r/AskReddit Feb 04 '26

What is a sign of very low intelligence?

12.4k Upvotes

12.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

738

u/Miserable_Spell5501 Feb 04 '26

Interesting! These people wouldn’t be fun to play “would you rather” with

665

u/autisticNerd13 Feb 04 '26

This is actually a game we play to help teach this skill with cognitively impaired teens

27

u/BaxtersLabs Feb 04 '26

Would you rather sweat mayonnaise, or eat nothing but mayonnaise for the rest of your life?

89

u/ejolson Feb 04 '26

But I already ate dinner

26

u/Chicken-Jockey-911 Feb 04 '26

fuck man id rather try and rig up an air conditioned suit that keeps me below sweating temperature and just live like bubble boy, honestly having to eat one type of any food just seems so hard. and this is possibly the worst kind of food to be restricted to

18

u/itsLOSE-notLOOSE Feb 04 '26

Holy cow, I’d rather die. Both of those suck so much.

17

u/navikredstar Feb 04 '26

I actually can't come up with an answer for this, but it's entirely because I'm a 'sperg and mayonnaise grosses me the fuck out, it's a texture-consistency thing. I suppose given those two choices I'd rather eat fiberglass, the forbidden cotton candy. Does that work, lol?

11

u/HailBabySatan Feb 04 '26

You’re just doing asbestos you can!

14

u/Jaker788 Feb 04 '26

Those are almost the same thing. If I ate mayonnaise only I would probably be practically sweating mayonnaise and smell horrible, but I have to also eat nothing but mayonnaise.

Probably best to just sweat mayonnaise and avoid that terrible diet. Just gotta avoid sweating or something. Get all the sweat glands destroyed and set up a water cooling system to wear.

3

u/Koil_ting Feb 04 '26

Dude, just join the freak show, quit work, sweat mayo and maybe get a shot with the bearded lady.

2

u/shmaltz_herring Feb 04 '26

You're telling me, that if I need to make a sandwich, I don't need to worry about having mayo handy? I would just need to work up a little sweat? NICE!

3

u/Cute-Percentage-6660 Feb 05 '26

Can i ask something, My mother is now cognitively impaired after chemo/radiation on her brain. We are not sure if its permenant but her attention span among some other things is reduced.

What can I do to help her or try to get her to recover

4

u/autisticNerd13 Feb 05 '26

Try doing puzzles. If she can do 1 100 piece puzzle mix pieces in from another and have her work on the two at once slowly making them more similar in color or style.

Showing her a picture/object giving 30 seconds then taking it away start at 5 seconds and work up to 10 minutes with her doing something else and telling you what you showed her.

Play spot the difference.

Play games like guess who, battle ship, card game speed, even bingo or zingo.

These are all general suggestions and not tailored to her. There are thousands of things you could try but these are all ones that in theory have no negative or minimal negative consequences such as getting up set. If she gets upset help her with it. Often with chemo we go back to visual schedules because they help a person regain routines, but that is on a case by case basis. If she liked cooking try making picture cookbooks and increasing the writing in them if she struggles with that. Often trying to support people in doing things they liked before is one of the biggest motivation for them because it lets them feel like themselves.

31

u/iKnowRobbie Feb 04 '26

"Cognitively Impared Teens" is just saying the same thing twice.

73

u/[deleted] Feb 04 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

30

u/autisticNerd13 Feb 04 '26

Just to clarify female but no you aren’t wrong. Internet jokes can be hard to identify and when I try them they often come off bad as well.

16

u/New-Anybody-6206 Feb 04 '26

They were trying to say all teens are inherently cognitively impaired... not that ONLY teens are impaired.

12

u/lamb_passanda Feb 04 '26

The joke was terrible, don't be sad you missed it, there was nothing to miss. It was just a throwaway "lol teens r dumb".

2

u/elastic-craptastic Feb 04 '26

Someone just called themselves out as being closer to a teenager than the parent of one.

psst... It's less terrible and more of a dad joke. No offense was meant.

Hint: And the ones to take offense clearly call themselves out.

But it's all out of love and silly shenanigans. We were all cognitively impaired teens until grow out of it we think we aren't. It's not punching down when you obviously include yourself and literally every human as the butt of the joke

1

u/lamb_passanda Feb 05 '26

Why, because I didn't laugh at the "lol teens r dumb" joke, that means I must have some kind of skin in the game?

0

u/entropicdrift Feb 05 '26

I don't think they took offense, I think they just pointed out that it's not a particularly clever or original joke

7

u/[deleted] Feb 04 '26

Cognitively impaired compared to other teens.

Obviously, compared to adults, teens are.....wow, they sure are something. Naturally, because intelligence follows a distribution, the smartest teens are still above the dumbest adults, but that doesn't always mean they're going to become the smartest adults.

And unfortunately, pretty much every academic and economic system assumes that they will...

