Are we getting stupider? Why or why not? Evidence?

[paravani]

Hi, folks!

It's my personal belief that we as a nation are getting stupider by the day.

I don't mean that we make bad choices -- I mean that literally, our average intelligence is dropping with every new generation.

Stupid parents are having more babies than smart parents, and our well-developed civilization makes it easy for even the very stupid to survive and breed another generation.

Well, of course that's the case -- civilization is supposed to make it easy to survive. That's its whole reason for being!

... But civilizations fall; and one of the reasons they fall is that their populations eventually become too stupid to maintain them. In fact, every civilization before this one has fallen, and many of them lasted much longer than this one has.

Our world population has ballooned to 7 BILLION people. That's so many people that if you counted ten of them every second, it would take you almost 222 YEARS to count them all! That large a population places a huge strain on the environment and resources of our planet, and if we don't get a whole lot smarter very fast, our civilization will collapse under the weight of all those billions.

It's time to put our collective heads together and come up with solutions that will work.

So, first of all -- do you agree or not that people are becoming stupider? And what, if any, evidence can you present to support your opinion?

Secondly, if you DO agree that people are becoming stupider, what solutions can you propose to reverse that trend? What do you see as the root causes, and how would you propose to address those causes?

Thanks in advance to all who participate on the thread!

-- Paravani

 

[RDD_1210]

This site alone would make anyone think that we as a society are becoming dumber. The movie Idiocracy was a documentary apparently.

 

[High_Gravity]

Stupid parents are having more babies than smart parents, -- Paravani

You are absolutely spot on about that, just 1 example my unemployed friend who lives in his moms house has 3 kids, but my friend who makes 6 figures, works for a company in New York and travels the world has none, and doesn't want any.

 

[paravani]

This site alone would make anyone think that we as a society are becoming dumber. The movie Idiocracy was a documentary apparently.

LOL! Idiocracy rocked!

Yeah, it made some relevant points, and yeah, that could be our future... but I really, really hope not, 'cause unlike in the movie, I don't think civilization will survive the next 500 years if we keep getting stupider.

So come on... let's hear some ideas! How do we prevent the population of our civilized world from getting stupider and stupider?

 

[High_Gravity]

This site alone would make anyone think that we as a society are becoming dumber. The movie Idiocracy was a documentary apparently.

LOL! Idiocracy rocked!

Yeah, it made some relevant points, and yeah, that could be our future... but I really, really hope not, 'cause unlike in the movie, I don't think civilization will survive the next 500 years if we keep getting stupider.

So come on... let's hear some ideas! How do we prevent the population of our civilized world from getting stupider and stupider?

Stop paying for peoples kids who can't afford them.

 

[Mr. Shaman]

Are we getting stupider? Why or why not? Evidence?

 

[RDD_1210]

This site alone would make anyone think that we as a society are becoming dumber. The movie Idiocracy was a documentary apparently.

LOL! Idiocracy rocked!

Yeah, it made some relevant points, and yeah, that could be our future... but I really, really hope not, 'cause unlike in the movie, I don't think civilization will survive the next 500 years if we keep getting stupider.

So come on... let's hear some ideas! How do we prevent the population of our civilized world from getting stupider and stupider?

Stop paying for peoples kids who can't afford them.

How will that increase intelligence levels?

 

[RDD_1210]

This site alone would make anyone think that we as a society are becoming dumber. The movie Idiocracy was a documentary apparently.

LOL! Idiocracy rocked!

Yeah, it made some relevant points, and yeah, that could be our future... but I really, really hope not, 'cause unlike in the movie, I don't think civilization will survive the next 500 years if we keep getting stupider.

So come on... let's hear some ideas! How do we prevent the population of our civilized world from getting stupider and stupider?

Well outlawing religion would be a great start. Then a focus on science and understanding the world around us from an analytical and rational standpoint would be huge steps in the right direction. Unfortunately I'm afraid we're nowhere near that happening.

