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• Jarix@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Hitler thought america would side with him in ww2, he was a fan of jim crow

  Who knew it just needed to take 60 years to become accurate

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  • SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Hitler was very narrow minded when it came to international politics. His mindset barely extended beyond Europe. To him the US was “over there”. He thought though that Britain would side with him as racial peers with similar attitudes (i.e. colonialism).

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  • Nangijala@feddit.dk ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    60?

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    • Jarix@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Im just using today, what would you say?

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• rational_lib@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Miss Cleo was big in the 90s. And she wasn’t even the dumbest one. Americans have always believed in stupid bullshit. The CIA used to hire psychics too. Go back to the 1920s, and Americans pretty much took it for granted that fairies are real.

  What’s changed recently is that the media went from being a mostly curated place where completely lunacy was hard to find, to a right wing clown show led by con artists. And don’t underestimate the degree to which this was done deliberately - Elon buying Twitter was a pretty clear example of the billionaire mafia taking a platform that was sort of trying to be more attached to reality and making it a lot dumber and more right wing.

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• whotookkarl@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  The requirements for justice includes truth (objective facts of reality not merely opinion or belief or rumors) for accountability, attacking education prevents an ability to evaluate if something presented confidently as truth is truth. It’s a fast track to corruption and injustice.

  Putin, Trump, Erdogan, etc style of extreme right wing populist propaganda is to attack truth and prevent justice by weaponizing ignorance. They’re spreading a firehouse of distracting lies, for example staged attacks against people representing their beliefs on facebook and twitter, to a public who is at least in part unable or unwilling to critically evaluate facts of reality from propaganda lies. Another more general example is if you’re not aware of confirmation bias and how it’s used and works due to a lack of education you are going to be much more susceptible to it’s effects when used.

  People aren’t necessarily getting dumber other than some temporary dips due to toxic environmental things like lead in fuel or maybe some effects of toxicity we’re not aware of yet, It’s just the people who were already susceptible to fascist rhetoric & con artists are being indoctrinated against education as either unnecessary or harmful, which makes them easier to continue to mass propagandize to with more methods that have fewer rules platforms need to follow compared to older mass media propaganda like newspapers or network TV news.

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• thespcicifcocean@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  I think it got worse in 2009 when the tea party started. But yes, we’ve always been stupid. But this is a whole new level.

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• DicJacobus@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  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.

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  • BreadOven@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    That was a great one. Although they kind of exist (skinny pigs). But agreed, people need to think critically. Everywhere.

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• Slam_Eye@lemmy.ca ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Ive travelled through the states a couple times. You guys have always been quirky. You believe you have X level of freedom, while the rest of the world clearly sees it aint true, huge ugly car infrastructure and massive health problems yet somehow your chins are up high.

  Besides that, i have met a guy nicknamed meat who looked like xmens juggernaut chub an alcoholic 4 loko from a beer bong and then i had a nice long discussion with 2 women who worked on the hillary clinton campaign. In the same town.

  There are extremes everywhere.

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• Serinus@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Yes. It didn’t help that we spent 50 years saying not to discuss politics or religion.

  But the current situation was largely a coordinated propaganda effort, likely combined with blackmail on politicians. Possibly caused by the hacked emails. Both the DNC and RNC were hacked. Only the DNC side was released.

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• SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  In the 60s the counterculture decided that all authority and anything taught to them was wrong and they thought they were smarter than anyone else and their gut feelings were just as valid as education. Hippies and conspiracy obsessed right wingers converged towards things like quack medicines, conspiracy mongering, etc. Anti intellectualism has become the norm. No one with a normal personality would run for office now because the knee-jerk response is to pile hate on them so you only get dysfunctional people running for office. The internet has only made things worse by allowing these people to find each other and reinforce their beliefs.

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• Prime_Minister_Keyes@lemm.ee ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  In authoritarian societies, restricting education serves a purpose as a sort of anesthesia for the minds of the people. Solzhenitsyn, describing the few years just before the Great Terror of 1937 started in the Soviet Union, mostly from the perspective of a political prisoner (from Volume II, Chapter 4 of the “Gulag Archipelago” which can be found in its entirety on the web, in The Archive):

  And the clock of history was striking. […] The Great Leader (having already in mind, no doubt, how many he would soon have to do away with) declared that the withering away of the state (which had been awaited virtually from 1920 on) would arrive via, believe it or not, the maximum intensification of state power! This was so unexpectedly brilliant that it was not given to every little mind to grasp it, but Vyshinsky, ever the loyal apprentice, immediately picked it up: “And this means the maximum strengthening of corrective-labor institutions.” […] And this was not some satirical magazine cracking a joke either, but was said by the Prosecutor General. […] All this was printed in black on white, but we still didn’t know how to read.¹ The year 1937 was publicly predicted and provided with a foundation.
  And the hairy hand² tossed out all the frills and gewgaws too. Labor collectives? Prohibited! […] Professional and technical courses for prisoners? Dissolve them! […] Graphs, diagrams? Tear them off the wall and whitewash the walls.

