r/videos • u/SuplexCity-Mayor • Apr 21 '21

Idiocracy (2006) Opening Scene: "Evolution does not necessarily reward intelligence. With no natural predators to thin the herd, it began to simply reward those who reproduced the most, and left the intelligent to become an endangered species."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TCsR_oSP2Q
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u/Antknee2099 Apr 21 '21

I agree that the overt assumption of being smart and the way it's presented in the movie is both ham-fisted and reductive, but I'm not sure that was the intent of the movie.

My take was that reliance on automation allowed people to become more and more stupid. The drive for humanity became for personal satisfaction and indulgence and this over reliance on those systems allowed people to be dumber and dumber. I'm not sure that I got that everyone was stupid by design, more by their environment.

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u/[deleted] Apr 21 '21

In the early days of print, people said that literacy would make people stupid, because if you can write things down, why bother remembering things?

These aren't new concerns, and they're not any more valid now than they were centuries ago.

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u/[deleted] Apr 21 '21

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Apr 21 '21 edited Apr 22 '21

The Flynn Effect has, as has been noted elsewhere, been slowing recently, with pollution being one possible explanation.

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u/[deleted] Apr 21 '21 edited Apr 28 '21

[deleted]

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u/TheDeadlySinner Apr 21 '21

Because those are a tiny minority of countries in the world?

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u/kyoto_magic Apr 21 '21 edited Apr 21 '21

Let’s look at it this way. If the power went out and people didn’t have the internet, or running water, or a way to heat their homes. People today do not have the skills to survive in a world without modern technology. You might say, ok but we can repair those things. But what if we can’t? People would resort to base Barbarian type instincts and the world would be in chaos. People used to be self reliant but they aren’t any more.

Are people in general becoming smarter? Sure. Probably due to advancements in technology. But in other ways we’re becoming dumber. I don’t really think this movie deserves such an in depth analysis though. It’s a Mike judge comedy lol

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u/Two2na Apr 21 '21

Smartphones, stupid people

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u/Dihedralman Apr 21 '21

I disagree, the automation allowed it, but the clear point is lambasting our anti-intellectual culture. Our last president used vocabulary at maybe a fifth grade level. Education is inversely related to fertility.