Political Memes

There have been a number of historic events that had large measurable effects on human intelligience.

Invention of libraries

Invention of public schools

Building of large universities

Invention of leaded anti knocking compounds in fuel

Policies which reduce or limit access to said public education

Covid-19 longterm impact on cognitive ability

Policies which cause intellectuals to flee to other countries

Even if the average persons intellect is in decline, things are getting more complex. Society continues to advance in the long term, equity improves, crime and disease rates go down.

We're seeing bumps in the trends, not reversals.

I'm reminded of this diagram:

collapsed inline media

Right now I think we are in the box on the left.

Probably. But now the dumbest among us can be visible to everyone and spread their disease.

There's been a significant, internationally tested drop in functional literacy skills in the last decade or so.

Yes.

I hate the spreading idea that people are getting dumber

I feel like social media has definitely made things worse. Stupid people can find each other and make each other more stupid. Start whole "flat earth" or "anti-vaxx" groups and conventions. Before social media, you might have a couple idiots in your office or village, but they'd typically be surrounded by more average people who could level them out.

I think the right wing has also been trying to defund education, which isn't helping. ( For example, https://www.propublica.org/article/idaho-deteriorating-schools-repair-bonds )

There was also a disaster in how reading was taught in the US for the past 20 years, so a lot of kids didn't really get taught to read well. ( https://features.apmreports.org/sold-a-story/ , if you're interested )

We used to be worse