“Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.”

— George Carlin

No, I’m not referring to any actual people with that well-known quote from George Carlin, one of the greatest comedians of our time.

And I understand that “our time” refers to people of a certain age, commonly referred to in a disparaging manner as “boomers” by folks whose familiarity with the 20th century is questionable at best.

I’ve always found it odd that people who remember when things were different are automatically denigrated as “Boomers” — short for the Baby Boomer generation — or “old heads” or worse by others who haven’t yet figured out that a yet-to-come generation will one day dismiss them as old and out of touch … if they’re lucky enough to live that long.

It’s a never-ending cycle. One day, our clothes and music are cool and then — seemingly overnight — the American Top 40 leaves us behind and wearing New Balance sneakers makes us the butt of jokes.

I’ve accepted my fate. Why fight the inevitable? But at least the people of Generation X (1965-80) were mostly cool enough and bright enough not to digitally document the dumb stuff we did. Kids today — meaning a lot of people who came after Gen X — feel the need to tell everyone every single thought that pops into their heads. And increasingly, it is to their own detriment.

For example, some Gen Xers approach social media with caution. Others eschew it altogether as an extreme version of caution. I like to think I’m in the former group. I’m on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter). I’ve found both platforms useful for work, monitoring news and catching up with friends and family. Occasionally, I’ll post a string of music or cat videos or some other items I find interesting.

But many times, I’ve composed brilliant, pithy or poignant observations — sometimes all in one — only to realize that not everyone shares my opinions and it might be better not to go there, so I hit delete and move on to something else. Once in a while, I’ll just hit send and realize I opened a can of worms. Such an occasion happened after there were two mass shootings nearly back-to-back a few years ago. The next day, I opined that perhaps not everyone should be able to walk into a store and walk out with guns and ammo.

As you might have guessed, a few Second Amendment absolutists jumped on my post like I’d just set fire to the Bill of Rights. “SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED!!!!!” one of them wrote, probably while simultaneously mouthing the words with spittle decorating his screen. Others were even less friendly.

That was fun. Friends on both sides of the issue soon were going after each other on a post I thought most people would agree upon. I finally had to shut it down — the Internet equivalent of turning a hose on two dogs going at it in your backyard.

A lot of people today just can’t scroll on and forget. Some of them feel obligated to weigh in on everything, whether we want to know what they think or not. And they do it with their cellphones, often while sitting in their cars.

There have been a rash of these lately featuring people crying, raging or venting — sometimes all three — over what President Donald Trump did or what the Democrats who oppose him did. Sometimes it’s just “influencers” engagement farming or hapless folks seeking attention. But others use their cellphones to make threats or bully people.

A man from North Bloomfield is facing federal charges for making online threats against ICE and Border Patrol agents and Trump. Others, many in the medical field, posted videos of themselves proclaiming how they wouldn’t provide care to federal agents or Trump supporters. Still others recorded and posted themselves gleefully celebrating the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Some on the right have posted similar messages about their political foes.

You might not get arrested for a social-media post that is in poor taste, but if you’re a doctor or a nurse spouting off about how someone in a red cap won’t get your best efforts in their time of need, you might just be one of the people George Carlin was talking about.

Even the Bible warns us of the perils of stupidity — long before the internet or social media became part of our daily lives.

From Proverbs 17:28: “Even a fool is thought wise if he keeps silent, and discerning if he holds his tongue,” which is the New International Version. The King James version: “Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.”

No one is denying anyone their freedom of speech. Despite the best efforts of politicians on both sides over the last few years, we still have it in America. What we don’t have — and never did — is freedom from the consequences of unwise or illegal speech.

Ed Puskas is editor of the Tribune Chronicle or The Vindicator. He can be reached at epuskas@tribtoday.com or 330-841-1786.