 

[beretta304]

Is STUPIDER a word? - Yahoo! Answers


"Is STUPIDER a word?
I'm arguing with my friend about this... someone just help me out."

"Best Answer - Chosen by Asker
NO. You cannot be stupider than somebody else but you can be more stupid than somebody else."

 

[RosieS]

Just look at the posters here who, despite having had years of access to the truth, still insist that Obama is "a Kenyan Muslin socailist facist".

I think nutrition of pregnant women and children have a LOT to do with it. (And it is Red Staters that birth those babies when they are still teens). Ban junk food and expand WIC to have a national Wheels on Meals type program delivering 3 nutritious meals to pregnant women and children 16 and under daily. The future national IQ (and teeth) depend on sugar free meals.

Regards from Rosie

 

[Foxfyre]

I have to go with HG's POV more than with the concept of lower IQs. It is true that American is inreasingly being dumbed down, and I more and more believe that is by design for political expediency and selected opportunism, but that is a topic for another thread.

I think our problem is a value problem, not an intelligence problem. There was a time when the goal was not to appreciate (and subsidize) the lowered self esteem of those who make bad choices and wind up at the lowest end of the socioeconomic spectrum, but it lowered one's self esteem to not be able to support himself/herself and a family.

There was a time when we applauded those who succeeded and prospered rather than demonize them while we subsidize poor choices and failure.

There was a time when people started out poor but knew it was up to them to become unpoor. I was one of those actually. There was a time when we knew we were ignorant and made sure we became educated. There was a time when we knew we were handicapped by a lack of skills and references, and we did whatever we had to do, under whatever conditions we had to do it, to obtain marketable skills and good references so we could sell them.

Now the less we try, the more we are subsidized. It pays to be uneducated, unskilled, incapable, unindustrous.

(And to the smoke throwing machines out there, no I am not saying that all the poor are ignorant, incapable, or lazy. I am only saying that we reward such choices and behavior now when there was a time in America when we did not.)

I say we return to values and policy that does not force people to go hungry--we have never had such a policy--but in which the poor are encouraged to become unpoor through their own efforts as it once was and in which they are taught that it is possible to do so and given instruction on how to do it. Let's return to a policy in which real education, not indoctrination, is the norm. Let's worry a whole lot less about multiculturalism and political correctness and promote a whole lot more those institutions and values that once made America the remarkable nation it once was.

And then I think we will also again become among the world's best educated and smarted people as well as among the most prosperous, industrious, innovative, creative, productive, and generous. And nobody will be legitimately inspired to start a thread about dumb Americans, a concept we all can empathise with now.

 

[paravani]

This site alone would make anyone think that we as a society are becoming dumber. The movie Idiocracy was a documentary apparently.

LOL! Idiocracy rocked!

Yeah, it made some relevant points, and yeah, that could be our future... but I really, really hope not, 'cause unlike in the movie, I don't think civilization will survive the next 500 years if we keep getting stupider.

So come on... let's hear some ideas! How do we prevent the population of our civilized world from getting stupider and stupider?

Well outlawing religion would be a great start. Then a focus on science and understanding the world around us from an analytical and rational standpoint would be huge steps in the right direction. Unfortunately I'm afraid we're nowhere near that happening.

Most stupid people can't really grasp more than the rudimentary basics of science, and outlawing religion probably won't change that.

Honestly, I think that outlawing television would have more effect... but perhaps that would only increase ignorance, since people who can't or won't read aren't likely to learn to like reading just because you turned off their TVs.

Can we legislate intelligence at all?

What, after all, is the root cause of decreasing IQ in America and elsewhere? If we can determine the root cause, then we can begin to address it.

-- Paravani

 

[Avatar4321]

We? No. I'm not getting stupider. you might, but I am not.

