What you call "stupidity" is often just a lack of curiousity - such people are the workers of society, the ones who don't get bored. Just because you belong to the "curious" caste does not mean you are better than the others, it just means you have a different role. If you had to do what the uncurious do you would have problems coping, because you would constantly get distracted.
Stupidity is not an insult. It's an attribute - and a large part of our evolutionary success is built on this specialisation of humans into the different intellectual roles.
But I think analogies are a nice way to come up with hypothesis at best, not conclusions.
Like the OP, I really don't care for the subtle anti-intellectual vibe that equates stupidity with being more 'authentic' or 'real' or whatever. Then again, it is Diesel, who have always had weird advertising designed to seem edgy to the sort of people who buy $150 jeans at retail. I presume they're trying to tap into the disillusionment many feel about how the financial elite wrecked the economy despite all their 'smarts' (and here, I agree with the point you are making, Max).
Of course it's an attribute, just like ugliness. Yet calling someone stupid or ugly most often is an insult. It doesn't matter whether it's accurate or not, whether it's about an attribute or something else: a statement is an insult if it's perceived as such.
What you call "stupidity" is often just a lack of curiousity - such people are the workers of society, the ones who don't get bored.
I think that lack of curiosity has less to do with intelligence than with upbringing. However, it's just my personal opinion and I would be interested in finding out whether there are any theories or studies about that.
"Whereas stupid is being the guy in 1978 in a Ford Transit driving around and visiting shop owner after shop owner trying to convince them to sell brand new denim pants made to look worn."
It seems like the entire campaign is about dismissing our risk averse society. This is a pretty consistent theme in the stories posted to HN. If this theory was wrapped up into a dry blog post made by some "important" software development figure, people would be gushing all over it.
Same models. Same situations. Ha ha ha, sex sells.
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