

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DutchPanda
Community Member
2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I do it sometimes and use the wrong difficult words, just to horse around

Lisa Delgado
Community Member
2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My ex-husband used to do this all the time. That and mispronouncing the same words. He thought carafe was pronounced craft.

Richard Graham
Community Member
2 months ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I was correcting some First-year college essays. One person, talking about her life, wrote "Before I go to bed I always extinguish the cat."

The Shark
Community Member
Premium
2 months ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Sounds familiar. 🤔 Literally every time my boyfriend and I simply disagree on something not relationship -related, (such as whether Terrence Howard is a super genius literally claiming 1x1=2), he will repeatedly accuse me of "gaslighting" him every time I present any shred of evidence with a logical argument and fun infographics. 🤦🏼‍♀️ Ironically he's really a very smart guy, despite not believing me when I attempt to explain/show/mime/roleplay what gaslighting ACTUALLY is.

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#2

40 Things That Signal Someone Is Not As Intelligent As They Think They Are They talk about being an alpha male.

mediapunk , Wendel Natan/pexels Report

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Little Wonder
Community Member
2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Alpha men are like Alpha software - not ready for public release, unstable and full of errors.

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#3

40 Things That Signal Someone Is Not As Intelligent As They Think They Are Only use one source of news and believe it fully instead of looking across a number of different sources.

MastodonPristine8986 , Karolina Kaboompics/pexels Report

#5

40 Things That Signal Someone Is Not As Intelligent As They Think They Are Instead of having a good point in an argument, they call you names and insult you.

_90s_Nation_ , Liza Summer/pexels Report

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#6

40 Things That Signal Someone Is Not As Intelligent As They Think They Are Often wrong but never in doubt.

TheGynechiatrist , Samson Katt/pexels Report

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cherry~
Community Member
2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I've noticed that people who are ignorant are often the most confident in their beliefs!

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#7

40 Things That Signal Someone Is Not As Intelligent As They Think They Are Kinda an oddly specific one, but people who brag about doing dangerous things and thinking they have the biggest c*ck in the world for it.

I had a coworker once who was bragging about the fact that he was going over 100 on the freeway that morning and my manager looks at him and says “you were going over 100 in your s**t car with your pregnant girlfriend?”

Sylvaintheg , Taras Makarenko/pexels Report

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CP
Community Member
2 months ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I had a coworker once tell me that when he gets mad, he gets in his car and drives over 100 mph to calm him down. I looked at him like he was nuts and he didn't understand he was doing anything wrong.

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#8

40 Things That Signal Someone Is Not As Intelligent As They Think They Are Absolute insistence that scientists are all lying because they are in the bag of government grants while Ignoring the three scientists who are Making three times money shilling for corporations.

gerryf19 , Pixabay/pexels Report

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Libstak
Community Member
2 months ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Claiming world wide conspiracles in health and science is a big one. It's also dangerous. Reality is there are millions of scientists and doctors combined across the globe. The idea that they would by a factor of hundreds of thousands be complicit in some diabolical plot just doesn't work.

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#9

40 Things That Signal Someone Is Not As Intelligent As They Think They Are Thinking that they know how everything works. Typically, from my own experience, the smarter someone is the more they admit just how little they actually know.

NightBoat86 , Zen Chung/pexels Report

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#10

40 Things That Signal Someone Is Not As Intelligent As They Think They Are Not being able to distinguish facts from opinions.

RollingTwenty21 , Tirachard Kumtanom/pexels Report

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David
Community Member
2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

ooh. relatable. Have a relative who loved to say, "That's YOUR OPINION!" when they would be hit with a fact they didn't like.

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#12

40 Things That Signal Someone Is Not As Intelligent As They Think They Are Laughing or mocking people for asking dumb questions.

Intellectual humility is the only way we learn.

anon , Gary Barnes/pexels Report

#13

40 Things That Signal Someone Is Not As Intelligent As They Think They Are Sexism, racism, ableism.

And, even worse: The toxic assumption they have all the awareness they need and could never learn to do better.

A lack of awareness of your own privilege.

Dry-Criticism-7729 , Karolina Kaboompics/pexels Report

#14

40 Things That Signal Someone Is Not As Intelligent As They Think They Are Not being able to learn from mistakes. There’s a Chinese proverb that says that…

Smart people learn from their mistakes, but the really wise ones learn from other’s mistakes. When it comes to fools, sadly they (edit typo) do NOT learn from anyone’s mistakes.

As long as you can learn from mistakes, you are at least half as more smart than you really need to be to succeed in life…

jakeofheart , Chinmay Singh/pexels Report

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#15

They see the world in black and white. There is no nuance. No understanding of the other side of anything. There is only right and wrong; and conveniently they are alway on the side of ‘right.’.

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#16

40 Things That Signal Someone Is Not As Intelligent As They Think They Are Hate people that don’t look/act/think like them, people who are cruel. Greatest telltale signs. People with low intelligence tend to show distain towards things they don’t understand, or that don’t fit their world view.

