“once reality TV hit, it was game over”

https://youtu.be/NTnQMCOhZFM?t=483

483 seconds into video.

“Science is more than a body of knowledge; it is a way of thinking. I have a foreboding (1995) of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time—when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness. The dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30-second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance. As I write, the number-one videocassette rental in America is the movie Dumb and Dumber. “Beavis and Butthead” remain popular (and influential) with young TV viewers. The plain lesson is that study and learning—not just of science, but of anything—are avoidable, even undesirable.” ― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, 1995

489,799 views April 30, 2025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTnQMCOhZFM

Do you ever get that feeling that the USA isn’t just getting dumber it’s actually working on it like it’s a group project and everyone’s bringing Cheetos but no one brought a damn pen. We’re not just slipping into stupidity like it’s a hot tub we’re cannonballing into it. We’re throwing parades for it. We’re giving it TV deals endorsement contracts and a podcast where it talks about its healing journey.

And it’s not your imagination our society really is getting dumber and not the good kind of dumb or the fun kind of dumb like laughing at videos of cats slapboxing the bad kind the kind where we seem to be daring each other to trip over the same rock 5,000 times and then sue the rock for emotional damages and just for the record I think we’re all guilty of this to some degree and if you even hint that maybe thinking is good you’re immediately labeled an elitist like you just walked into a bowling alley wearing a monocle quoting Kirkagard.

All right, so Isaac Asimov the famous author and biochemist who by the way was smart enough to predict this dumpster fire decades ago nailed it when he said the following: “anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge”.

2:48
America used to at least pretend to value intelligence. Scientists were admired, writers were respected… because people actually read books. And the guy who invented sliced bread was a national hero.

And now if you use words with more than three syllables somebody accuses you of word salad. You know we used to aspire upward and now we aspire sideways toward whoever talks the loudest and fastest while knowing the least. And don’t kid yourself this isn’t some natural entropy of society, it’s a conscious choice we like stupid it’s just easier. It doesn’t make you feel bad about scrolling through 19 hours of YouTube videos titled “Watch this dog say bro.”

And look I get it i waste time on some of this stuff too especially when it comes to cats and dogs but I digress. And meanwhile, critical thinking, you know the thing that separates us from barn animals uh no offense to barn animals… It gets treated like a personal attack and God forbid you ask a question that doesn’t fit neatly on a bumper sticker. And next thing you know you’re called a “hater” or worse “negative vibes” because toxic positivity is also part of this problem. And now we are here.