If you have an exceptional intelligence... You live in IDIOCRACY right now

Submitted ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨BlackLaZoR@fedia.io⁩ to ⁨showerthoughts@lemmy.world⁩

In the movie average guy has been transported into society of stupids. But if you're genius, you see all the idiocies of modern society, all the stupidity of average Joe, and you have no choice but to play the stupid game of life in accordance with dumb laws that this retarded society managed to create

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missingno@fedia.io ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
Idiocracy is an entertaining fictional comedy, but any time someone tries to compare it to real life I want to smack them. IMO, the movie would've been improved if they'd chopped off the eugenicist intro and just said he'd been isekai'd into a world of idiots.

The movie portrays a world where everyone is stupid, no exceptions, but nearly all of them are well-meaning. President Comacho cares about doing the right thing, he just has no idea how to solve the problems the country is facing. But then when someone smarter comes along, Comacho at least understands that he can step aside and let Not Sure save the day.

The problems facing the real world come from people who are both intelligent and evil. Smart people at the top use propaganda to manipulate dumb people at the bottom. That's nothing like Idiocracy, not even close.

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- popekingjoe@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  I’ve been making this argument every single time. What we’re living through right now is a mean idiot in charge of the government with a relatively smart, evil fucker pulling his strings. Not a bunch of morons with a 1st grade reading level who are, at the very least, not doing blatantly evil things. The folks in Idiocracy are indeed idiots, but they’re well-meaning idiots. These folks are just plain malicious assholes doing everything they’ve always wanted to do because they’re just corrupted individuals.
  
  I’d much rather live as I am (I was the “gifted kid” in school) in Idiocracy than where I do now. Idiocracy was actually merit based. These fuckers are cultish in everything they do.
  
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- billwashere@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  Yeah I don’t think comparison but what we have right now and Idiocracy is fair. However, I can completely see where we are now as leading to idiocracy. Making education harder and harder to get, anti-science, anti-intellectualism, pseudoscience, too much power and wealth concentration, etc. I totally think it could happen.
  
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  - TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    Those things are actively being done by the ‘smart’ people who want to horde all the benefits of those things for themselves. The concept of lifting up the unwashed mashes via education is considered niave now. What people are doing is isolating themselves into geographic bubbles of extreme wealth and making rules to keep everyone else out who doesn’t have a few million in the bank to afford the ticket.
    
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- MissJinx@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  I think the meaning is the less educated you are the more kids you make, the less you have to educate them etc. That does tend to happen, but we are not talking about inteligencd but just lack of education, so ignorance, and therr is a great antidote for ignorance, it’s called Education
  
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  - missingno@fedia.io ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    Yes, Idiocracy misses that education matters far more than genetics. And education is something that has steadily gotten better for each generation. We stand on the shoulders of giants with access to the combined knowledge of everyone that came before us.
    
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- IronBird@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  idiocracy is meant to portray the end-result of our society, the intelligent evil people eventually get outnumbered and overrun by the stupids. stupid people (people in general really) tend to be well meaning, when they’re not fighting over limited resources. it takes dogma/propaganda to get people to want to go kill X group…
  
  a society of stupids whose needs are largely serviced by a slowly failing nanny/bread+circus state would probably end up fairly benevolent when all the intelligent+evil people are out competed through sheer numbers
  
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  - possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    There is no evidence that people are getting dumber
    
    Actually people are getting smarter thanks to improvements in education and health
    
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- SippyCup@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  Because Mike Judge is terrified of poor people.
  
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  - TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    anyone who has any money whatsoever is terrified of poor people. including other poor people.
    
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WatDabney@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
I see a good amount of idiocracy, but more what I see is… let’s call it “lunaticracy.” It’s not just that a significant number of powerful and influential people (and their sycophants) aren’t smart - they aren’t even sane.

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inb4_FoundTheVegan@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
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sunbrrnslapper@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
I don’t have exceptional intelligence, but I do think we are living in Idiocracy.

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Simulation@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
It’s the combo that sucks: Being intelligent & having morals. Perfect recipe for severe depression.

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- EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  Smart enough to know the world is a hellscape. Moral enough to care, even if your own life is decent.
  
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  - TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    and egotistical enough to think your feelings matter.
    
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- IAmNorRealTakeYourMeds@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  Felt the same a year a ago. it’s such a lonely and maddening feeling.
  