Chris210 , Timur Weber /pexels Report

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Libstak
Community Member
2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It's a defensive mechanism to obfuscate any attempt at discovering their actual ignorance.

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#17

40 Things That Signal Someone Is Not As Intelligent As They Think They Are They have strong opinions about topics they don't really even understand the basics of.

dd68516172c58d63f802 , nappy /pexels Report

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David
Community Member
2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Back in the 80s when people could canvas folks at the airport I got off my flight and passed a table where a lady was saying radiation was bad. (basically they were against nuclear power). I worked in nuclear power so I stopped long enough to ask her what kind of radiation she was talking about. She had zero clue. While I recognize there can be valid concerns, she literally knew nothing about radiation or even that there were different kinds. If you are going to try to influence people, at least learn the basics of what you are talking about.

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#18

Celebrity worship i.e. the Kardashians.

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TheBlueBitterfly
Community Member
2 months ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

People whose entire personality revolves around the worship of celebrities, or worship of anything trendy really.

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#19

40 Things That Signal Someone Is Not As Intelligent As They Think They Are I feel like people who ride motorcycles without wearing at least a helmet have low intelligence.

omg-its-bacon , cottonbro studio/pexels Report

#20

40 Things That Signal Someone Is Not As Intelligent As They Think They Are The inability/unwillingness to try understand someone else's point of view, and how their personal experiences contribute to that view. It doesn't mean you have to accept it, or agree with it, just try understand it.

Murky-Fox-200 , Antoni Shkraba/pexels Report

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S Mi
Community Member
2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I will say though, I will not entertain 'points of view' that limit human rights and dignity. I don't entertain bigots.

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#21

Repeating rhetoric, you have heard, but not being able to actually explain what it means.

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Pedantic Panda
Community Member
2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Repeating rhetoric, you have heard, but not being able to actually explain what it means.

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#22

40 Things That Signal Someone Is Not As Intelligent As They Think They Are No self awareness.

fckiforgotmypassword:

Self awareness is a pretty big one. There’s a lot of people I know that would hate themself if they were able to meet themself.

idahoward , cottonbro studio/pexels Report

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#23

40 Things That Signal Someone Is Not As Intelligent As They Think They Are They think they're always right. Not curious / open to learning.

passthepeazzz , Moose Photos/pexels Report

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Stephanie Did It
Community Member
2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Not being willing to change or improve because "that's just the way I am and will always be"

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#24

40 Things That Signal Someone Is Not As Intelligent As They Think They Are When they never questioned the beliefs they grew up with.

Alone_Stress1921 , cottonbro studio/pexels Report

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TheBlueBitterfly
Community Member
2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Or they never question ANYTHING that comes from a person in "authority" i.e. religious leaders, government leaders, parents, teachers. Questioning their statements or actions doesn't mean you immediately disagree with them, just that you want to know WHY before you follow them. Learn. Ask. Research. Think critically before reacting emotionally.

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#25

40 Things That Signal Someone Is Not As Intelligent As They Think They Are They tell you about the time they scored 450 in an online IQ test.

khanfusion:

Over my years of the Early Internet, it was always easy to spot to a pseudo-intellectual by how readily they dropped 200 or close to 200 as their score. Because they didn't know that's a ludicrous score to lie about.

freshprinceofponciau , Alberto G./flickr Report

#26

Well I'm not sure you can reliably guage intelligence by just looking at behaviour, but people who try to get on the train while others are getting off score pretty f**king high in my book.

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#27

They don’t know the difference between their there they’re.

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#28

40 Things That Signal Someone Is Not As Intelligent As They Think They Are They don't just not take the time to listen to other opinions, they actively shoot them down.

EmmaDaBomb:

A lot of debates you see online are going to be people trying to yell over one another. Most of the time, people pick apart grammatical errors or things that they didn't phrase right and use it as the base of their whole argument.

An intellectual debate shouldn't include yelling. Hear another person out before disagreeing with them.

g_dawg_51 , Ivan Samkov/pexels Report

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cherry~
Community Member
2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I know people that will harass others for weeks on end for not agreeing with their message of "peace and love" - which, may I add, is usually some BS that is far from being peaceful or loving

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#29

40 Things That Signal Someone Is Not As Intelligent As They Think They Are They have a hard time understanding how a concept in one context could apply to another context.

conspiracydawg , Karolina Kaboompics/pexels Report

#30

Thinking being louder in an argument means you are winning.

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keyboardtek
Community Member
2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Speaking louder is sometimes the only way to get heard over the constant unending stream of hate from the right wingers.

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#31

They act like they are smarter than anyone else. They really believe they are. Flat out. No matter the education they have, they know more about any subject you bring up.

RedBluffCrazyGuy Report

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nottheactualphoto
Community Member
2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

A proper education - or even life experience - helps you to grasp how profoundly ignorant you are.

