NothingNaturalAboutThisSelectionVille
We all know it's happening.
The world is getting dumber every day.
But why?
Well, Lane Brown, writing in NY Magazine, makes the case that it is because we all have an ever growing and metastasizing babbling tower of dumbness inside our own house (web archive link):
...Not so long ago, the dolts among us were free to think their thoughts quietly to themselves with no easy way to share them. At worst, a person would usually just embarrass himself in front of his own family or bowling team. Bad ideas had a harder time scaling and reproducing, so lots of stupidity stayed local, and everyone else could happily overestimate the average person’s intelligence because they saw less of it. But then we connected everyone on the planet and gave them each the equivalent of their own printing press, radio station, and TV network. Now, even those with nothing useful to say can tell the whole world exactly, or more often vaguely, what they think...
It's pretty hard to argue with that I reckon.
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17 comments:
Can’t argue with that at all. To top it off, we are subject to the daily shit show in the USA. It is on every day, pretty well 24 hours.
I don't know... George Carlin was railing about people's stupidity long before the internet existed. As he said, "People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do."
Chuck--
That show is like a demented, debased and (even more) debauched version of the 1980's Manchester music scene that resulted in movie with 24 hours in it.
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Cap--
Fair enough, especially given Mr. Carlin's prescience, but...
The thesis of the linked to piece here is that while IQ's steadily rose during most of the 20th century (the 'Flynn Effect') they did the opposite from 2006 to 2018.
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Is being stupid natures way in thinning the excess population?
I don't know. Dude's thesis does not seem too far off the olden days parents' groups who saw Satan in every rock 'n' roll record. Similar arguments to his could be made blaming micro-plastics and wildfire fire smoke for our increasing dimness, if indeed it is increasing. Seems to me the unfettered ability of all of us listening to all of us might just teach us a thing or two about ourselves well worth knowing. I'm certainly paying attention. Could be we have all just taken too much acetaminophen after all.
I always feared Archie Bunker was more of an example than a caution, and putting him on screen was a permission to say out loud what was bubbling beneath. Balzac did the same thing in The Human Comedy.
That's the reason why the Archie Bunker character in AITF was so relatable, everybody knew someone like him!
"printing press", good term for it all. Many think they are always right. Now they have a method to tell the world how smart they are. In the past about all there was were letters to the editor and that was controlled by a newspaper. Now people just write what they want and facts be dammed.
Yes, I remember the Archie Bunker types. They thought any one who disagreed with them was stupid, especially if they were female.
I don't think people are becoming dumber. they are becoming less educated about history and current events and are too lazy to do research.
Want to see real dumb? Check out comments on Castanet forum.
Life is too short to do that. I'm old. Real dumb, ya I grew up with some like that. Unless its really funny I don't want to see it or hear it.
The most disheartening thing for me regarding the Internet is not the realization that there are some very dumb bells out there, or that I’m much closer to average than I used to think. That newfangled interweb has a way of proving both.
It’s the revelation that some of the dumbest bells of all are in positions of great power at the top of industry and government.
Rafe Mair used to say something along the lines of, “You make a serious error if you assume those in power know what the hell they’re doing.” I believe he was right. And he said it before the Internet became a thing.
and Rafe definitely should know...
I was going to comment about how stupidity was like a virus. When a friend would say something foolish, those around could point out the errors of said virusy like dumbness. And it would spread no further.Now , with the Weber net, any Doofus can spread dumbness all over the planet, like a patient zero getting on a plane. Thanks anonymous for the making my point.
Troll removal, above.
As DS has noted about how dumbness can spread and that is exactly how trump uses the news, internet, social media etc. I think he knows much of what he says is outright bull pucks but he knows that once he says it and it goes out via these pathways it’s too late for anyone to do anything. Yeah we fight back and post corrections and some get on news sites and programs and give the correct information but it’s too late already. There was a guy in the ‘30’s who did the same thing because even then they knew it was too late once the disinformation was launched.
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