Is there really a difference? I feel like if you don’t know something, that kind of makes you stupid, right? If you don’t know historical facts or mathematics—at least the harder stuff, like algebra or calculus—or if you don’t know about advanced political topics, then you’re kind of a stupid person, not just ‘ignorant.’
Cognitive impairments and differing cognitive ability are very much real things 😅 people can have an inability to learn, and/or an unwillingness to learn, but there very much are people who have the former and not the latter
Struggling to learn things is very much not always a choice
those people can learn plenty well.
it just takes more time and effort.
You’re dismissing entire categories of cognitive impairment. Not just the varieties of dementia, but also learning disabilities like dyslexia (reading), dysgraphia (writing), and dyscalculia (math) that can affect otherwise smart and capable people. These are measurable impairments, not just a difficulty that can be overcome with time and effort.
https://neurolaunch.com/cognitive-disorders-list/
It would be wise to be more careful with your sweeping statements.
i know people who have all this problems in my family.
you know how they over come them?
by making an effort and achieving their goals.
i’ve also known plenty of people who sit around and whine about their disability and refuse to make any effort to improve their life, and blame everyone else for being ‘privileged’ than them, including myself.
weird how that works. almost like not everyone defines themselves as a hapless victim.
I’m trying to steer this away from subjective topics like motivation and effort here. I’m talking about neural hardware with concrete, quantifiable impediments that lead to poor functionality compared to the general populace. Things like physical brain damage or incomplete cortical development.
This genuinely affects quality of life for real people regardless of their mood or whether they consider themselves a victim or any other non-scientific generalizations.
I don’t know whether your family members were actually tested by a credentialed psychologist or psychiatrist, or if they were merely self-diagnosed. I won’t make any assumptions there but please know there is an huge difference in terms of accuracy.
life is subjective. you can steer it away from that all you want, but personal accountability is the name of the game for everyone, disabled or not.
no, they are officially diagnosed and had lots of professional support. you know what the differences between their failures and successes were? putting in the effort. when they studied and practiced, they got good grades and succeed. when they didn’t, they failed.
it’s almost like learning things is about making the effort to learn them.
according to your philosophy here, nobody can ever run a marathon if they aren’t already athletic. that isn’t true. almost anyone can do it, they simple have to train their body to do it. and if they are disabled, they use a wheelchair or other accessibility device. they still need to train.
I’m not disagreeing that there’s an entire category of people with impairments who can overcome most of the barriers through effort and perseverance. That’s absolutely a thing. Please don’t think I’m dismissing that.
I’m saying there is also a category of people who will sadly never overcome their impairment though any amount of effort, or really anything short of a miracle. The simplest illustration is at the extreme end – a person with advanced Alzheimer’s is never going to become a pro athlete nor a Jeopardy champion, at least not without major groundbreaking advancements in medicine.
You seem to be making the argument that only the first category exists but not the second, which is just not true.