Question: I keep hearing that **users are stupid idiots** alot, and that being said it is also used as a reason to have everyone's experience crap now and in the future.

For example: not enough options for things that would enhance the overall user experience, because it might allow stupid users to do stupid things.

**Is user stupidity a reason for bad UX?**

*(Tried not to influence this question with my own thoughts too much, but: I've seen usability testing results in my days, and must say that sometimes the "stupid users" seem pretty damn smart when they nail/fail using a piece of software that's been designed by morons... ;)*

Answer: 
Users aren't stupid. They approach the application in different ways and with different expectations. One of the beautiful thing about the web is that one can get to the same information in different ways - one way is not necessarily better than another.

I'm pretty much an "expert" user by every standard one can give and yet, just a few months ago, while trying to fill out a task on a timesheet that I had never used before I was lost. I was given a direction to "select x" after entering my day's hours. For the life of me I couldn't find it. I resorted to CTR-F to find it -- and there it was - a fraction of an inch outside my field of focus.

Was my lack of ability to find "X" an example of my stupidity? No. I don't think so. I was one more user who, while new to an application and under time pressure, missed the obvious.

Now the "avg user" probably won't think to do a CTR-F but that's not necessarily a sign of "stupidity."
Following the "users aren't stupid" crowd, I'll add this "but very many UX coders are quite stupid".

Programmers write interfaces they are comfortable with because they often have little evidence to the contrary. This implies "If they are too busy to understand the entire system as well as I do, they're ignorable insignificants". I've actually entered a group which actively held that belief "What do you mean a customer can't understand what 'Manifold Reset Override' is for? Why not?" After beating such folks about the facce and neck, there is *some* hope of reforming them.