  I started volunteering local community events, and got in contact with peers who feel the same and are working really hard to improve communities. We are very active politically and we get to see first hand how our works helps people. Also I now have a close knit friend group whom I love dearly.
  
  it turned that frustrating into positive power. Go out, get active. you aren’t alone, there are likely many people who think just like you, and if you get together you might change everything.
  
  you have no idea how much power a dozen people have when they show up to city hall meetings with consistent comments. and we’re working on putting our members in political positions, like Dems (🤮), DSA, Municipalities…
  
  now to be selfish: my mental health is now at an all time high (was suicidal a year ago, and suffered life long depression). I am now someone my past self would have admired. And I get to expand personal hobbies into projects that are much bigger than me (I’m playing with meshtastic, and am currently testing settings up a city wide network for clandestine/emergency communication). Or I swell with pride whenever I see someone carrying anti-ICE whistles I mass produced in my 3d printer. talk to me a year ago and now and you would not recognise me.
  
  in conclusion, you’re not alone, get organised, fuck shit up, there’s so much you can do. no one has ever regretted helping his community.
  
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- ScoffingLizard@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  Oh shit. You just gave me an epiphany.
  
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themeatbridge@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
You don’t need to be particularly intelligent to see it. Case in point, I can see it.

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TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Everyone now thinks they have exceptional intelligence.

That’s the root of the problem.

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IAmNorRealTakeYourMeds@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
there no such thing as intelligence, it’s too broad an umbrella terms. I’m some conversations I’m the smartest I’m the room, in others I’m comically stupid. Some might have amazing creativity but bad memoy, or great intuition is some fields but terrible ideas…

any attempt to measure it, will be made in such a way to favour whoever is making the test to assert their superiority.

Having a test to see if kids are in the right environment is the only good use of IQ tests. anything else and you’re on your way to introducing eugenics.

historically, poor “uneducated” had more babies, and IQ tests have to be recalibrated because on average we have much better results than in the past. likely due to better education and resources.

want to improve collective intelligence? Shove that eugenics bs as far as your arse as you possibly can and invest in public education and community resources.

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- ScoffingLizard@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  I’m glad you clearly defined the issue so that I now understand why everyone is so up I’m arms about the intelligence argument. I made a similar one recently to a person who said black folks had lower IQs and explained that the test results would have probably been much different if all participants came from the same socioeconomic backgrounds. But then got called a Nazi in a separate discussion for discussing intelligence and race on Lemmy. So I guess my real problem was not realizing that other people don’t get how education and environment can change the results of IQ tests and intelligence perception. I just kinda thought everyone knew that. So if you speak in terms of race and perceived intelligence, other people have no way of knowing that you have considered all the other environmental factors and just assume a person is a racist.
  
  I guess what I am saying is that it would be better discourse if more people nicely explained what the problem with their language is like you did, but without assuming a person is racist or on board with eugenics. Like, personally, I’m willing to make adjustments so that it’s not offensive to others, but I wasn’t inclined to previously because people just said I was wrong and a Nazi and I had no idea wtf they were talking about until I read your comment just now.
  
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  - IAmNorRealTakeYourMeds@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    Attaching IQ to race is 100% racist and Nazi. there is more genetic variety within “races” (a racist pseudoscientific term that has no biological bearing) than between races, and also, if we went with the assumption that race is related to IQ, then Africans would be the smartest people on the planet. Because there is more genetic variety in Africa than the rest of the world^1^. There is also the fact that IQ is malleable, spend a year watching tiktok and get tested you will see a cognitive difference, it is 100% a reflection of affluence and education.
    
    Also conservatives (racists especially) love to talk about IQ, high IQ people. Those must be dog whistles, when they say high IQ they mean whites and Asians, and by low IQ they mean brown and black people. That is likely the issue, they were not talking about human intelligence as an academic conversation, they are just trying to say that there is a racial hierarchy, you did not understand each other because you were having different conversations. if you reply to them agreeing about that bs, they will likely open up about their racism and try to recruit you or push you further to the right.
    
    ^1^ Humans were developing in Africa way before they left the continent, those who left were from relatively small population pockets, that is why the tallest and shortest ethnicities are in Africa. That is a scientific fact.
    
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Kolanaki@pawb.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
You don’t even really need exceptional intelligence. Just be average or slightly above average.

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- Diddlydee@feddit.uk ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  The average level of dumbness means 50% of people are below that level. I think George Carlin said something of that ilk.
  
