Unless those who play dumb are in which case they cannont help themselves can they? You cannot be what you aren't nor can you comprehend that which is beyond your capacity. We are what we are after all, aren't we? :)
What is the difference between him playing dumb and ignoring a person.
My minds feeling a bit flaccid right now. A better answer another time maybe.
Mum had a friend who played dumb with men.
She started out as a model for Vogue,
but went on to write children's stories and then became general manager for programming and broadcasting children's TV for ABC.
Watching her in action playing dumb was amazing.
She's ask something like, "Oh Philip, I simply cannot work out which way to turn my watch for daylight saving. Can you help me?" Then she'd make and elaborate mess of it until he'd rescued her, and he'd be feeling good about himself, the total knight in shining armour.
Another way of playing dumb is to pretend to know nothing about something to find out how much the other bloke knows - or to play poker.
Millions of permutations.
But I think most dumbness is lack of practise and lack of training in mental skills. The mind is like a muscle. The less you use it, the more it atrophies.
Thinking takes effort.
If a high proportion grow fat from lack of physical exercise, just how many of us have thin minds from lack of workouts?
Who is "him" Sunshine?
Dumb coming from lazy disinterest is one thing hartfire. But "dumb" coming from they know what's happening and insist it isn't. They deny when they know. They lie when they know. They cannot be blamed if they did not know. But they know . Trump supporters for example. They know. They are just pretending they don't. I think so anyway. Thank you for your thoughtful reply. I don't know how your
reply could be better though. :)
I agree that it is particularly foolish to deny reality when all the evidence is staring us in the face.
Unfortunately, Rosie, I believe there are two main factors keeping the stuck people solidly in their positions.
One is identity. We believe we are our values and beliefs. If we even remotely contemplate changing them it feels like a threat to the core of who we are - unconsciously it creates a shot of adrenaline and fear of loss of self, of existing. Some people, sometimes many, will fight to the death to defend who and what they are.
Second is self-interest. If a person believes their interests will be protected or advanced by a conservative government, then they take whatever leader has the platform.
Because I have a strong liberal bias, I believe the right put greed and race ahead of the overall balance of fairness, justice and the well-being of society, (and they completely forget about or ignore the environment.)
They think everything depends on making lots of profit, and securing it with law and order and keeping the aliens out. They don't see how the way big business works now leads ultimately to the destruction of the planet. But they can't see it. Because to do so threatens everything they stand for. Imagine the emotions of someone who wakes up and sees it for the first time. How many people avoid reading or watching the news because it's so overwhelmingly painful that it makes them want to commit suicide? There are thousands of them.
The answer to why people have this kind of dumbness, the ostrich kind, is that undercurrent of what is too painful - what most of us are powerless to affect - the longing for the successful daddies to somehow make it right.
I stand corrected. This is better answer hartfire. Thank you for your analysis of the why? I just wonder why someone's identity would be tied to a racist/bigoted/misogynistic/homophobic hatemonger? That would take a little getting used to. Understanding it. Of course I suppose it was always there. It's just that Trump has made it okay to be that out loud and proudly so. Weird turn I think because what used to be repulsive and reviled i
s now being celebrated and embraced. :(
