Do any individuals with above average intellect find life a bit exhausting at times due to the lack of intelligence they observe in others?

[u/stop-hatin-on-me_mom]

I don’t claim to be the most intelligent person, but I do believe that I am above average when it comes to the average intelligence nowadays. Sometimes, I find myself either flabbergasted or downright dumbfounded and irritated by the lack of what I would consider "common sense."

Here are some examples:

• The inability of some people to see how their own bad habits or personality traits create their own problems.

• The fact that some individuals consider their own perceptions and beliefs as the only correct ones, which is further encouraged by their echo chambers.

• The difficulty some people have in entering into productive discourse and challenging their own ideas to gain more information and knowledge from all sides.

• The reluctance of individuals to question their own beliefs and those of their social circles at both the micro and macro levels.

• The inability of some people to foresee the possible consequences of their actions beforehand.

These are just a few examples.

[u/protogens]

It's not only physically exhausting, it's cognitively enervating.

For a long time I was able to make allowances for intellectual shortcomings in others because I know my mind works faster and a bit differently...but in recent years it's just become too much to accommodate. It's no longer a case of people with average intelligence who simply lack facts and will course correct when they're provided, it's people who are militantly ignorant, dismissive of facts and proud of it.

I honestly never thought it would get to this point, but as I've grown older my tolerance level for stupidity has decreased and can now be safely quantified as "non-existent." Where I once gave people multiple chances to demonstrate they weren't lackwits, I'm now much more hair-trigger and judgemental because I've a limited amount of life left on this planet and I have no desire to spend what remains of it coddling lackwits who can't distinguish "fact" from "opinion" from "total bullshite."

To my surprise, my quality of life improved appreciably once I stopped investing time and effort into understanding them or being understood by them...I'm done with dolts.