  1 My take: The author and his peers most definitely knew how to read, but they could not fully comprehend what was being published because of its, at that time, unparalleled egregiousness.
  2 Certainly the one of Stalin.

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  • SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Stalin wiped out the officers in the Red Army because he perceived anyone with any authority to be a potential threat. Anyone who had been around for too long was a threat. This set the stage for the Germans to steamroll them in the opening of Operation Barbarossa because you had a Red Army that was completely dysfunctional due to the slaughter of its leadership. He probably would’ve turned on Beria (NKVD) too if he had the chance.

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• Montreal_Metro@lemmy.ca ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  They were pretty stupid back in the 90s and got worst over time. Obviously this is a generalization as there are some non-stupids too but judging by the election results they seem to be the minority.

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• frostysauce@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Ladies, gentlemen, enbys, and others: Karma whoring has come to Lemmy.

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  • slackassassin@sh.itjust.works ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    DAE Americans are stupid?

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• dukeofdummies@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  “well, Trump said he’d fix the economy and I don’t like woke.”

  I mean, I feel like you’re being a bit derivative. I would put it more towards desperation than stupidity. Why does someone stay with an abusive partner? Biden was of the stance that “things are getting better” and… they’re not.

  I always considered trump’s victory as sign that the democrats were just… that flaccid and unpalatable. It’s like you have a partner who sucks. They pay their share of rent, they expect you to do all the cooking and cleaning, they don’t even bother to understand you and get pissy that a random bouquet of whatever flowers on sale doesn’t magically fix an argument and make your loins quiver.

  You fall instead to this gorgeous individual who knows how to flirt and makes you feel like the world can be easily fixed and now you’re locked in their basement about to lose an arm.

  It’s desperation that makes people take risks, listen to people they shouldn’t listen to.

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• endeavor@sopuli.xyz ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  In us bribes are legal and are called “lobbying”. It was a broken country from the very start.

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• Hazor@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Pro-business/anti-regulation types teamed up with the anti-abortion types around 50 years ago in order to get votes for their unpopular ideas, then they did everything they could to conflate the two ideologies to where Christians now think Jesus was a capitalist instead of anything that’s in the bible.

  Tl;Dr: propaganda.

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  • Tehdastehdas@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Image Image

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• Cowbee@lemmy.ml ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  The US Empire failed to raise successors that understand how it works, and thus they raised a generation of “true believers” in the myths and lies the more competent generations of leaders spread to legitimize their policy. Look at the defunding of programs like USAID, which has historically played a critical role in US-sponsored regime change, now seen as “woke” by the current admin.

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  • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    doesnt the new admin just consider USAID fraudulent spending lmao?

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• Guns0rWeD13@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  no. studies show that people have gotten more stupid over the last 15 years.

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  • menemen@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Nah, that is not really true. There has been a significant bump due to covid, but before covid the test results have shown constant improvements.

    That said, I don’t think IQ and political idiocy are that strongly correlated. I’ve met a lot of highly trained people, who would doubtlessly get great IQ test results, who are politically extremely gullible.

    That also said, IQ tests are also a quite flawed way to assess intelligence.

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    • Aux@feddit.uk ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      IQ tests are not necessarily flawed to assess current state of intelligence, but they cannot be used to compare intelligence today to intelligence a century ago. Because 100 IQ today is not the same as 100 IQ score a century ago.

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  • reksas@sopuli.xyz ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    i wonder if microplastic could affect this. Even if its inert it must do something if enough accumulates in the brain.

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    • ploot@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Many things are possible, but we shouldn’t go shouting “It’s microplastics!” or “It’s TikTok!” without actual scientific research. There are just too many plausible-sounding hypotheses that need to be handled carefully.

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  • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    There was a study that confirmed this mentioned on a podcast that I listen to in the last couple of weeks. I tried to find it, but I didn’t spend much time. It was on the Grumpy Old Geeks podcast, if anyone wants to search more than I did. I think our phones and social media are the cause.

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• Ledericas@lemm.ee ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  They buy into propaganda very easily, also being complacent all the time made them somewhat selfish and arrogant

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• ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  My theory is that it’s brain atrophy, not stupidity.

  Americans are not stupid in the sense that they can’t learn and do things. They are perfectly capable to work in a bank, fix a car, fly a plane or be a doctor. But even if they do work as as accountant or a surgeon (like Ben Carson…) they rarely use brains for analytical thinking. They don’t have to. School is easy (you can just play sports), finding job used to be easy, buying home used to be easy, you were born into one political party and just followed it. You drive your huge car on endless highways surrounded by aesthetically sterile malls, eat your burgers, watch some football and that’s it. No need to analyze things so your brain kind of forgets how to do it.

