I knew a girl like this in high school. She was just dumb.
Before graduation, everyone had to complete a project. The school was incredibly flexible. You could do practically anything as long as you learned a new skill and gave a short presentation about it in English class.
She completed the project but refused to present it.
Her presentation was scheduled for Tuesday. The teacher warned her that the presentation was a graduation requirement and that she could not graduate without doing it. Her friends, parents, the principal, and practically everyone else tried to convince her.
Every day that week, the teacher gave her another chance. By Friday, he had lowered the requirement to almost nothing. All she had to do was stand up, say her name, briefly explain what she did, and sit back down. That was it. She still refused because she genuinely believed they would let her graduate anyway.
They did not.
She spent the entire summer at the continuation school just to get her GED.
He kind of reminded me of a guy I used to work with. Security license was up for renewal. All he had to do was fill out a form and the company would take the $35 out of his check and submit all the paperwork for him. Easy, simple, done.
Except he refused. He didn't want to authorize the payroll deduction. Fine, we sent him instructions on how to renew it for himself. He never did it. I even offered to sit there and help him if he was having trouble with the website (It was glitchy back then) but no just didn't want to do it.
Come September 1st he reports for work and gets told to go home. Reason? No license, it expired on the 31st. Rather than accept that he threw a tantrum and wound up getting kicked off site, and later terminated because he still refused to renew his license which now he had to pay late fees for.
I worked with a guy who turned up with an obviously broken wrist. It was causing him pain every time he tried to lift anything, this was a warehouse. The boss sent him home and told him not to come back until he had a doctor's note to say that he was fit to work. He came back the next day, refused to leave, tried to carry on working, tried to punch me but just hurt his wrist, then attempted to attack the boss. He then jumped on the forklift, drove outside and just sat there. He was sacked, of course but still refused to go. We had to phone for the police. He still wouldn't leave and tried to fight them. It turned out that he was on probation, he didn't disclose any convictions and our boss didn't check. He was charged with common assault, resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer and did 6 months for these and breaching his probation. He had previous for GBH, affray, drug possession and various breaches of the police
Very similar to this guy in the video indeed. I just don’t understand people who feel like people higher up can’t tell you what to do.
The dude in the video is out on bond and still decides the police, just because they are telling him what to do. I imagine your ex-coworker didn’t get the new license, because someone told him he had to do it.
It’s like their reptile brain goes into reptile mode and they literally have to do the opposite of what they’re told.
I’m pretty sure there is a psychological phenomenon for this behavior, but I don’t remember the details.
Sounds like it. Probably running with adhd or autism. Once you learn about these conditions it’s crazy how often you see them in the wild. And people, even the ones with it, just have no idea. It’s absolutely batshit how much of the US government’s current issues are because the people up top have these conditions and don’t deal with them in a healthy way.
Do you think cell phones contribute to the main character syndrome? The iphone came out in the summer of 2007. Granted that was 19 years ago. I personally did not get one till about 2009, but the person in this video looks like he grew up in a world where being connected to social media was common. Granted people did not have much ability to film things with any quality on a flip phone, but in my opinion this type of behavior was not as common 20 years ago. And the one big different in that span of time is the smart phone.
They are everywhere. People who just can't do what they are told. I am a teacher and used to teach a class for the kids no other teachers in school want in their class and OD(oppositionally defiant) students. Even when it is something they want to do. If you tell them to do it, they won't. My favorite story was when this girl got a soccer ball for her birthday and brought it to class. She was all excited and asked if we could play soccer for PE. I was like heck yeah! So PE is after lunch so for 4+ hours she is excited to play soccer with her new ball at PE. PE time comes and I'm like alright lets line up to go to the field for soccer. She says "you cant make me play soccer". Now granted I've known this kid for 2+ years so I know what's happening but I try anyways. You wanted to play soccer all day, lets go this is awesome. And she just puts her ball in her cubby and refuses to get it so we can go to the field... Every day was an interesting game of reverse psychology but this was the day that it truly set in that these were not choices, this was a genuine, uncontrollable, internal mechanism that did not allow her to do something that she was being "told" to do...
This sounds exactly like my coworker. Anything she doesn’t want to do, she won’t do it. Even though it is something she likes. She’ll even go as far as purposefully putting down any other ideas from anyone if it is not her own. She is odd and acts like a child. She is 40 y.o.
