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 just have more important things to do than focus on the interface you're designing.
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For you, the interface represents a lot of thought and work, and you care about getting it right. But the user **doesn't care** about the interface; at most, they care about whether it's getting in the way of what they actually want to be doing right now. They don't *want* to take the time to appreciate the interface or figure it out, and **they shouldn't have to.** That's your job: to do the thinking for them, creating the easiest, most straightforward path through the work you can.

I highly recommend Squareweave's video ["The User is Drunk"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2CbbBLVaPk) on this topic. As the video puts it, *"The user is fine, but with the amount of attention they have to spare for your UI, they might as well be plastered."*
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."