Are we more stupid than we used to be? Yeah. But I’d use the word ignorant instead. It’s a bit more accurate. Ignorance is chosen, and that’s what our current epidemic of stupidity is. Chosen.

There have always been a lot of ignorant people, but now, with social media, those people have platforms to infect others with their ignorance. Also, in my own lifetime, I’ve witnessed a shift from ignorant people still being able to set aside partisan politics to condemn obviously bad actors or decisions to 100% doubling down on partisan politics no matter how bad the person or action is.

I’ve definitely FELT this increase in willful ignorance over the course of my life living in this country. People in my own life choosing to believe things they absolutely would not have believed a couple decades ago. People not understanding super basic concepts.

I think there are other factors than just bad actors spreading ignorance on social media. I think a lot of it has to do with simple distractions. The modern world has so many. A lot of the people I know don’t even read books. Like, they simply don’t read. If I ask them what book they read last they have to concentrate because it was multiple years ago. That’s fucking crazy. Instead of picking up a book they’re watching Real Wives of Whatever. Getting involved in some wealthy person’s 1st world problems, instead of, you know, learning something.

We’re entering an age of concentrated ignorance and, unfortunately, that’s very unlikely to end anytime soon. And the stakes are higher than ever for something like that to happen because we possess greater power to decimate this planet than we used to. Through pollution or braindead child-like politicians who can wage war or launch nukes.

It takes a lot less effort to allow things to keep going the way they are than it does to turn things around and responsibly educate the masses. So we’re probably going to continue spiraling.

Things are going to get dark. Our quality of life will decline.

People have been stupid for centuries.

1. The average education level has been low or nonexistant for most people through most of history so everyone was equally dumb. Public education is a relatively new thing. People have been vulnerable to greed, deluded thinking, etc since day 1.

2. The internet has allowed stupid people to find each other and reinforce each other’s stupidity and create a race of conspiracy obsessed super morons.

3. The internet has also distilled everything into negativity to the point where everyone and everything isn’t just questioned but warped and rejected. Even the most basic advice on public health is now rejected. You’ve got people rejecting basic facts and science. Everyone who runs for office gets subject to so much hate and lies that no sensible person would want to run for office now leaving only questionable personalities willing to do it.

I’ll add that America’s obsession with individualism, which ironically becomes groupthink like with MAGA, has become extremely poisonous. It is making it impossible to do even basic things like improve public transportation, gun control, education, healthcare, public health, etc. It is like we’ve become a nation of children who can’t handle being told to go to bed and brush their teeth.

I think most of this is being driven by personal vendettas. if you look at each person on the right, it seems they all have a grudge of some such and this current administration promises to deliver based on revenge.

The biggest player being Elon: His son Xavier has transitioned. And when his (now daughter) called out Elon’s nazi wave as being legitimate, Elon tipped his hand by saying the woke killed his son and he is out to kill the woke mind(https://www.aol.com/news/elon-musk-estranged-daughter-responds-155107557.html) - So Elon sank a tonne of money to sway this election to his own vendetta.

For Dementia donald : it’s Biden winning the 2020 election.

For Vance it’s repressed feelings you can see he’s trying to break out the drag queen smokey eye: although he’s an opportunist at the base of it. So he’s getting two things met here. I think because he’s at odds with himself(still eyelining everyday) his soul has vacated, he has much self insecurity and is unhappy with himself as a person and projects that as anger and revenge on everyone who he views is as weak as he feels. Sort of a projected self hatred.

For the speaker mike johnson: he’s a gay convert, big proponent of the conversion therapy so lots to unpack there. even lives with a reverend while married to a woman. to simplify it : He’s against the ‘woke mind’ because he has a lot of self hate. He’s against himself. Likely why he drinks so much as well and does wreckless shit : https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/speaker-mike-johnson-chief-staff-arrested-dui-charge-trump-speech-rcna194986 - this person is self destructing.

For Hegeseth: he’s an untreated alcoholic that self medicates rather than face a true recovery.

JFK Jr: wormbrain. his worm is against anything that would kill parasites. I don’t think there’s much of a human being in that brain anymore. I think it’s all parasite now.

For Leavitt: greedy and sees this as an opportunity(as do most of the party) - and while we can say she’s young and easily influenced I’m not prepared to let her off the hook on this. There are too many progressive young minds to prove this was a choice of her’s. Not simply ignorance. It’s stupidity for sure. but not from not knowing any better.

I’ve lived here all my life; the answer is yes.

Source: am stupid

between The Delectable Negro and In Defence of Cannibalism (routley. 1982): and and and and?

