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The source of the problem was misdiagnosed, though. Idiocracy predicted that idiots would eventually outnumber smart people because the latter are supposedly mu
by shubhamjain 1mo ago
The source of the problem was misdiagnosed, though. Idiocracy predicted that idiots would eventually outnumber smart people because the latter are supposedly much more ambivalent about having kids. I don’t think that’s actually true—the “smart” aren’t necessarily having fewer kids than the “idiots.” The real problem is idiots have disproportionate political representation simply because of where they live. That’s especially relevant in the United States, where states with tiny populations have the same number of Senators as states with tens of millions of people.
Also, smart people are often less likely to vote when both options seem bad, whereas people driven by propaganda have no such hesitation and will turn out in droves—a problem Bertrand Russell highlighted quite clearly [1].
[1]: https://economicsociology.org/2023/11/30/in-the-modern-world-the-stupid-are-cocksure-while-the-intelligent-are-full-of-doubt/ https://economicsociology.org/2023/11/30/in-the-modern-world...
- jdross 1mo agoWe are a republic of 50 states, who are only willing to work together because they are represented. I’ve lived in NY, MO, CA and TX. The cultures and beliefs are different in each, and the people you seem to call “idiots” I have never found to be idiots. They just don’t prioritize nearly the same things you do, and may have radically different values
- smcin 1mo agoCan you say more?
- DonHopkins 1mo ago[flagged]
- Hikikomori 1mo agoHow embarrassing , ain't no way he responds to this.
- DonHopkins 1mo ago[dead]
- tencentshill 1mo agoThey are at best deeply, deeply misinformed.
- david38 1mo agoAgreed. The unbearable smugness of the coastal elites is so pervasive, a person will dismiss “those people” but tie themselves in knots to avoid criticizing even the least the current protected class of the month
- emeril 1mo agodon't the coastal elites want single payer healthcare? doesn't that help everyone? what am I missing?
- Smoosh 1mo ago“Some people just want to watch the world burn”. Or in the case of America, many people just want others to suffer so that they can feel better about themselves, and are willing to elect a leader who will do that on their behalf, even at their own cost.
- karmakurtisaani 1mo ago[flagged]
- petesergeant 1mo agoWhy doesn’t California, the largest state, simply eat the other 49?
- owebmaster 1mo agoWouldn't it be better to merge back with Mexico?
- slumberlust 1mo agoI believe the parent was a Futurama reference in jest.
- Henchman21 1mo agoI’ll make my own California, with blackjack and hookers.
- vaylian 1mo agoThey might not be idiots, but I am afraid that many of them are politically illiterate. How else would you explain that Donald Trump became president again?
- Henchman21 1mo agoCheating
- karmakurtisaani 1mo agoRacism, misogyny, xenophobia etc. indeed are radically different values from most of the "coastal elites" views.
- Fricken 1mo agoIdiocracy is a fable about our time. Setting his story in the future helps Mike Judge to maintain plausible deniability, but the movie is there to validate your sneaking suspicion that everything is kind of stupid.
- karmakurtisaani 1mo agoIt's also made in the time of W. Bush, when everything was still only a little bit stupid in relative terms.
- like_any_other 1mo ago> the “smart” aren’t necessarily having fewer kids than the “idiots.” They are: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fertility_and_intelligence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fertility_and_intelligence There are some confounding factors, like education and income also affecting fertility, and correlated with most measures of intelligence, but that doesn't actually affect the diagnosis - regardless of if intelligence directly lowers fertility, or if the effect is mediated by e.g. education, the net effect is that smarter people have fewer children (in our current environment).
- ActorNightly 1mo agoThey are. For example, literally nobody should be having kids rn in US, because the next decade is gonna be pretty horrible. But people still are, because they are none the wiser.
- petesergeant 1mo ago> The real problem is idiots have disproportionate political representation simply because of where they live. That’s especially relevant in the United States This lets Americans off the hook far too easily. Trump won an absolute majority this time, and the GOP won the house too. For the Senate you will have to do your own research because I’m on mobile, but last time I checked the actual effect (estimated) on Senate outcomes is very modest.
- xnx 1mo ago> Trump won an absolute majority this time, You can probably imagine participation and the popular vote would be very different if electoral college votes weren't winner-take-all.
- petesergeant 1mo agoI can imagine a pink elephant too. > if all Americans eligible to vote in 2024 had cast ballots, the overall margin in the popular vote likely would not have been much different https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2025/06/26/behind-trumps-2024-victory-a-more-racially-and-ethnically-diverse-voter-coalition/ https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2025/06/26/behind-trump...
- seba_dos1 1mo ago> Idiocracy predicted that idiots would eventually outnumber smart people because the latter are supposedly much more ambivalent about having kids To be fair, it was just a funny and easy to explain introduction to the movie's premise. If it was made today it may have had a montage of people outsourcing their thinking skills to AI or something along these lines.
- m463 1mo agoSmart people not having kids was just a part of the movie. It also seemed to speak about america, where capitalism/corporations overwhelm common sense.