 

[Foxfyre]

The fact is that the religious are more often going to be more conservative, more generous, more patriotic, more likely to vote, and live in neighborhoods with better schools, churches, privately owned homes, and all the other 'virtues' that promote less crime, better education, more freedom, and better quality of life. We should not be demonizing religious faith that promotes such things but rather encourage it. Our churches and synagogues in America have been a far more positive influence than any pockets of negative influence that can be identified and are one of those positive institutions that has served us well.

 

[Qantrill]

LOL! Idiocracy rocked!

Yeah, it made some relevant points, and yeah, that could be our future... but I really, really hope not, 'cause unlike in the movie, I don't think civilization will survive the next 500 years if we keep getting stupider.

So come on... let's hear some ideas! How do we prevent the population of our civilized world from getting stupider and stupider?

Stop paying for peoples kids who can't afford them.

How will that increase intelligence levels?

If you have to ask...then you are one of THOSE people.

 

[High_Gravity]

LOL! Idiocracy rocked!

Yeah, it made some relevant points, and yeah, that could be our future... but I really, really hope not, 'cause unlike in the movie, I don't think civilization will survive the next 500 years if we keep getting stupider.

So come on... let's hear some ideas! How do we prevent the population of our civilized world from getting stupider and stupider?

Stop paying for peoples kids who can't afford them.

How will that increase intelligence levels?

Stupid people who work at Subway won't have 4 or 5 kids.

 

[paravani]

I think you have some excellent points here... but to me, these look like the effects of rapidly increasing stupidity, not the causes of it.

Any more ideas?

-- Paravani

I have to go with HG's POV more than with the concept of lower IQs. It is true that American is inreasingly being dumbed down, and I more and more believe that is by design for political expediency and selected opportunism, but that is a topic for another thread.

I think our problem is a value problem, not an intelligence problem. There was a time when the goal was not to appreciate (and subsidize) the lowered self esteem of those who make bad choices and wind up at the lowest end of the socioeconomic spectrum, but it lowered one's self esteem to not be able to support himself/herself and a family.

There was a time when we applauded those who succeeded and prospered rather than demonize them while we subsidize poor choices and failure.

There was a time when people started out poor but knew it was up to them to become unpoor. I was one of those actually. There was a time when we knew we were ignorant and made sure we became educated. There was a time when we knew we were handicapped by a lack of skills and references, and we did whatever we had to do, under whatever conditions we had to do it, to obtain marketable skills and good references so we could sell them.

Now the less we try, the more we are subsidized. It pays to be uneducated, unskilled, incapable, unindustrous.

(And to the smoke throwing machines out there, no I am not saying that all the poor are ignorant, incapable, or lazy. I am only saying that we reward such choices and behavior now when there was a time in America when we did not.)

I say we return to values and policy that does not force people to go hungry--we have never had such a policy--but in which the poor are encouraged to become unpoor through their own efforts as it once was and in which they are taught that it is possible to do so and given instruction on how to do it. Let's return to a policy in which real education, not indoctrination, is the norm. Let's worry a whole lot less about multiculturalism and political correctness and promote a whole lot more those institutions and values that once made America the remarkable nation it once was.

And then I think we will also again become among the world's best educated and smarted people as well as among the most prosperous, industrious, innovative, creative, productive, and generous. And nobody will be legitimately inspired to start a thread about dumb Americans, a concept we all can empathise with now.

 

[Liberal]

Hell yeah.

People in America actually think the world is only 5000~6000 years old.

/thread.

 

[techieny]

Just look at the posters here who, despite having had years of access to the truth, still insist that Obama is "a Kenyan Muslin socailist facist".

I think nutrition of pregnant women and children have a LOT to do with it. (And it is Red Staters that birth those babies when they are still teens). Ban junk food and expand WIC to have a national Wheels on Meals type program delivering 3 nutritious meals to pregnant women and children 16 and under daily. The future national IQ (and teeth) depend on sugar free meals.

Regards from Rosie

For FUSK sake this is NOT about Obama. GET A BIGGER BRAIN!!!

 

[Some Guy]

Proof that people are becoming more stupid: the popularity of MTV.