There’s a fantastic documentary by Adam Curtis, called “I can’t get you out of my head”. It explores specifically the transition from the ‘then’ system of thinking to, well, now. It’s long but give it a watch.

Read the book “bowling alone” if you’re interested in someone’s attempt at researching why we went from collectivism to individualism as a country. There are a large amount of factors but if I were to take a crack at it, I’d list a few: TV, the Internet, smart phones, air conditioning, capitalism, and (last but certainly not least) racism. Racism is foundational to the country and its history.

As far as the stupidity, some of the same factors apply, but there are also additional ones like environmental factors (US citizens eat more microplastics than any other major country since like 2020 and we lead poisoned ourselves for a century), a deep-seeded anti-intellectualism, and we’re a large part cultist/religious idiots that see everything through the lense of “some guy” being the best thing ever and the source of all truth.

I don’t know but check out the show All in the Family which was aired in the 70s. I don’t think they have exaggerated the character of Archie Bunker. I really think that there were many people like him during that era. And he is exactly like the pro Trump that we are seeing right now.

I remember him saying in one episode “Nixon is intelligent as he knows how to avoid paying taxes”. That argument comes up from pro Trump people.

There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.

• Isaac Asimov, 1980

There were people warning against the glorification of ignorance in the US nearly half a century ago. It’s nothing new; it just reached critical mass (also thanks to social media where ignorant people can self-organise).

No. Education has been under attack for the last 50 years.

For every generation that goes by education gets worse and worse. People are literally getting dumber as a result.

It’s all in the republican playbook. The dumber people are the easier they are to control. That’s how dick wads like Trump get into office.

Lead poisoning. Leaded gasoline started in the 1930s, but in the 50s and 60s we destroyed our public transportation and then destroyed millions of black homes to build highways through our cities. So leaded gasoline peaked in the 70s.

Oh, and boomers, who have the most lead brain damage, hold all the political power because they hold all the wealth.

Parties and what they represent evolve over time. America is going through a rapid evolution currently.

Since the end of the Cold War America has pursued or engaged in free trade and Neo Liberalism and the War on Terror.

The result is there are significant sections of the populace that feel left behind by our economy as wealth inequality builds. They see their jobs going over seas and an ineffectual government that has failed at protecting them economically and has failed in the War on Terror. Add to it a powerful propaganda machine in the form of our news and social media and it is a recipe for change… What that change will end up shaping into may not be the future you want.

This is the backlash. After the Democratic establishment has ignored unions and the working man. Leaving them open to the populist out reach of Donald Trump.

Never mind that Trump will never deliver any of what he promised. The fact is he now has the power and is using it to break up the system that has been in place since WW2. Which benefits a small number of oligarchs who want to cement their power over the US.

I suspect we will see a shift in the next mid-term election (if it takes place) and a realignment of the Democratic Party toward populism. We as a people have to figure out how to fight corporate propaganda and their hegemony over social media.

That is if Trump doesn’t kill our Democracy first.

I moved to the Netherlands from the U.S. in July of 2022.

My opinion now? There are morons everywhere. I think more, per capita, back in the U.S. of A.

The world is a circus, but in the U.S., you have front row seats.

My answer is going to include a short story as a pretext.

In Canada in the 90s, we used to have these commercials from an organization called “Concerned Childrens Advetisers” the commercials were about a variety of things, some being positive reinforcement about self esteem, others were more on the nose like not eating glue…

there was one important one that would come on a lot called “The North American House Hippo”. And for about 60 seconds it would tell kids about tiny hippopotamus that come out in your kitchen at night, eat crumbs of dropped food, and make beds under your fridge or in the pantry or something… At the end of the commercial, the narrator says something to the effect of “That was an interesting story, but Its not real, not everything you read in a book or see on the TV is real.” the internet wasn’t mentioned because it wasn’t widespread enough yet… but it had a simple lesson. Not everything you see in media is real.

that lesson hasn’t been transfered over to the majority of people, or more likely, most people are not responsible enough to be trusted with the internet because they dont know how to filter, they dont know how to think critically when presented with information online, and its even worse now in the age of deepfakes and AI, that even the smart ones get fooled now.

Collectively we’re dumber because people have allowed their public facebook comment section keyboard warrior persona, to take over their real lives. Who people are in person and who people are online, are two different individuals, but the online persona is the one who is in charge. When we are in public, we usually revert to our social norms, respect each other. But when you’re a keyboard warrior, your impotent rage and urge to yell the N word and other slurs is unchecked because there isnt anyone present to break your nose for saying or doing something antisocial or arrogant.