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#32

They get angry at seatbelt laws.

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Khavrinen
Community Member
2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I get a little angry at the NEED for seatbelt laws. All the reasons people give for refusing to wear seatbelts sound pretty stupid to me.

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#33

They base their personality on political matters.

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#34

40 Things That Signal Someone Is Not As Intelligent As They Think They Are No critical thought. I knew a lady who got suspicious of the donkey charity adverts on TV because "if they're helping new donkeys, why are they still showing the old ones."

bordercollie_adhd , LML 6768/pexels Report

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cherry~
Community Member
2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Because the old ones were the ones that got helped, while the new donkeys are still being helped…! *facepalm*

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#35

Telling you how smart they are.

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#36

40 Things That Signal Someone Is Not As Intelligent As They Think They Are Not trying to figure something out before they ask for help/ no desire to learn.

blopp_boop , Yan Krukau/pexels Report

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Alexandra
Community Member
2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

There are people who are smart enough to realise that something is above their intellectual pay-grade. Yes, you can 'give it a go', but why would you if there is someone who has the answer already? You don't need to be reinventing the wheel.

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#37

Inability to process hypotheticals and the IF scenario. That's really the main development people have gone through intellectually over the latest handful of generations. We can entertain, not just what is, but what might be or what could've been. It helps us think in abstract ways that allows us to for example categorize information which is immensele useful in the types of tasks a modern society requires. It helps us with basic skills like arithmetic ("IF you have 5 apples and then remove two how ma--" "But I don't have 5 apples though"). One of the most important abilities it gives us is the ability to put ourselves in someone else's place ("How would you feel IF you were treated the way you treat others?" "I'm not, though").

GuitakuPPH Report

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Savahax
Community Member
2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It means reflection and it's the final boss of intelligence. Very difficult to master and no, I haven't either. But being able to learn on reflection alone is a virtue

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#38

Repeating conspiracies they have not really researched. Because as someone that has, it's like the writer of most of them didn't think the logic of it to fill completion, so you run into a story with no purpose, ending, motive, or even plot. How a ton of them have to be believed in total isolation but this specifically they are willing to give the benefit of the doubt, not the reasonable or rational and educated argument.

OldNight6318 Report

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Sand Ers
Community Member
2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Like insisting that there’s a Satanic cult sacrificing children in the basement of a preschool - a building on a solid concrete slab with no basement or a trace of evidence there ever was one.

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#39

People who "don't get" art or literature. *"It's just a picture/statue." "Reading is lame."*.

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Stephanie Did It
Community Member
2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

People who actually brag about never having read a book or being unable to write and spell, then laughing about it. I'd be ashamed. (Talking about those who ignored their schooling)

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#40

Their entire personality is based off trendy identities based off Tiktok, Tumblr or Twitter.

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Greenmantle
Community Member
2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That's more of a psychological issue than a cognitive intelligence issue

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#41

40 Things That Signal Someone Is Not As Intelligent As They Think They Are They can't tell the difference between arguing and engaging in constructive discussion. Also they get angry when you make them work there brain.

Affectionate-War-786 , Diva Plavalaguna/pexels Report

#42

When they make a claim and you ask for sources to how they reached that conclusion and they just keep saying look it up yourself the information is out there.

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reuben kift
Community Member
2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

OMG this! Don't make BS claims and then not back that s**t up. Even if it doesn't add up in the end or someone flags bad research or falsified data, at least admit you were wrong.

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#44

Not being able to put yourself in the other persons shoes and and understand why they may feel the way they do about the situation.

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#45

Believers of starsign mumbo jumbo.

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oktopus
Community Member
2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

As a Capricorn, a very practical star sign, I'm always amazed how people fall for this stuff.

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#46

If you go around assessing people's intelligence as if it was some videogame stat, you should be your own first suspect.

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#48

40 Things That Signal Someone Is Not As Intelligent As They Think They Are No opinions, they simply absorb others opinions and way of thinking without context and make it their own, if you ask them why, they'll reply with idk.

SinisterDick , Mikhail Nilov /pexels Report

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#49

People using talking points to sound smart, but miss the topic entirely.

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Savahax
Community Member
2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Ah yes, of course! That’s just classic *quantum recursion bias.* It’s when the photons in your brain resonate at a suboptimal frequency due to an overabundance of carbonated beverages, causing you to misalign your conversational vectors. Happens all the time. You’ll want to recalibrate with at least three memes and a Wikipedia deep dive on the mating habits of jellyfish to fix it. Trust me, I’m basically a neuroscientist.

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#50

Posting f**king arithmetic problems with basic order of operations s**t and claiming “oNlY gENiuSeS cAn sOLvE tHiS”

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David
Community Member
2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The folks doing the original posts are not dumb, just the folks rushing in to correct them. It's a ploy to get comments and activity on an account and people continue to fall for it.

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