  Eventually the country split into the curious part that actually wants to study and understand things and the “stupid” part that just consumes propaganda and votes for Trump. As some point the “stupid” part became the majority. Now not everything is that easy for young people but I think it’s too late.

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  • fluffykittycat@slrpnk.net ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    The stupid part gets more electoral college votes per capita and the smart part is stuck with a corpo middle manager party that’s resistant by design to any leftward shift (see Bernie 2016 & 2020)

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• Itdidnttrickledown@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Yes and forgetful as well. Utterly unable to learn from history since the history they are taught is whitewashed.

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• Jhuskindle@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  When I was a child i gree up around red Republicans and insane wealth. Yes. The answer is yes. And rich people hate accountability and always get away with being shitty.

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• DoucheBagMcSwag@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Image

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• Dead_or_Alive@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  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.

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• ProfHillbilly@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  I grew up in WNC and the rural people are really stupid and myopic in their views. This makes people easy to manipulate through religion. I have there relatives and high school peers to prove it. These people are deeply uncurious. While they are screaming about being a free thinker and not being woke, they are being led around by their noses by their preachers and deacons.

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• starlinguk@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  It’s not just the US. It’s the electoral system. There are just as many frigging idiots elsewhere, but they’re less likely to gain power.

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• biegoditch@lemmy.cafe ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  America is a slavery built colony started by a bunch of bigots.

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  • endeavor@sopuli.xyz ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    …Built on liebensraum americans got after genociding all the native americans who are now being forced to live in petting zoos.

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• Jehuty@lemmy.ml ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  For me, it has been a process of accepting that we can’t handwave actual opposing worldviews by talking about intelligence.

  I know people who aren’t “smart” by most definitions, but who still have a lot of empathy and kindness. On the other hand, I have peers who I consider geniuses in their interests and fields, but with whom I struggled to find common ground politically.

  It’s more useful to look at values. I can agree with most people in my life on the broad strokes. It’s when we get bogged down with micropolitics that fights happen.

  I still think the public reaction to Luigi Mangione was a prime example of how people actually agree about a lot in this country, but frame it differently.

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• abbotsbury@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  “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

  at least that long

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• groolthedemon@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  I am American. The answer is both a Yes and a No. It doesn’t have so much to do with stupidity, but that our education system has been slowly dismantled since the 90’s. Rather than teaching civics, critical thinking, and basic knowledge about government, economics and their inner workings we’ve setup a system that favors test scores and nothing else. Has that made people more stupid? Possibly, but I think it has more to do with only learning the answers rather than how to get there. There’s just this huge in-between of information that a lot of people don’t seem to be able to work out on their own without having a lot of hints of what the outcome will be. It saddens me to see people’s gears just come to a grinding halt trying to work out simple solutions on things.

  I think the biggest bane in America is our work culture. We’ve setup a dog eat dog system of trying to strive for the most success at any cost. Work culture in America is fickle, back stabby, and rife with favoritism over quality of work. The biggest lie we were ever told was that we could be the next Bill Gates, or Elon Musk, or some other rich billionaire mogul. The biggest lie we were ever told was to invest in the stock market and have a 401k. The biggest lie we were ever told is that if we worked our asses off that we’d automatically be successful. America is just a grindhouse that treats the working class like shit and unless you decide to be a bridge burning greedy fucking asshole you’ll never really get anywhere with any real upward mobility.

  Lastly, I will say that America and American’s themselves has become more and more isolationist in the last couple of decades. Maybe it is social media and the echo chambers they cause. Maybe it is the fake friendships and feeling like you are just collecting trading cards instead of making real insightful and meaningful relationships. Maybe it is the dog eat dog work culture or the keeping up with the Jones’s mentality of things like Instagram and Facebook. Maybe it is a bit of everything. The fact remains that there is a huge friendship pandemic in this country and it only gets worse and worse as many of us further isolate ourselves from reality, critical thinking, and the prospect of being really challenged by the people we could be surrounding ourselves with.

  All of this has culminated in a culture that is becoming more work and money focused, less people and social relationship focused, and by and large more shallow and less well rounded and interesting overall. No generation is immune from it either. Whether you are young or old you can fall victim to all I’ve outlined above. Most people have let the technology and systems in place take away their freedom of thought and originality to instead become a husk of the human potential they once were or could be again because it is easier to fall prey to hive mind apathy and cynicism than to fight for your own uniqueness and truer sense of self.

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• Clinicallydepressedpoochie@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Ah, yes, you found the lemmy cheat code. Making fun of americans.

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  • FreeHat@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Hate to break it to you bud but it’s rapidly becoming the new international Konami code and America is the country that implemented it

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