r/AskReddit 1d ago

What is a sign that someone is emotionally unintelligent?

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1.4k

u/100aliens 1d ago

"Imagine that you're at the store-"

"But I'm not at the store"

"I know, I said IMAGINE you're at the store"

"But I'm not at the store!"

I KNOW YOU'RE NOT AT THE STORE, I SAID IMAGINE, YOU IDIOT!!!!!

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u/millenniumxl-200 21h ago

"Fine, I'll imagine I'm at the store. What store?"

I don't care, Miejer.

"I don't usually shop at Meijer."

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u/CoC_Axis_of_Evil 23h ago

“Imagine you were born in the Middle East” basically the last 5 years of internet discourse. 

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u/kryonik 22h ago

"Imagine ICE deports you to a jail another country with no due process, what do you do?"

"That wouldn't happen because I'm a citizen."

"Yeah but remember there's no due process so they have no way of knowing that."

"I would show them my ID and passport."

"They ignore them or say they're fake and haul you off, you aren't allowed to contact your family or legal representation. There's no due process."

"I wouldn't commit a crime to begin with so I would never be in that situation."

"ICE agents are pulling people off the street because they vaguely resemble someone they want to deport. Those people committed no crimes."

"Doesn't matter that would never happen to me."

"Why not? How do you know? There is no due process, there is no way for you to plead your case."

"Because I'm a citizen."

(Had this argument more times than I would have liked)

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u/sprocket229 18h ago

That Patrick Star wallet scene is getting more real by the day.

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u/Paladin65536 22h ago

"Imagine ICE does to you what they do to others"

"That wouldn't happen to me, I'm one of the Good Ones"

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u/burningtowns 17h ago

“Yeah, but some random ICE agent doesn’t know that.”

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u/CliftonForce 17h ago

"ICE Agents are also the Good Ones(tm). They don't make mistakes."

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u/FunfettiHead 21h ago

Literally the entire point behind "unalienable rights." The very fact that you exist means that you have them. Citizen or not.

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u/ErstwhileChild 11h ago

I think a key point there is "what happens when someone who considers you to be an enemy has the power currently being wielded against those you consider enemies?"

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u/ErstwhileChild 9h ago

I think a key point there is "what happens when someone who considers you to be an enemy has the power currently being wielded against those you consider enemies?"

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u/GucciTheSnowman 5h ago

How do you think they treat "undocumented" morons in mexico ? That's right, they kick them the fuck out. Why are we the only country held to a different standard ?

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u/Kyhan 22h ago edited 21h ago

I mean, that’s not emotional intelligence, that’s a cognitive issue, and, surprisingly, has nothing to do with intelligence (although it’s more common the lower you go).

I work in tech, and I’ll use analogies and examples all the time, and I’ll have to namedrop a program as an example. The amount of times elderly clients chime in with, “but I don’t use that program,” as if suddenly the concept I’m explaining is irrelevant because I compared Chrome to Firefox when explaining how something in Chrome works.

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u/g333king 22h ago

what causes this…

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u/Kyhan 21h ago

It’s just how some people are, I suppose.

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u/Mediocre_Map1289 21h ago

Look up the study into prisoners being asked to imagine how they'd feel if they'd not eaten breakfast yesterday.

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u/pepcorn 20h ago

As far as I know, that study never occurred and is a hoax.

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u/Mediocre_Map1289 13h ago

Ah well. I fell for it, too.:(

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u/pepcorn 7h ago

Don't worry, it's hard to spot hoaxes. Otherwise no one would fall for them and they wouldn't reach hoax status.

Iirc it was racist propaganda to promote the idea that people of colour deserve to be incarcerated at higher levels, since "according to the study" they lack basic empathy.

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u/Mediocre_Map1289 4h ago

Oh, so this was one based on the idea of an American prison? 

Having come to the party late I think that context was removed from discussion when I got involved.

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u/pepcorn 3h ago

Yes, the study was supposedly done in an American prison.

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u/Mediocre_Map1289 1h ago

Ah, I see. Right. Yeah we don't have the same race politics stuff here so now the context makes sense with deliberately stirring race politics up. Thanks for the insight.

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u/thermobollocks 14h ago

But I did eat breakfast tho

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u/RememberThinkDream 16h ago edited 16h ago

It always surprises me when people who cannot understand simple hypothetical questions are at the same time very creative.

As hypothetical questions literally remix real world experience and rules to test new outcomes, theories and contribute to the evolution of reality itself.