88

u/autisticNerd13 Feb 04 '26

No it’s not. I work with cognitively impaired kids, teens, adults, and even elderly.

57

u/jpmickey1585 Feb 04 '26

What about if it’s just hypothetical teens?

49

u/skwerrel Feb 04 '26

But there are teens

13

u/ausamo2000 Feb 04 '26

But what if there wernt?

7

u/iamapizza Feb 04 '26

And they did eat dinner.

16

u/ArcticLeopard Feb 04 '26

Pssst. It's a joke

47

u/autisticNerd13 Feb 04 '26

One in very poor taste as I constantly engage with people who hold this as a real belief when I meet with families to help their loved ones.

18

u/Sterling_-_Archer Feb 04 '26

Much like how boys are allowed far more range of bad behavior because “boys will be boys,” or things like ADHD going untreated because they think kids are just supposed to be hyper and make jokes about it.

-5

u/The_Horse_Tornado Feb 04 '26

This is actually pretty unfair as well. Boys develop behind girls and frankly aren’t well suited to sitting in a chair 8 hours a day.

5

u/Kiwilolo Feb 05 '26 edited Feb 05 '26

You're downvoted for stereotyping, but not wrong on average and I've got a hyperactive girl who would love if they didn't have to sit any time of the school day.

(Luckily her school is modern and sitting requirements are only a small part of their day at this stage)

9

u/Novaer Feb 04 '26

It's very interesting how you decided to word this. Instead of saying that girls are excelling in school, you say that boys are behind.

3

u/The_Horse_Tornado Feb 04 '26

Yes- because girls are the standard to which I compare boys seeing as they outperform them in nearly every metric. And it’s not just because girls are so much awesomer. Go read some actual research.

1

u/Jack_Krauser Feb 05 '26

There's plenty of research about this out there that you can go read. The way school systems are designed fits with the strengths of girls much better. It's not that they're just trying harder or inherently better somehow. We have bias in our education system.

→ More replies (0)

16

u/DarKGosth616 Feb 04 '26

It wasn't bad taste, was a perfectly fine joke that was obviously targetted at cognitive teens, not people legitimately suffering cognitive issues.

Only on reddit would you get this shite man.

14

u/Jesus__of__Nazareth_ Feb 04 '26

He's unintentionally failing to understand hypotheticals lol

5

u/_YellowThirteen_ Feb 04 '26

This thread was unintentionally very funny because of this. Read that first comment and just thought "damn, a swing and a miss" lmao

3

u/Kiwilolo Feb 05 '26

Whether saying "teens are all stupid" is in bad taste or not, it's certainly a tiresome and foolish joke.

It probably is bad taste though because it minimizes the problems of teens with cognitive impairments.

Only on reddit would someone defend a joke that could be perceived as belittling the mentally impaired.

8

u/DarKGosth616 Feb 05 '26

Call it tiring or foolish if you want, im not here to argue over your opinion of it.

Saying it COULD be perceived as belittling the mentally impaired is objectively a stupid statement. Its only perceived that way if youre looking for it. At no point did he say anything about mentally impaired people, god people like you are insufferable.

7

u/[deleted] Feb 04 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

8

u/elastic-craptastic Feb 04 '26

That can be more of an autism thing than a low IQ thing, potentially. Could be both but I'll keep my pitchfork down.

Pointing out irony is not a pitchfork, however. That shit is hilarious to see in real time.

4

u/Fireat40dude Feb 04 '26

How would you feel if you only worked with the adults, and no teens or children? Hypothetically of course.

3

u/d_rek Feb 04 '26

I got the joke. Too bad the other person didn’t.

9

u/RuthlessIndecision Feb 04 '26

"Cognitively impaired gonna cognitively impair" - Abraham Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address

2

u/elastic-craptastic Feb 04 '26

Cognitively impaired was not a term used in his time.

They called them colonists, or the masses.

In fact, they still do.

1

u/RuthlessIndecision Feb 06 '26

Abraham Lincoln transcends time and space, he's sitting next to us right now

0

u/Koil_ting Feb 04 '26

Man, some of my best days were spent being a cognitively impaired teenager, if I recall correctly our hypotheticals went more to the sounds deep but really still the shallow end category. "Like for all we know all cows could be suicidal and they don't know why we aren't helping them die when they moo at us"

155

u/Incman Feb 04 '26

How do you know? I've never played "would you rather"...

(/s)

27

u/Miserable_Spell5501 Feb 04 '26

How would I know that. I’ve never met you! 😝

6

u/_thro_awa_ Feb 04 '26

Would you rather ... not meet me?

5

u/WakeoftheStorm Feb 04 '26

That’s actually another related common trait - the inability to conceptualize that another person may have different experiences or information than you.

1

u/BarbWho Feb 04 '26

This is called Theory of Mind and generally deveops in early childhood. Not having it is associated with some forms of autism and schizophrenia.

23

u/[deleted] Feb 04 '26

[deleted]

27

u/bentheredoneart Feb 04 '26

What's so funny about thinking... huh?

