Are We Idiocracy Yet? • Hacker News Board

Re: Are We Idiocracy Yet?

#481

Post by arw0n » Tue, Apr 07, 2026, 4:51 PM UTC

afavour wrote: post #366

pixl97 wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

He might not present as a serious person but he is. The nativist impulses, the gutter racism, the “F you I’ve got mine” attitude, the party establishment that enabled him despite all that… these are all serious things worth serious analysis. “Stupid people vote for stupid guy” is exactly the kind of analysis I’m critical of Idiocracy for.

Just to be clear, the smartest person is still a minister in Idiocracy, and the whole premise hinges on the idea that the elite still recognizes intelligence as something desirable.

Re: Are We Idiocracy Yet?

#482

Post by antisthenes » Tue, Apr 07, 2026, 4:51 PM UTC

duskdozer wrote: post #452

HexPhantom wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The tricky question is: how do you tell when you're actually right vs just doing the same thing Homer was

Not a guarantee of course, but I think if you can't steelman your opponents, have never gone into something with some hypothesis or bias and ultimately proved it wrong/insufficiently supported and accepted that, or wouldn't be willing to specify what evidence would be sufficient for you to change your mind (however unlikely you believe that to be), you're more likely to be Homer.

> Not a guarantee of course, but I think if you can't steelman your opponents

There's no point in steelmanning opponents who would not do the same to you. There isn't enough time in the universe to argue against all of them and all of their gaslighting and logical fallacies.

I think willing to admit one is wrong and maybe thinking for an extra second before opening their mouth to give another opinion would get people 90% towards being right and away from being Homer.

Re: Are We Idiocracy Yet?

#483

Post by antisthenes » Tue, Apr 07, 2026, 4:54 PM UTC

lamasery wrote: post #476

pezezin wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't it depressing that San Junipero, arguably the only happy episode, has the lowest progress score?

I don't read San Junipero as happy. Black Mirror likes to show us the most-important thing as a kind of punctuation or statement of message even when it's not what the episode has encouraged us to believe is the most important thing (see also: the focus of the camera in the very first episode during A Certain Event—we've been primed for a grand, disgusting spectacle, and the camera chooses to show us none of that, an…

San Junipero is a SAAS hedonistic treadmill for your mind, for perpetuity, designed to siphon all your estate into corporate profits.

Maybe it's not so bad after all, I think one can interpret it positively or negatively depending on your current state of mind.

Re: Are We Idiocracy Yet?

#484

Post by wiseowise » Tue, Apr 07, 2026, 4:59 PM UTC

afavour wrote: post #216

bdashdash wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel Idiocracy is irresistible bait for 'not like the other girls'-types. Everytime this movie comes up, droves of people mention how they get it, while others don't. It's becoming a trope in itself.

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…

> like establishing “stupid people breeding makes stupid people” as incontrovertible fact

That’s based on environment and not on genes. You might not be born “stupid”, but if you’re surrounded by retards (like in the movie), chances are you won’t be splitting atoms.

Re: Are We Idiocracy Yet?

#485

Post by archon810 » Tue, Apr 07, 2026, 5:00 PM UTC

HarHarVeryFunny wrote: post #365

I've watched Idiocracy more than once, but only just realized that Mike Judge (Beavis and Butthead) was the director! Ow my balls!

Don't forget Silicon Valley!

Re: Are We Idiocracy Yet?

#486

Post by wiseowise » Tue, Apr 07, 2026, 5:02 PM UTC

Waterluvian wrote: post #339

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…

This thread is a sort of extension to that, eh? Hacker News knowing the truth of a matter while observing Reddit down the barrel of a nose.

It’s a “I’m not like the other ‘not like the other’” virtue game.

Re: Are We Idiocracy Yet?

#487

Post by wiseowise » Tue, Apr 07, 2026, 5:03 PM UTC

SAI_Peregrinus wrote: post #394

spiderfarmer wrote: post #332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And they're mostly correct.

It's satire. It's effective satire because it's not all that much more extreme than the thing it's satirizing.

I don’t think that when people say “it’s a documentary” they mean that it’s literally a “documentary”, more like “this satire is so close to reality, that you can call it documentary”.

Re: Are We Idiocracy Yet?

#488

Post by wiseowise » Tue, Apr 07, 2026, 5:06 PM UTC

numitus wrote: post #468

singpolyma3 wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes but this is not the genetic argument this is a "school system sucks" argument

In every country, if your parents are scientists, you will be in average smarter, than if your parents are peasants.

Woah, woah, stop right there with your facts Mr. Eugenics. /s

Re: Are We Idiocracy Yet?

#489

Post by wiseowise » Tue, Apr 07, 2026, 5:08 PM UTC

marxisttemp wrote: post #109

anonymars wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fair point, but why jump to genetics instead of culture (upbringing)?

Because the film itself implies that the idiocracy is due to stupid people breeding more, a classic tenet of Nazism and eugenics alike

Eugenics is artificial. Who’s forcing smart stupid to not breed in the movie and stupid to breed?

Re: Are We Idiocracy Yet?

#490

Post by wiseowise » Tue, Apr 07, 2026, 5:10 PM UTC

Froztnova wrote: post #424

anonymars wrote: post #376

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did the movie ever say anything about genetics or IQ?

It does explicitly reference IQ and, at one point, shows an adult taking an intelligence test and trying to put a square peg into a round hole. There is nothing in the movie that suggests that the decline in average intelligence is a result of cultural factors or education.

> There is nothing in the movie that suggests that the decline in average intelligence is a result of cultural factors or education.

Have you skipped start of the movie or did we watch different editions? They literally open the story with redneck family breeding and spreading their redneck ways through family ties while “smart” family waits for the perfect moment.