this post was submitted on 30 Jan 2024
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[–] WormFood@lemmy.world 5 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

damn, this right-wing think tank did a lot of research on iq. it sure would be a shame if iq turned out to be a useless and arbitrary metric that completely fails to represent human intelligence

edit: a few sections in we get an attempt to disprove the Flynn effect using a handful of barely-relevant cherrypicked studies and some questionable back of the envelope maths. I am sensing a distinct lack of academic rigor in this article. I certainly felt like I was getting stupider while reading it

edit 2: ironically enough, the second section ends with a bizarre and mostly unsourced word salad on literacy and numeracy rates. according to the article's own metrics, these rates are increasing, but the author somehow manages to draw the opposite conclusion and then sneaks a bit of the blame on 'low-skilled immigrants'

edit 3: I noticed that a lot of the citations in the article come from a single author: Michael A Woodley, so I looked him up and discovered that he is a eugenicist (and a cryptozoologist) who has written multiple papers in the subject of race and intelligence despite his PhD being in a completely unrelated field.

[–] Broken_Monitor@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago (2 children)

As the 21st century began, human evolution was at a turning point. Natural selection, the process by which the strongest, the smartest, the fastest, reproduced in greater numbers than the rest, a process which had once favored the noblest traits of man, now began to favor different traits. Most science fiction of the day predicted a future that was more civilized and more intelligent. But as time went on, things seemed to be heading in the opposite direction. A dumbing down. How did this happen? Evolution does not necessarily reward intelligence. With no natural predators to thin the herd, it began to simply reward those who reproduced the most, and left the intelligent to become an endangered species.

[–] Daefsdeda@sh.itjust.works 2 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I get what you mean but that would be more about genetic diseases. I would say smartness gived you an advantage now. I think that all this shit that is happening to us is because of enviromental pollutants making us dumber. See lead in air and children and adult IQ correlation as an example.

[–] Broken_Monitor@lemmy.world 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Its a direct quote from the beginning of the movie Idiocracy. Great movie, definitely worth watching. I get what you’re saying though and that makes sense too.

[–] Daefsdeda@sh.itjust.works 2 points 9 months ago

Well thanks for the movie recommendations. You never what people mean on the internet :')

[–] SomeGuy69@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Being dumb makes you less fixated on the global issues and brings you down to a more personal level. Humanity is facing massive global issues and not having to worry about this gives you less depression, less chance for cancer etc. Also you feel less frustrated by your job if you just mindlessly, without any intentions to learn or personally grow, do your job and go home to eat fast food and relax. Being smart and trying to improve things is frustrating in a world ruled by the dumb majority. Being dumb is an evolutionary advantage now.

[–] tomat0223@sh.itjust.works 2 points 9 months ago

Water is for toilets my dude.