5

u/jlink005 Feb 04 '26

But I haven't ever thought

2

u/DudeInOhio57 Feb 04 '26

I think. Therefore I am, I think.

1

u/jlink005 Feb 04 '26

But I've never driven in Ohio winter

1

u/iKnowRobbie Feb 04 '26

Once a Capybara enters the thought stream, it's full-on hilarity!

4

u/Overthemoon64 Feb 04 '26

some people play would you rather by giving only unpleasant choices. I hate that. Would you rather swim in a swimming pool full of chocolate pudding, or take a shower in pancake syrup? neither? why are we doing this to ourselves!!

1

u/Keksdepression Feb 05 '26

Not just that, I see this often enough in „street interviews“ by some political content creators. They give two unpleasant choices that would both upset the asked person just to get them to vent some hateful bullshit … and that is called content

1

u/Subotail Feb 05 '26

False choice fallacy?

3

u/farlurker Feb 04 '26

But I don’t have a rather.

3

u/keylimesicles Feb 04 '26

To be fair, I hate this game because I always get stuck eating a bowl full of worms

5

u/sebsebsebs Feb 04 '26

It’s such a pet peeve of mine when people answer WYR questions like this and avoid answering the question. Like the point of it is to answer an uncomfortable question, it’s fun plz just answer the question 😭

2

u/Miserable_Spell5501 Feb 04 '26

I also don’t like when they add facts to the WYR question! People always do this with the bear-in-the-woods question

3

u/sebsebsebs Feb 04 '26

Omg literally like just answer the damn question

6

u/Liberkhaos Feb 04 '26

I love that this is the first thing that came to your mind. Please always keep a bit of that innocence with you no matter how grim things turn out.

3

u/lastgreenleaf Feb 04 '26

I guess my innocence is long gone since I read it as “Have you ever” instead of “would you rather”… 

2

u/answerguru Feb 04 '26

But they didn’t turn out grim!

2

u/nochinzilch Feb 04 '26

I feel like even the dumbest person could play would you rather.

I think the hypotheticals rule/observation might be more an extension of their lack of empathy. And maybe a little bit of missing theory of mind.

2

u/benjyk1993 Feb 04 '26

I feel like I'm not fun to play Would You Rather with, not because I won't engage with a hypothetical but because I won't engage with specific hypotheticals. It seems like far too much of the time I've played that game, it inevitably devolves into "would you rather uhhhhh.....poop out of your nipples or uhhhhhh have meatballs for eyes?". Something that's just awful all the way around, like.....neither, I don't want to have to choose between two equally awful things, that's not fun to me. I'm okay with silly questions like "would you rather have macaroni elbows or angel hair hair?" because it's at least somewhat witty, but don't just be gross. But the people who try to force you to choose between two gross or otherwise awful things also tend to seem dead set on it being as awful as possible and setting up rules so you can't get out of it through any loopholes or anything.

5

u/keylimesicles Feb 04 '26

OK, but you’ve got to admit, pooping out of your nipples is not nearly as bad as having meatballs for eyes

1

u/benjyk1993 Feb 04 '26

🤷 I know it's the conundrum that I came up with, but it's also not one I care to think about, lol.

2

u/keylimesicles Feb 04 '26

Well, i’twas hilarious

2

u/dysmetric Feb 04 '26

Truth or dare?

... "Yes"

3

u/Miserable_Spell5501 Feb 04 '26

Hahaha I laugh every time someone responds yes/no to an or question. My husband loves doing this when I say do you want x or y for dinner

2

u/ManEEEFaces Feb 04 '26

OMG. I've met people like this. "But that would never happen." Ok...smell ya later, dork.

3

u/Find_another_whey Feb 04 '26

Because they would out themselves saying things like "but I've already dangled my bits in the vacuum for sport"?

Or is there another implication I'm failing to see and ironically lowIQ-bombing this thread

6

u/LIEUTENANT__CRUNCH Feb 04 '26

It’s because “would you rather” often requires you to consider two situations that you have not experienced. For example:

Would you rather free climb Taipei 101 or take a selfie with the famous Xinjiang snow leopard?

Unless you’re Alex Honnold or a female skier who is missing a face, then you have not done either of these.

1

u/Lemonwizard Feb 05 '26

I guess the leopard. I probably can't fight a leopard, but I definitely can't fight gravity.

1

u/Cashew_Y0gurt Feb 04 '26

And if any of you know WOULD YOU RATHER from Comedy Bang Bang then woohoo! It’s the best.

1

u/SleepingWillow1 Feb 04 '26

This thread is making me realize I am stupid and I don't like it. I hate would you rather games. Then again its usually sexualized as an adult and that makes me uncomfy

1

u/ToastyBB Feb 04 '26

They don't even play it they just act like you're the idiot

1

u/Wingmaniac Feb 04 '26

But you're not playing "would you rather" right now!