The problem, in my experience, is that the person who decides that my question is a "stupid question" is in possession of knowledge which I am not, and who can't imagine a time before they learned that knowledge, and therefore think it's more like "common sense" or "universal knowledge" and not what it really is, viz., something they learned at some point along the way.

It behooves us all, I think, to treat other people's questions as serious, honest questions until we have reason to think otherwise. And serious, honest questions are never stupid.

Alex