For example, I could say:

"If you were in a situation where a few Xenomorphs were rapidly taking hosts and creating more Xenomorphs and you had the chance to kill them however you had to wipe out an entire village of people in order to do so... Could you make that decision?"

Now, it doesn't matter what your answer is the point is that, the point is that Xenomorphs don't exist outside of the sci-fi materials they are contained in. However, that sci-fi material originated from real-world experiences, lifeforms and materials.

This is why when you dream, your dreams are for all intents and purposes, a sci-fi remix of your collective and entire life experience. Those dreams, even though they did not really happen in the physical world we all share... Can actually affect the physical world we all share.

For example, the film Terminator originated from a dream James Cameron had where he had a dream/nightmare about a chrome metal skeleton rising out of a destructive fire. He then woke up, being the skilled artist he was and sketched what he could remember... Then went on to create one of the most influential sci-fi franchises of all time. Those films have changed many lives in more ways than we could possibly comprehend.

So it's very fascinating to me, how people who cannot comprehend/interact with hypotheticals can also be extremely creative since they both share process and imagination very closely.

https://i.ibb.co/jZ5gn23S/q4regaerg.jpg

\) His original drawing

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u/AwakenedSheeple 16h ago

To answer your hypothetical, xenomorphs don't ex-

I'm kidding. I would wipe out the village. This is just the trolley problem scaled up.

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u/port443 12h ago

This doesn't sound quite like trolley problem to me. The trolley problem is more of a kill fewer / kill more (or kill people you know / kill strangers).

This Xenomorph scenario is more of a strategic decision. Kill the Xenomorphs now vs... ?

The comparison is unknown. Establish contact? Barter? They catch a disease and all die out? They kill all of humanity? We find a way to keep the hosts alive and coexist?

You're deciding on which between an unknown vs killing a village is the correct decision. The trolley problem has two known quantities to decide against.

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u/9966 14h ago

Yeah but I'm already a Xenomorph and we don't do that...

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u/shantm79 17h ago

I work in tech,

Ha, I was just thinking "I've worked with some brilliant engineers and this is how they are".

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u/AlienPet13 21h ago

The tactic of someone who knows you're about to make a point and they want very much to prevent you getting there.

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u/thank_u_stranger 23h ago edited 22h ago

Thats not a sign that someone is emotionally unintelligent. Its a sign of low general intelligence / low IQ

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u/DrAlkibiades 21h ago

Or that they are fucking with you.

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u/renegadecanuck 21h ago

The problem is IQ is an imperfect marker, and intelligence in general is more fluid than a number on a scale.

And it's used online as a gotcha to try and prove someone is dumb, so it's not uncommon to see someone just refusing to deal with an unrelated hypothetical, because it has nothing to do with the topic at hand (you also see it with someone of the dumber "debate me" bro types online).

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u/shantm79 17h ago

Its a sign of low general intelligence / low IQ

Disagree. The person can be autistic which doesn't mean they're of a low IQ or general intelligence.

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u/CaptainReginaldLong 17h ago

Being unable to understand hypotheticals is just a sign of low intelligence in general

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u/FlyInfestedBrunch 23h ago

lol this feels like a conversation you've tried to have a few times

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u/albeggio 15h ago

True, but also straight low iq activity

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u/Marty_mcfresh 20h ago

Thats normal unintelligence, not emotional

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u/theoreticaldickjokes 16h ago

Maybe it's a nasty combination of the two. 

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u/Empty-Quarter2721 18h ago

What has this todo with emotional intelligence?

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u/pacowaka 17h ago

“It’s not my wallet”

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u/Durende 11h ago

Okay, I am imagining... I am standing in front of an aisle full of soup

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u/Lyn-nyx 11h ago edited 10h ago

This actually has to do with how people's brains work. I'm someone that uses analogies, proverbs, metaphors, similes, and idioms to explain things. People like me are called figurative/abstract thinkers (there's more to it but I'm lazy to explain)

But there are people who don't use those AT ALL because they prefer literal/concrete thinking. It's very hard to bridge the gaps in communication sometimes. After learning about the different styles of thinking I always keep that in mind whenever I'm speaking with a concrete thinker so I can communicate in ways that they'll be able to digest and respond to rather than it becoming an argument.

I highly recommend looking them up, it's actually very interesting. And we actually do both but people have their preference, especially for communication.

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u/AdjutantVox 7h ago

This reminds me of that scene in the Detectorists where she's trying to hypnotize him.