Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Just remember how rational and intelligent the average person is. Then realize that half the US population is less rational and less intelligent than that.


Original quote by George Carlin, not US-centric: “Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.”


I take it confusing the arithmetic average for the median is part of the joke?


Intelligence is not inherently quantifiable. IQ is an arbitrary way to quantify it, but there average and median is pretty much equal by definition.


IQ roughly follows a Gaussian distribution, so median and average are the same here.


IQ is normally distributed, so the two are the same.


"The average person" typically means the median person.


Carlin had no father and you can tell.


> just remember

I don’t and you shouldn’t. Mocking others intelligence only shows that you lack enough to understand them. As I understand it, this is precisely the point of GP


I don't think it's a matter of intelligence. It's a matter of ignorance/knowledge.

I read a statistic that 50% of grown up Americans have only 6th grade education. Which means that what? 60%-65% may have 9th grade?

The vast majority of people is uneducated and only responds to simple thoughts: as someone said: they see their wallet shrinking, and they decide to voté for the alternative. Other more complex issues don't matter, they don't care about them.

The same thing happened in my country (Mexico) where we have also tons of uneducated people. The people voté for the sound snippet, for the demagogue who told them what they wanted to hear.

And similarly, the other parties in their smugness didn't understand why people didn't vote for more complex issues.

It's sad, but most of us (highly educated people) live in a bubble.




Consider applying for YC's Summer 2026 batch! Applications are open till May 4

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: