Whenever I left the house, I received the same pithy parental advice from my father: “Don’t be stupid.” I know many Americans wonder whether we need to start posting these words on billboards, inserting them as pop-up ads, and (when necessary) tattooing this on teenagers—when they turn thirteen. Sometimes the stupidity is the “are you a frigging psycho?” kind. Sometimes the stupidity is the “what in heck were you thinking?” variety. Sometimes the stupidity is the “why did you believe you could trust that person?” type. Sometimes the stupidity is the “why did you imagine you could lie yourself out of trouble?” category. Sometimes the stupidity is simply the “are you really that big of a moron?” stupenda-thon of oblivious ignorance. It is an unfortunate quirk of evolution that we are born stupid and need to learn our lessons the Read more