There seemed to be a few replies from actual smart people though,
How can you tell? There are some people for whom I'd think that it's not very unlikely that they're telling the truth... but since we're on the internet, no one knows you're a dog and no one knows that you ain't bright.
It may be even worse in real life, because how well-spoken you are has an enormous impact on how smart you're considered to be. I think this is less the case on the internet, as people know you can just edit stuff to sound coherent.
because how well-spoken you are has an enormous impact on how smart you're considered to be
I'll back this up. I speak far more eloquently online than I do in real life, where my speech is highly hampered by a strong Cajun dialect/accent at times and a need to physically stop speaking to reach the ability to say a word my brain hitches on (like Jimmy from South Park).
So I'm often considered quite retarded, which leads to a lot of surprise to people who I can and do switch to a more serious topic and am able to list off large amounts of data and outpace most arguments. Not that I would call myself "smart" but my schooling at least has the physical documentation that says I was above the average to some irrelevant extent.
How can you tell? There are some people for whom I'd think that it's not very unlikely that they're telling the truth... but since we're on the internet, no one knows you're a dog and no one knows that you ain't bright.
It may be even worse in real life, because how well-spoken you are has an enormous impact on how smart you're considered to be. I think this is less the case on the internet, as people know you can just edit stuff to sound coherent.
I'll back this up. I speak far more eloquently online than I do in real life, where my speech is highly hampered by a strong Cajun dialect/accent at times and a need to physically stop speaking to reach the ability to say a word my brain hitches on (like Jimmy from South Park).
So I'm often considered quite retarded, which leads to a lot of surprise to people who I can and do switch to a more serious topic and am able to list off large amounts of data and outpace most arguments. Not that I would call myself "smart" but my schooling at least has the physical documentation that says I was above the average to some irrelevant extent.