Don't Be Stupid, Stupid

Sometimes not being politically correct at all times can be refreshing.  At the risk of making a huge generalizing statement, Latin American culture is good at "calling a spade a spade."  I credit this to the structure of the language - both Spanish and Portuguese are very open with the adjectives-as-nouns concept.  Sometimes this directness spills into other areas of life.

I recently visited Campinas' Bosque do Jequitiba, a park and zoo in the center of the city.  The park was beautiful; the zoo was sad.  The only not sad animals were the free-roaming agoutis (called cutia in Brazil), a rabbit-sized rodent that looks like the cross between a hamster, a deer, and a kangaroo.

But I digress.  My favorite part of the zoo was this sign:

You dumb.

Apparently there is a problem with people throwing food - and, I imagine, other objects - at/to the animals.  The sign says that "throwing objects into the cages of the animals means" several characteristic things, several of them include attributes of throwers themselves.  In terms of blunt honesty that probably wouldn't appear in the US, for example, is number one, which states that, as a thrower of objects, you "lack education."  In other words, you are uneducated.  In more other words, "you are stupid."

I do not disagree with this point.  However, I do feel there is a risk that those "lacking in education" will not (or can not) read the posting to begin with. Same goes for comprehending Number 5: "an insurmountable irrationality."  Those be some smart folk words right there.

Sigh...it's about respect, stupid!