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  - Kolanaki@pawb.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    “Imagine how stupid the average person is and then realize half of them are stupider than that.”
    
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WhatGodIsMadeOf@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
It’s beyond stupid… It’s basically a mix of stupidity, naivety, criminal, and evil.

I don’t think genuine humanity will ever come back because everyone sold humanity out and now humanity is owned.

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yesman@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
If you think Idiocracy is the future (or the present) you believe in eugenics. It’s a cute move, but it’s writers have a worse understanding of evolution than the makers of Pokemon.

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- ScoffingLizard@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  Here we go with more “you’re a Nazi and I’m not” virtue signaling. This has got to be the most annoying trend I’ve ever seen on the Internet.
  
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possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
The problem with measuring intelligence is that there is no clear definition of intelligence

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- TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  There are clear measurements of various abilities, but there is no measure of general intelligence in the sense of being able to process new information and draw novel conclusions about it, or think outside of existing socially dominant schemas.
  
  Even the most ‘smart’ people I know, very few exercise this ability, even if they have it. To think well you often have to be trained to do so, and even then a lot of people will fail in that training willfully. Mostly because they are aware taht exhibiting thoughtful individuality will get them socially and career shitcanned, because so much of society is and career success is built on being a yes man.
  
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Axiochus@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
We’re using the word ‘retarded’ again? O.o

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- IronBird@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  it’s a good word, like fuck
  
  the Don’t Say the Word campaign was unironically the start to all this anti-woke stuff (well…that and Murdoch being allowed to own like half of all media), that campaign was so forced and retarded.
  
  kids will always call each (insert medical word for slow/retard/mentally disabled), they’re kids…that’s what they do.
  
  trying to ban those words is an utter waste if effort, especially when there are a dozen more useful uses for our time as society when it comes to improved child-rearing
  
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  - vatlark@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    Fuck is an exclamation, not a slur. While I do agree people will use slurs, I do think we should avoid them.
    
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- Bongles@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  It IS making a comeback. I’m not sure why this was the line for people, but as we get further into whatever the fuck you call what’s going on, I’ve noticed both retarded and faggot are coming back, unfortunately.
  
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givesomefucks@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
Always have…

If you’re over 145 (where a normal test stops), it’s only like 1 in 750, but it means you’re over 30 points above around 80% of the population.

30 points is the line where communication is noticably difficult.

Being smart is like being tall. A little over average is great, but once you’re statistically insignificant you’re still jammed in the same hole as everyone else even tho you clearly don’t fit.

Like, that was the whole point of the movie. It wasn’t a warning about the future it’s how an intelligent person has always viewed the world.

The drug abuse correlation with high IQ isn’t just “novelty seeking”, it’s actively and intentionally getting on everyone else’s level, at least for a little bit.

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digger@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
That would explain why I keep seeing Crocs everywhere.

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MantisToboggon@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
What’s it like living in the past?

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teft@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
No, Not Sure was leagues ahead of everyone else in intelligence. Even the smartest person on earth today has plenty of other people that are that smart as well.

Not Sure was 100 IQ and everyone else in 2505 is under 10 IQ or so if we go by the chart in the movie. Someone like Marilyn vos Savant is ~200 IQ with ten or more people in that league and many many many other people in the 130+ IQ which is considered genius level IQ.

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- ScoffingLizard@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  10 is not even functional. Genius is 145+.
  
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- possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  IQ is not really a useful score though. You can’t measure intelligence with a simple test because intelligence is an abstract idea
  
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  - teft@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    It’s just a metric to show how utterly alone Not Sure is in his brilliance.
    
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ArgumentativeMonotheist@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
People just have atrophied brains because they never learned what it meant to think, make your own conclusions from solid bases and stand by them, and they’re also heavily uninformed (propaganda is one hell of a drug). It’s less base intelligence and more lack of practice what makes the difference, IME.

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JizzmasterD@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
I hate wringing my hands over people being stupid. We need to acknowledge we’re not doing enough to reconcile « thinkers », « feelers » and the majority that fall in between.

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- TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  People being stupid isn’t a problem or bad necessary.
  
  The problem is when stupid being engage in collective delusion and damage/destroy the principles and needs that build society. For example, the belief that taxes are theft, rather than the cost of social infrastructure that makes their private businesses and lives even possible.
  
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Chippys_mittens@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
Well, why aren’t you doing anything to make an impact with your exceptional intelligence then?

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