5 ms·

more like society becoming more bifurcated between the smart and successfull vs. everyone else, instead of everyone becoming dumber.

throwvirtever 5y ago
Is it the smart who are successful?
- freen 5y ago
  Yes, but the dumb vote in droves for a buffoonish reality tv star they think will fire enough people in Government so that they don’t have to pay taxes anymore. The orange one also hates brown people as much as they do and is unafraid to say it out loud. Also, it’s just a bonus that their reality tv star really, really pisses off those rich educated folks in the city who “look down” them.
  - bckr 5y ago
    I look forward to when not everything is about that man. But we're not there yet, are we?
    - freen 5y ago
      Ahh, yes. Ascendant fascism. Soooo boring.
      - gunfighthacksaw 5y ago
        Oh stop it with the pearl clutching; fascism has been ascendant in the US since 1945, le orange man (bad) is just the latest stop on the train ride from Joe McCarthy.
        freen 5y ago
        Did you forget about the violent coup attempt on January 6th? It was just about as competent and deadly as the Beer Hall Putsch.
    - tastyfreeze 5y ago
      We are if you want to be. Just stop talking about him and ignore people that do.
      - bckr 5y ago
        I don't exactly want to be, because I haven't come to terms with it, and I'm still worried about it.
  - plorg 5y ago
    I think it's pretty naive to think that the only people to vote for, campaign for, and work for Trump were "dumb". Plenty of "smart" people made decisions between supporting, campaigning for, working for, or defending his campaign and administration because the things that are bad about him don't really affect (or benefit) their own interests.
    - freen 5y ago
      Yes, approximately 2-3% of the population are sociopaths, who are only self-interested. Another huge portion or of the population really just care about getting wealthy, with litter regard for anything else. Seriously, if you want to be rich, all you have to do is be somewhat bright and willing to be a Republican political operative. See Madison Cawthorn, Marjorie Taylor Green, Sarah Palin, etc. I’ve see it myself: some of the dumbest folks I went to school with are killing it in the GOP. Dumb as rocks.
      - freen 5y ago
        The bulk of the voters? Go and talk to them yourself. You’ll see.
- tarboreus 5y ago
  ... Yes?
- DarylZero 5y ago
  There's a floor on intelligence for most kinds of success. But success constitutes social positioning, and intelligence isn't very directly connected to that. Being too intelligent seems to be a social disadvantage often and probably success for a lot of people requires hiding their intelligence.
jackcosgrove 5y ago
The middle class is disappearing, but a larger proportion of the part that disappears every year becomes better off than worse off. The upper middle class and the working poor are both increasing in size at the expense of the middle class, but the upper middle class is growing more. The broadcast components of our culture which must appeal to the largest cross-section of society do indeed cater more to the lower end compared to years past, because that is where the largest number of people still are. Without the middle class glue holding the top and bottom together, the center of gravity of popular culture gradually gets lower. This tends to drown out the first trend I mentioned, the growth of the upper middle class, if you stick to broadcast media like movies, TV, and radio. But when you look at other forms of media which target cultural niches, you'll find the upper end is alive and well.
- pojzon 5y ago
  > larger proportion of the part that disappears every year becomes better off than worse off I would hardly disagree with that statement. Larger portion of the middle class gets downgraded not upgraded. Some parts of their life get better due to advancements we make in science, but all other aspects are worse and worse. An example can be “property ownership” - the amount of ppl that own property and are part of the middle class is decreasing year over year in developed countries. We are slowly getting to the point where we can consider our grandparents or parents as millionairs in current standards. Global inflation slowly kills middle class and no - ppl are not having it better in aspects that actually matter in long term. We are at crisis now.
  - sershe 5y ago
    There are actually numbers for this (that I'm sadly to lazy to look up on my phone), taking fixed inflation adjusted income thresholds, more people are moving into higher than lower brackets out of the shrinking middle, especially if you consider the starting sizes of these groups.
    - pojzon 5y ago
      That might be true for developing countries like China but for sure its not the case in Europe and US. China by itself can skew global average by a huge margin due to sheer amount of ppl living there. But even in China market observes middle class crisis - slowing down or ppl getting back to lower class.

