Dumb is the new smart: The rise of the Idiocracy
By Ed Thompson
Smartism is the absurd idea that smart is bad. The bias against intelligence is exemplified by vacuous celebrities spouting on serious subjects and social media influencers on Instagram and YouTube who get rich by vomiting out useless drivel. One would think that dumb as the new smart reached rock bottom with TikTok. But then there's "The View."
Social discourse has always included silly fads. Remember Cabbage Patch dolls, Pet Rocks and the entire 1980s? But when the lack of intelligence reaches the top of our institutions and government it is time to sit up and take notice.
You thought only the best and brightest reach the top? Think again. The current academic climate nearly mandates stupidity to get anywhere. A couple scholars decided to test that theory by writing an academic paper about the most ridiculous social theory they could invent. They included trendy woke words and phrases, even though it was all nonsense. Naturally, it got peer reviewed, approved and published. They repeated the experiment 20 times, inventing outlandish ideas. Seven got approved before they went public.
The drive toward Idiocracy rolled on with the recent announcement that the serial plagiarist and shamed former president of Harvard, who couldn't bring herself to condemn genocide, would retain her lucrative teaching position and now teach a class on research and ethics at Harvard. Apparently, genocidal plagiarists are welcome at Harvard.
Entrance tests for college may become a thing of the white-privileged past. Apparently, passing tests is all part of the white supremacy plot, whatever that is. Never mind that the non-white Asian demographic crushed the SATs so well that top schools deliberately skewed acceptance away from them to achieve what they laughingly call fairness.
The latest doomed social engineering for lower education includes canceling Algebra for being somehow oppressive. The whole transgender push in grade schools is bereft of any grounded science. The surgeries are barbaric. The medical establishment endorsement speaks only to the low-IQ bar in that field.
With DEI and blatant white hatred masquerading as tolerance, we have veered so far from competence and achievement as a sensible goal that we might as well hold blind lotteries to choose everything.
Everywhere you look you can see the rise of Idiocracy. For years we heard Anthony Fauci talk in circles about COVID-19 while telling us he is science. Little of what he said turned out to be true. Remember "safe and effective"?
Science was once a world of rigorous and unbiased research, a place where heated debate was normal, and where any idea had to stand up to an onslaught of intelligent challenges before finally being accepted. Now sloppy and slanted research, character assassination and censorship rule the day. Take climate change. Consensus science, right? Sure, if you fire, invalidate and censor all the scientists who disagree, you do get "consensus."
Intelligence experts railed about Russia and Trump working for Putin right up until the inconvenient facts proved them to be liars and fools. Now our schools are pumping out low-reasoning useful idiots to fill the government ranks.
The media followed suit, winning Pulitzer prizes for Russia stories they got completely wrong. MSM talking heads parrot regime talking points in unison like mindless robots, idiocy from millionaires pretending to be journalists and the so-called experts they interview. There once was a time when getting the story wrong had consequences. And lying ended careers. Now you get promotions and a pay raise. In that environment could you expect anything but Idiocracy?
Now we revere AI digital brains, supposedly smarter than us all, that are so wokified they cannot show a Founding Father without making him a person of color in a mind-numbing homage to DEI. But I suppose, if we keep dumbing down the citizens, AI will be the smartest thing in the room.
The latest DEI move is to eliminate the LSAT for law school altogether. These tests help ensure that at least some intelligence is necessary to become lawyers and judges. But tests are so judgmental. Experts assure us that with AI to do all the heavy legal thinking, third grade skills are all that are required of lawyers. Why think? That's for Luddites. And because judges are expected to be social justice warriors that rule according to current woke principles, that will not be problem. Everything they need will be available on TikTok and WhatsApp.
As to current judges, well, don't ask one to define a woman. The newest Supreme Court justice, Ketanji Brown Jackson, thought she needed a biology degree to speak on such lofty intellectual matters. Other candidates for judgeships flamed out when they couldn't answer the simplest constitutional questions, but some got approved anyway. Apparently, being well-versed in social justice and anti-racist DEI rhetoric makes one plenty qualified to reinterpret our laws.
When the World Economic Forum's "you will own nothing and be happy" goal was revealed, something was left out. It should have been, "you will own nothing, be stupid, and be happy."
I appreciate real experts. I know quite a few genuinely smart people who know their field. But when experts are no brighter than the kids who keep trying to jam a square peg into a round hole, it's time to face facts. They are not experts. When an expert tells you it is complicated and you wouldn't understand, run. As a genius once said, if you can't explain your idea to a child, then it is you who don't understand it.
With smart people becoming persona non grata we can look forward to more leaders like stumbling, mumbling Joe Biden and grade school genius Kamala Harris manning our highest government positions. And don't forget the health expert trans admiral, Rachel Levine.
I wonder what foreign leaders think when they see and hear what we offer on the world stage. Do they shake their heads? Laugh behind our backs? Maybe. But, then again, maybe not. Perhaps too many of them are already members of the Idiocracy.
Ed Thompson has worked in education for over 25 years, both tutoring individuals and teaching classes. He has helped students from 3 to 73 years old, and in subjects from beginning reading all the way to MBA classes and postgraduate biology. Students ranged from severely challenged to gifted and advanced. This work has given him a unique perspective and has led to insights on what's broken about our educational system and how we can make it better. He is the host of the Basic Education Series podcasts and author of educational books. Learn more.
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