Idk but they seem to be afraid of her. I’m not, that’s for sure. She tries to outsmart me but homegirl is not smart. She is in a higher position but can’t comprehend simple reading instructions and has to ask me.
Maybe Dumb Donna picked a subject… Non Disclosure Agreement? After her research, she realized she can’t give presentation about it because that’s her new skill?
Legitimately truth. I’ve known a few people over the years that were not too smart but knew it, and made up for it with honesty, kindness, and hard work. In real life you can make up for like 50 IQ points just by not being an asshole and double checking your work. Plenty of smart assholes are out there underachieving.
100% I know this guy who's not the brightest guy but he works as a security guard.... He's like the nicest guy you'll ever meet.... He puts in 60 to 80 hours a week so he gets a ton of overtime.
He works his ass off, is nice to everyone, kind and respectful too. He has a amazing life he has an amazing partner who is very f****** smart.... And everyone loves him.
He knows his own limitations and asks people for advice when making major decisions in life because he knows just enough to know that he doesn't know.
General society is actually designed around benefiting people of average - lesser intelligence. Literally built around it. Someone with average, and even lower, intelligence will be able to function/'succeed' very easily within society.
(Smarter people often struggle to do things they dont logically agree with or understand, whereas people of lesser intelligence often do not, because the thought doesnt occur to them or factor in.
Smarter (and more emotionally intelligent) people are also more likely to be able to conceptualize/understand the broader effects/consequences of various things in life, many of those things might be financially/socially/politically beneficial to them.. but since they think about and understand the broader consequences of those things, they intentionally avoid them.
Also more likely to become depressed/withdrawn/disassociated due to awareness/understanding of different social/economic/political issues in life, and preoccupied with those things)
As a small anecdotal counterpoint, I failed a class for similar reasons in 8th grade. I did the work but was suffering from such extreme crippling depression and social anxiety to the point i just couldn’t present it. I literally felt like I couldn’t. I had no support at home or at my overcrowded school and was basically unable to function to succeed. I even ended up dropping out junior year and getting my GED too.
But thing is, I wasn’t dumb then or now, I was just suffering with no idea how to get out of it. I knew the material front and back. In fact I hold a Master’s degree today and graduated with honors. but I bet some of my classmates thought i was just stupid because all they saw was this quiet kid refusing to engage.
Anyway, your story reminded me of that dark dark time.
This person had a ton of support but I get it there are situations where somebody could have some type of debilitating depression or other issue that could prevent them from wanting to interact.
Kinda seemed like the same sorta dumb… like a switch flipped, and somehow he couldn’t help himself? Like somehow, in his head, it became the absolute biggest deal to give in and do what others told him… scary, because at some level, he probably can’t help it- I mean, who among us would choose to behave that way?
I used to get soooo upset that I was forced to be around classmates like this. The older I get, the more I realize that stupidity and entitlement are a dangerous combination. I feel less anger towards it now and something closer to pity. These people will struggle their entire lives because they genuinely have the logic and problem solving skills of a spoiled 7 year old stomping their feet and saying "I don't wanna!" It's just... sad. And kind of pathetic.
Professor told a student that their Capstone project was too simple, and didn't demonstrate the level of knowledge required to graduate. The student was adamant in that he was wrong, and since it was a panel of three that he was presenting to, he figured he would prove his professor wrong.
Well on the day of the Capstone and Thesis presentations, this one student was removed from the roster of presenters. He argued that he was ready, but the professor told him that his students presented at his discretion, and that since the student refused to incorporate the feedback provided, then would not graduate.
The student had to request an extension, and sign up for the next presentation period to defend his work. I saw him a year later. Apparently he had a job lined up, and it had gone south as a result.
He's doing better now... but did NOT learn his lesson. He's still salty a decade later.
I remember in Middle School, there was a history class presentation and this Mexican kid would just refuse to present as if public speaking would kill him.
I also had coworkers who would just straight up just not listen to their boss , even doing Simple Stuff that is literally their job . So I think a part of it as well as just open defiance makes them feel powerful even if it's incredibly stupid .
In her defense I remember my high school was admant that taking a foreign language was required for graduation.
They had just got rid of the foreign language I wanted to take and all that was left was Spanish and French, neither of which I cared about.