throwvirtever 5y ago

Is it the smart who are successful?

freen 5y ago
Yes, but the dumb vote in droves for a buffoonish reality tv star they think will fire enough people in Government so that they don’t have to pay taxes anymore. The orange one also hates brown people as much as they do and is unafraid to say it out loud. Also, it’s just a bonus that their reality tv star really, really pisses off those rich educated folks in the city who “look down” them.
- bckr 5y ago
  I look forward to when not everything is about that man. But we're not there yet, are we?
  - freen 5y ago
    Ahh, yes. Ascendant fascism. Soooo boring.
    - gunfighthacksaw 5y ago
      Oh stop it with the pearl clutching; fascism has been ascendant in the US since 1945, le orange man (bad) is just the latest stop on the train ride from Joe McCarthy.
      - freen 5y ago
        Did you forget about the violent coup attempt on January 6th? It was just about as competent and deadly as the Beer Hall Putsch.
  - tastyfreeze 5y ago
    We are if you want to be. Just stop talking about him and ignore people that do.
    - bckr 5y ago
      I don't exactly want to be, because I haven't come to terms with it, and I'm still worried about it.
- plorg 5y ago
  I think it's pretty naive to think that the only people to vote for, campaign for, and work for Trump were "dumb". Plenty of "smart" people made decisions between supporting, campaigning for, working for, or defending his campaign and administration because the things that are bad about him don't really affect (or benefit) their own interests.
  - freen 5y ago
    Yes, approximately 2-3% of the population are sociopaths, who are only self-interested. Another huge portion or of the population really just care about getting wealthy, with litter regard for anything else. Seriously, if you want to be rich, all you have to do is be somewhat bright and willing to be a Republican political operative. See Madison Cawthorn, Marjorie Taylor Green, Sarah Palin, etc. I’ve see it myself: some of the dumbest folks I went to school with are killing it in the GOP. Dumb as rocks.
    - freen 5y ago
      The bulk of the voters? Go and talk to them yourself. You’ll see.
tarboreus 5y ago
... Yes?
DarylZero 5y ago
There's a floor on intelligence for most kinds of success. But success constitutes social positioning, and intelligence isn't very directly connected to that. Being too intelligent seems to be a social disadvantage often and probably success for a lot of people requires hiding their intelligence.

jackcosgrove 5y ago

The middle class is disappearing, but a larger proportion of the part that disappears every year becomes better off than worse off. The upper middle class and the working poor are both increasing in size at the expense of the middle class, but the upper middle class is growing more. The broadcast components of our culture which must appeal to the largest cross-section of society do indeed cater more to the lower end compared to years past, because that is where the largest number of people still are. Without the middle class glue holding the top and bottom together, the center of gravity of popular culture gradually gets lower. This tends to drown out the first trend I mentioned, the growth of the upper middle class, if you stick to broadcast media like movies, TV, and radio. But when you look at other forms of media which target cultural niches, you'll find the upper end is alive and well.

pojzon 5y ago
> larger proportion of the part that disappears every year becomes better off than worse off I would hardly disagree with that statement. Larger portion of the middle class gets downgraded not upgraded. Some parts of their life get better due to advancements we make in science, but all other aspects are worse and worse. An example can be “property ownership” - the amount of ppl that own property and are part of the middle class is decreasing year over year in developed countries. We are slowly getting to the point where we can consider our grandparents or parents as millionairs in current standards. Global inflation slowly kills middle class and no - ppl are not having it better in aspects that actually matter in long term. We are at crisis now.
- sershe 5y ago
  There are actually numbers for this (that I'm sadly to lazy to look up on my phone), taking fixed inflation adjusted income thresholds, more people are moving into higher than lower brackets out of the shrinking middle, especially if you consider the starting sizes of these groups.
  - pojzon 5y ago
    That might be true for developing countries like China but for sure its not the case in Europe and US. China by itself can skew global average by a huge margin due to sheer amount of ppl living there. But even in China market observes middle class crisis - slowing down or ppl getting back to lower class.