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Are We Idiocracy Yet?

idiocracy.wtf

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Re: Are We Idiocracy Yet?

#311

Post by everdrive »

willis936 wrote: post #146
everdrive wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not claiming that Idiocracy is accurate, however IQ scores have been declining. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/search/research-news/3283/

Invoking IQ is not really a good way to dismiss pro-eugenics concerns. Edit: This is a brief video explaining why. https://youtu.be/UBc7qBS1Ujo

I wasn't going for pro or anti-eugenics, just expressing that the Flynn effect has been reversing. At least from what I've read the trend is true _within_ families, which downplays potential pro-eugenics arguments.

Re: Are We Idiocracy Yet?

#312

Post by littlestymaar »

willis936 wrote: post #146
everdrive wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not claiming that Idiocracy is accurate, however IQ scores have been declining. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/search/research-news/3283/

Invoking IQ is not really a good way to dismiss pro-eugenics concerns. Edit: This is a brief video explaining why. https://youtu.be/UBc7qBS1Ujo

> Edit: This is a brief video explaining why.

I knew what it was before even clicking on it. The “brief video” was a strong enough clue.

Re: Are We Idiocracy Yet?

#313

Post by FrustratedMonky »

bko wrote: post #233
xattt wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It breaks my heart when I hear people outraged about Onion stories, not because that they fall for them, but because they know they have a hard time telling truth from fiction.

I think people don't like Onion stories because they're not funny, they're just pretentious and political. For instance, their famous 'No Way to Prevent This,' Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens article they post all over their page whenever there is some high profile gun related crime. It's all over their page and no doubt they get a bump in traffic from smug people who feel it's clever. It's just so exha…

"The lady doth protest too much, methinks"

a famous line from Shakespeare's Hamlet (Act III, Scene II). It means that someone's overly emphatic or frequent denial of a situation suggests they are hiding the truth, are insincere, or actually guilty of what they deny. It implies their defense is covering up a secret desire or truth.

Re: Are We Idiocracy Yet?

#314

Post by bko »

Goronmon wrote: post #283
bko wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think people don't like Onion stories because they're not funny, they're just pretentious and political. For instance, their famous 'No Way to Prevent This,' Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens article they post all over their page whenever there is some high profile gun related crime. It's all over their page and no doubt they get a bump in traffic from smug people who feel it's clever. It's just so exha…

You can have a message and point of view, but don't put activism over comedy. The "joke" in this case is people's reactions to school shootings. And people's reactions haven't changed, so I don't see why the article should change. It's just so exhausting. This has some real "The worst thing about school shootings is knowing that The Onion is going to repost that article I personally am tired of seeing" energy to it.

It's not a joke if you repeat it 100 times.

That article has some real "The best thing about school shootings is we get to have literally every article on our website be this clever headline we wrote 10 years" energy to it.

Re: Are We Idiocracy Yet?

#315

Post by spiderfarmer »

pixl97 wrote: post #298
afavour wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. It’s cited so often on Reddit by people who want to establish their superiority over the masses. “It’s a documentary!!” is a meme unto itself. It’s also got a kind of weird eugenics-y vibe to it (like establishing “stupid people breeding makes stupid people” as incontrovertible fact) when you step back and examine it as a movie that’s making Serious Statements. But it isn’t. It’s not a bad movie. But it’s a c…

It's kind of funny when you say the movie isn't making serious statements when the highest of our publicly elected officials isn't a serious person. We elect people that are actively harmful to our well being. These people say things so incredibly stupid it can be painful. And then you wonder why people look at the movie like it's a documentary?

Trump voters identify with the idiots.

Re: Are We Idiocracy Yet?

#316

Post by josefresco »

speedster217 wrote: post #288
bko wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think people don't like Onion stories because they're not funny, they're just pretentious and political. For instance, their famous 'No Way to Prevent This,' Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens article they post all over their page whenever there is some high profile gun related crime. It's all over their page and no doubt they get a bump in traffic from smug people who feel it's clever. It's just so exha…

Americans are so used to school shootings they complain about the Onion's reaction to it rather than the failure of politics that led them here.

