5 ms·
Lots of people in the nyt comments section fantasizing about how understanding pre-historic societies must have been to children with down syndrome. Somewhat b
by whimsicalism 3y ago
Lots of people in the nyt comments section fantasizing about how understanding pre-historic societies must have been to children with down syndrome.
Somewhat belied by the fact that all of the positives were among children under the age of 1. They didn’t make it very far.
- themerone 3y agoReminds me of flood of positive comments on a video someone in my area posted of their dog "playing" with a deer. The deer was trying to kill the dog.
- JohnMakin 3y agothe masses are dumber than they’ve ever been. god forbid you try to engage someone on these comment threads. don’t.
- adolph 3y agoI'm not certain that "dumber than they’ve ever been" is true. The "Flynn Effect" seems well substantiated: Test score increases have been continuous and approximately linear from the earliest years of testing to the present. For example, a study published in the year 2009 found that British children's average scores on the Raven's Progressive Matrices test rose by 14 IQ points from 1942 to 2008. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect
- red75prime 3y agoImprovements in environmental factors, that probably had driven the Flynn effect, have topped out. And now the effect seems to be reversed (at least in developed countries).
- kQq9oHeAz6wLLS 3y ago"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - Kay, Men In Black
- ycombinete 3y agoI think this paraphrases Nietzsche: Madness is something rare in individuals — but in groups, parties, peoples, and ages, it is the rule.
- JohnMakin 3y agoOk cool now do this same measurement of test scores since 2020. It’s also well known that this hypothesis has not been holding up well in the last 30 years.
- seattle_spring 3y agoIs that documented somewhere that you can share? If it’s well known then there must be a ton of articles and papers about such phenomena.
- Kbelicius 3y agoThe data is there in the wikipedia page linked earlier on the Flynn effect under "Possible end of progression".
- whimsicalism 3y agoi mean just google it, the pause in flynn is a very well known effect in the developed world
- ghosty141 3y agoDo you habe any data to back up your claims? If not you are spreading misinformation yourself.
- Kbelicius 3y agoThe data is there in the wikipedia page linked earlier on the Flynn effect under "Possible end of progression".
- RoyalHenOil 3y agoSo was 2020 the peak of intelligent commentary on the internet? I seem to recall that the quality of discourse was much higher around the year 2000, even though average IQ was higher in 2020. I think this is a red herring. It used to be harder to access the internet, and it selected for a certain type of person. Today, in the era of the smart phone, virtually everyone in wealthy nations is on the internet. Most notably, that includes vast numbers of children. I bet if you looked poorer countries where few people have internet-connected devices, the quality of discourse is much higher. In particular, there are likely few children participating (and the ones who do likely have unusually proactive and involved parents).
- serf 3y ago>the masses are dumber than they’ve ever been. I don't believe that for a second, but what I do believe is that 'the masses' have never been so re-broadcast, nor had such a large loud-speaker.
- JohnMakin 3y agoGo spend time in the comment section of basically anywhere online. I promise you’ll change your mind. edit: if you’ve spent any time in them in the last few years you’d see the clear degradation. people can barely speak coherently.
- petesergeant 3y agoThat’s proof that people are dumb, not that they didn’t used to be even dumber.
- pavel_lishin 3y agoIt's more likely to be proof that dumb people have more time and inclination to spew their comments online. And with that bit of self-realization, I think it's time to sign off for a bit.
- gorlilla 3y agoBeing self-aware is the best defense against becoming a self-awarewolf[0]. [0]: https://old.reddit.com/r/SelfAwarewolves/ https://old.reddit.com/r/SelfAwarewolves/
- RoyalHenOil 3y agoThis is a side effect of the internet becoming more accessible to everyone. Keep in mind that the number of children on the internet is higher than it has ever been, and children typically also have more free time to comment than adults have.
- Broken_Hippo 3y ago
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- greenie_beans 3y agocan you share the video? your assumption contradicts what i know about dog and deer behavior so i want to see for myself.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- ribosometronome 3y ago>Somewhat belied by the fact that all of the positives were among children under the age of 1. They didn’t make it very far. The average life expectancy of someone with Trisomy 21 was only 10 as recently as 1960.
- mytailorisrich 3y agoIn addition, I believe that infant mortality in ancient Rome was perhaps 30% (so 1/3 died before one). I don't know if that can be generalised but it was tough for everyone to begin with.
- inglor_cz 3y agoMortality of young children was historically so high that some cultures didn't even give them names until they were 5 or so, to avoid emotional attachment.
- Tabular-Iceberg 3y agoEmotionally cold parents in the most vital stages of development probably didn’t help their chances of survival either.
- bglazer 3y agoChildren with Down syndrome have high rates of severe heart defects. These are treatable with surgery now. So I think you’re wrong in assuming mistreatment or neglect just because the children died young.
- whimsicalism 3y agoHigh rates but still half without, given that fetal bones preserve less well we would expect more infants and adolescents that we do not see.