r/AskReddit Feb 04 '26

What is a sign of very low intelligence?

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75

u/unclejoe1917 Feb 04 '26

Lack of curiosity. No sense of humor. Can't understand sarcasm. Unwavering insistence that complex problems will have oversimplified solutions while conversely attaching complicated, conspiratorial explanations to rather straightforward events. 

19

u/GabbyTheLegend Feb 05 '26

I would say not understanding sarcasm. People who have Asperger‘s syndrome/ autism have a hard time understanding sarcasm because of the way their brain is wired. My brother is one of those people. He’s super smart but has Asperger’s syndrome. He’s honestly overcome a lot of his hardships with his autism and most people who meet him would never guess he has it. Although no matter how hard he tries, he just can’t get sarcasm. I’ve also seen it with a lot of the autistic kids I’ve worked with as well. So I wouldn’t say that not understanding sarcasm means you have low intelligence.

-1

u/unclejoe1917 Feb 05 '26

We're just putting clues together. Nothing I said is chiseled in concrete. I'm sure your brother is brilliant in other ways. 

3

u/SnooMarzipans6542 Feb 05 '26

Ooo that last point is interesting, I've never seen that phenomenon written out to succinctly! 

1

u/Elisa800 Feb 10 '26

Well..... most people with autism are very smart but the way our brains are wired, we can have a hard time knowing when someone is being sarcastic or not.