Indeed, the comment could be spun into an Onion headline itself! "American Man Exhausted by Frequent Mass Shooting Reporting"

Re: Are We Idiocracy Yet?

#317

Post by latexr »

bko wrote: post #233
xattt wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It breaks my heart when I hear people outraged about Onion stories, not because that they fall for them, but because they know they have a hard time telling truth from fiction.

I think people don't like Onion stories because they're not funny, they're just pretentious and political. For instance, their famous 'No Way to Prevent This,' Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens article they post all over their page whenever there is some high profile gun related crime. It's all over their page and no doubt they get a bump in traffic from smug people who feel it's clever. It's just so exha…

> You can have a message and point of view, but don't put activism over comedy.

As Jon Stewart put it in the Crossfire interview where they asked him “which candidate do you supposed would provide you better material if he won?” because he has “a stake in it that way, not just as citizen but as a professional comic”, the citizen part is much more important.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFQFB5YpDZE&t=599s

The point of satire is social criticism first, funny second. I have little doubt everyone at the Onion responsible for reposting that headline would a million times prefer that they didn’t have to do it ever because the situation were resolved.

> It's just so exhausting.

It really says something about the state of society when an atrocity is perpetrated over and over and the complaint is that someone keeps talking about it rather than the atrocity continuing to happen.

Re: Are We Idiocracy Yet?

#318

Post by bko »

catapart wrote: post #289
bko wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think people don't like Onion stories because they're not funny, they're just pretentious and political. For instance, their famous 'No Way to Prevent This,' Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens article they post all over their page whenever there is some high profile gun related crime. It's all over their page and no doubt they get a bump in traffic from smug people who feel it's clever. It's just so exha…

> " [...] but don't put activism over comedy." lol. yeah, carlin and bruce can go fuck themselves, I guess. hilariously unserious take, bruh.

They were funny. Do you see the difference?

Re: Are We Idiocracy Yet?

#319

Post by JKCalhoun »

bko wrote: post #233
xattt wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It breaks my heart when I hear people outraged about Onion stories, not because that they fall for them, but because they know they have a hard time telling truth from fiction.

I think people don't like Onion stories because they're not funny, they're just pretentious and political. For instance, their famous 'No Way to Prevent This,' Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens article they post all over their page whenever there is some high profile gun related crime. It's all over their page and no doubt they get a bump in traffic from smug people who feel it's clever. It's just so exha…

The joke is of course that they are hoisting the 'No Way to Prevent This' all the time. The (new) punchline is that nothing has changed.

To be sure it became gallow's humor sometime after the 2nd or 3rd run. And, no, I don't think it is intended to be funny at all anymore.

Re: Are We Idiocracy Yet?

#320

Post by catapart »

clejack wrote: post #230
davemp wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always have a problem when folks bring up idiocracy because the of the eugenics angle. It’s extremely unlikely that people are getting inherently stupider, just less educated. The former is some sort of prophecy of doom and the latter is actually actionable.

Even if the creator specifically had eugenics in mind, I think he stumbled upon a greater truth. Consider this. You can take anyone from any group in your nation, place them in a different nation, with a different culture, and they will adopt the mannerisms and accents of that culture. We focus on race constantly, but it's clear that culture drives the norms that we see in any group. And culture may be persistent (es…

nailed it. I see this odd "eugenics" framing all the time, and all I can think is 'ooh la la, somebody's gonna get laid in college." you can argue the academia until you are blue in the face, but the real-world statistics show that less educated people have more children and that education quality in the US has been declining. It's not a foregone conclusion that one causes the other, but there's a cogent argument to be made that it's about the culture of poorer people vs the culture of richer people - and they even spell out that angle in the movie. They show how reticent the rich couple is to have a child, and how eager the poor couple is to do the same. It's about what their cultures value about children and legacy. It's not "dumb people make dumb kids", it's "dumb people won't educate their kids past their own knowledge who, in turn, won't educate their kids past their own knowledge." The movie even goes on to resolve with the "dumb" descendants learning (from the protagonist) when they have anyone willing to make that a point of the culture. So I can't read a clean "eugenics" take from the film; I only find that take in misreadings of the intro, personally.
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