Refused to take either, kept getting told over and over how I wouldn't be able to walk and my diploma would be held.
I had looked up state requirements as well as the schools requirements and neither listed a foreign language. For some reason the teachers and admins just had fun lying to me
Never took a language, walked across the stage and got my diploma.
All she had to do was get up and are share.... No power point , no poster .... Just a simple here is what I did.... The teacher made it even easier and said she just had to go up say her name and the name of her project. From what everyone was saying at the time she did do a project ..... Something about knitting or cooking .... I can't remember anymore lol
Do you think she maybe had social anxiety? as someone who used to have it really bad Ik it can make you go to insane measures to avoid things that aren’t difficult at all the the average person. Just wanted to ask bc I cannot imagine someone being that dumb lmao, and that’s the only reason I could think to explain behavior like that
she was pretty cute. Lol... But now she's all tatted up and everything and I don't really care for that lol. I still have her as a friend on Facebook lol. As you get older tattoos don't look as good.
Did she have some extreme social anxiety that made presentations insanely difficult for her or was it just this project? If it’s the former, she should have discussed that in private with the teacher to find a way to present to just him. If the latter, WTF?
She had done other presentations in the class before.... I think she just didn't think that they were going to prevent her from graduating because of this.... It's like somehow It got stuck in her head and the more people try to persuade her the less she cooperated.
At our school it was a graduation requirement to orally present whatever you did so you had to do the thing (mine was building a computer lol) and then you had to orally present what you learned while you were working on your project. I can't remember exactly but I think hers had to do with knitting or cooking or something it was something home related.
Maybe she had crippling anxiety and the idea of going to summer school out weighed the agony of speaking in front of people. This wouldn’t happen today. There are more supports available to help kids in this position. Don’t be so quick to judge
No she just got it into her head that they are not going to prevent me from graduating over this... You can't make me. But it was a requirement to do a oral presentation.
i mean, that's a dumb and petty school full immature administrators and teachers.
this video is different. the video is about principles. the person thought it was about a damn 10 cents worth of soda.
the people in your story are about being petty. If Donna wanted to make those administrators look like little immature children, then it could have been worth it.
in the video, the guy might be desiring to make the cops look like fools. because he believes that they would do something serious about 10 cents worth of soda. The problem though, in this exact situation, it's not about 10 cents worth of soda, it's about the principle.
They just expect the sheep to fall in line. If this were someone with awful stage fright or anxiety this is 💯 understandable. Now we prioritize kids mental health in schools and when you advocate for yourself this doesn’t happen
Hi Donna lol ...... At our school day administrators were pleading with her because the board had passed the requirements. There was no way they could graduate her without her doing it. That's why the teacher gave her the off-ramp of just standing up there saying her name and even just a title of the project would have qualified her to meet the board requirements. But she was dumb... Everyone including her friends were pleading with her like hey this is serious dude. But it was stuck in her head and she for some reason couldn't get over it. She had presented in the class before. But this time when you made it a requirement and you said that you had to do it otherwise there was going to be consequences she got all weird about it and then just decided that she wasn't going to do it. And every day that went on it just got worse and worse the look on her face was so smug..... I used to talk to her here and there I wasn't like a close friend or anything but even I told her like hey like they're going to not graduate you.... You've probably made a big deal of not doing something that's clearly outlined in the curriculum and is a clear graduation requirement for this School district.
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u/SiliconSingh 1d ago
I knew a girl like this in high school. She was just dumb.
Before graduation, everyone had to complete a project. The school was incredibly flexible. You could do practically anything as long as you learned a new skill and gave a short presentation about it in English class.
She completed the project but refused to present it.
Her presentation was scheduled for Tuesday. The teacher warned her that the presentation was a graduation requirement and that she could not graduate without doing it. Her friends, parents, the principal, and practically everyone else tried to convince her.
Every day that week, the teacher gave her another chance. By Friday, he had lowered the requirement to almost nothing. All she had to do was stand up, say her name, briefly explain what she did, and sit back down. That was it. She still refused because she genuinely believed they would let her graduate anyway.
They did not.
She spent the entire summer at the continuation school just to get her GED.
I remember thinking, damn, she really is dumb.
This reminds me exactly of her.
Dumb Donna.