I would hate to see “treatment” forced onto them because they’re not as smart as we’d like.
If the analogy here is with depression, that doesn’t seem a likely outcome. Depressed people don’t normally have anything forced onto them, unless they make it clear that there’s a substantial imminent risk that they’ll actually kill themselves.
I think the things that will get a mental illness forcibly treated are (1) that it genuinely makes the person who has it unable to function independently, or (2) that it puts other people at substantial risk. Stupidity has to be really severe before it causes #1; I suppose the question is whether (in a hypothetical world where stupidity is medicalized and treatable) it would often be seen as causing #2.
I do, though, very much agree that the combination of giving “stupidity” a broad enough definition that it applies to a substantial fraction of the population and treating it as a disease seems really dangerous and open to abuse.
or (2) that it puts other people at substantial risk. …I suppose the question is whether (in a hypothetical world where stupidity is medicalized and treatable) it would often be seen as causing #2.
Carlo Maria Cipolla’s definition of stupidity is clearly relevant here. (Link is from the Less Wrong Wiki.)
If the analogy here is with depression, that doesn’t seem a likely outcome. Depressed people don’t normally have anything forced onto them, unless they make it clear that there’s a substantial imminent risk that they’ll actually kill themselves.
I think the things that will get a mental illness forcibly treated are (1) that it genuinely makes the person who has it unable to function independently, or (2) that it puts other people at substantial risk. Stupidity has to be really severe before it causes #1; I suppose the question is whether (in a hypothetical world where stupidity is medicalized and treatable) it would often be seen as causing #2.
I do, though, very much agree that the combination of giving “stupidity” a broad enough definition that it applies to a substantial fraction of the population and treating it as a disease seems really dangerous and open to abuse.
Carlo Maria Cipolla’s definition of stupidity is clearly relevant here. (Link is from the Less Wrong Wiki.)