451–460 of 582 posts
Not quite sure "Ow My Balls / Jackass" argument should count, the Jackass franchise is older than Idiocracy and was most likely an inspiration for that bit.
For some reason that also reminds me of the TV shows in Robocop. e.g. Climbing for Dollars and It’s Not My Problem! When I first saw Robocop these looked so crass it was obvious satire. Now...? Well, I'd buy that for a dollar.
As I got older, I always wondered if everyone thought they were the smart one and everyone else must be the idiocracy. I seem to remember Homer Simpson thinking something to that effect (“Boy, everyone is stupid except me”). I can imagine that happening today, esp politically.
The tricky question is: how do you tell when you're actually right vs just doing the same thing Homer was
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Unless you are a scientist directly engaging with the literature, you and your relative are both doing the same thing: trusting the opinion of peers and high-status people in your political clan about what is happening in the world. It just happens that people in your clan are telling the truth while the other one is lying. Neither side’s behavior can be considered “more intelligent” when you consider the vast majori…
you don't have to be a scientist to directly engage with the literature. from mathematical proofs to directly observed phenomena to statistical certainties - it's all out there for you to engage with and feel secure in your findings just by having an internet connection. there's a qualitative difference in that evidence from the "sides" and therefore there is a qualitative and practical difference in the "more intell…
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For some reason that also reminds me of the TV shows in Robocop. e.g. Climbing for Dollars and It’s Not My Problem! When I first saw Robocop these looked so crass it was obvious satire. Now...? Well, I'd buy that for a dollar.
Climbing for Dollars is from The Running Man[0], the Arnie version from 1987 - same year as Robocop. Then in 2001 was "Series 7"[1] (which I got flashbacks of from the 2013 White Bear[2] episode of Black Mirror). [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Running_Man_(1987_film) [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Series_7:_The_Contenders [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Bear_(Black_Mirror) Trivia for music nerds…
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I have no clue what I just read or what kind of mental gymnastics are required to say that a right to a weapon overrides a right to live. It used to blow my mind when I moved here (Netherlands) that I wasn't allowed to use a weapon to defend myself... but then you realize ... basically nobody has weapons.
An irony is that guns are vastly more often used for self harm than for self defense. These supposed defenders of rights are often losing their own lives and the lives of family members with the instruments they demand to have a right to have.
Me: I value the right to self defense
You: Guns are used for self harm more often than self defense [as an aside, I don't disagree that this is true - I've heard this stat many times]
You: This is ironic!
Please help me to understand why you think that's ironic. What do you feel would be a non-ironic position? Is it this....
Me: I value the right to self defense, but one day I might want to kill myself, so I guess I'd better give up the right to self defense.
Is that a non-ironic position? To me that seems like an irrational position. Those two issues (self defense and self harm) seem orthogonal, and conflating them because of a superficial similarity (they both involve guns) seems odd.
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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…
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This to me is one of the most apparent failures of modern taboo infecting people's ability to communicate, or even reason. Eugenics is not ethical, for a variety of very good reasons; that does not mean that it's unscientific. We know that intelligence is heritable; we have observed epigenetic group trends like the Flynn effect to the point where they plateau... The biggest unknown in my opinion is how stable the gai…
Eugenics is a taboo because there is a tempting trap to over simplify and make assertions that are not actually supported by the data. We know that IQ is hereditary to an unknown degree. We have some evidence that IQ relates to intelligence. We don’t know really know which genetic variables are responsible. Even simple features like height are thought to have ~12k variables. We don’t even really have a good definitio…
But you wouldn't deny that there are groups of people who are tall and groups who are short.
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There is no eugenics angle in Idiocracy. Nobody tries to achieve some "genetic ideal" by manipulating people.
The premise of the movie is that smart people stop having kids and dumb people have lots. It's "reverse eugenics"
Not quite sure "Ow My Balls / Jackass" argument should count, the Jackass franchise is older than Idiocracy and was most likely an inspiration for that bit.
"Ow! My Balls" was less about the Jackass part of it but more about the "numbing your brain and consuming mindless entertainment" commentary. Reality TV fits this category extremely well. See also: Housewives of _x_.
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Yeah, same. I also felt like this when watching Office Space and Sillicon Valley. Hits too close to home. I know that through comedy you are supposed to get a sense of catharsis and a sort of relief, but to me it was just frustratingly sad. I guess I just take life too seriously.
I know one guy who can't watch Silicon Valley because it triggers him. He had a tech startup himself in the valley back in the day.