It makes me really sad to realize Mike Judge was only wrong about one thing in Idiocracy… that it would take 400 years for us to get there…because here we are, not even 20 years later.
You must log in or register to comment.
The idiots in Idiocracy were aware of their own stupidity, and when they found a guy smarter than everyone else the people in power stepped aside and put him in charge of tackling their most pressing issues.
The idiots IRL think they’re geniuses, and when they encounter someone smarter than themselves, who’s more qualified than they are to do their job, they run a smear campaign and/or incite violence against that person.
The future depicted in Idiocracy is a fucking paradise compared to where we’re headed.
Idiocracy is a cute movie that I enjoy. I’m disturbed however by the popular notion that it’s prophetic or a documentary considering it’s central premise (that people are breeding wrong, and if unchecked society will collapse) is also the central premise of eugenics and a pillar of Nazi ideology.
People who think evolution works like it is portrayed in that movie have done infinitely more harm to society and scientific literacy than creationists.
There was no eugenics in that movie. Eugenics implies a directed, forced outcome.
It wasn’t eugenics. It was just that dumb or uneducated people and poorer people have more kids. Those kids are also more likely to be poorly educated and also have more kids, while educated and more intelligent people tend to have fewer children and have children starting at a later point in life.
There’s no Hitler eugenics here. Poor people live in poor areas with a poorer education system, which leads to more people with low educations.
Hitler thought Germans were simply better than anyone else at everything.
It’s also wrong about history. Throughout human history, the poor have had many, many more children than the wealthy. They needed the extra hands to do the manual labor of occupations like farming.
It wasn’t about genetics, IQ is polygenic, and really not inheritable because of that.
It was about memetic inheritance, the people who would have raised curious and motivated kids, didn’t.
And the ones who didn’t give a shit but liked boning and hated condoms had a bunch of kids they just sat in front of a TV.
It’s been a while, but I don’t think they blamed genetics directly, they just didn’t spell it out in detail and people who didn’t know what they meant have apparently latched onto what you said?
At least one other person in this thread anyways, which is weird, I’ve never seen this claim before. Is it a tiktok thing?
You could just as easily make a case that’s about “nurture” more than “nature”. Stupid and negligent people will make bad parents regardless of genetics.
That’s a very sympathetic reading. I’d suggest watching the opening of the film which very clearly frames the story in terms of “evolution,” “breeding,” “genetics,” and “intelligence.”
True, but it’s only about eugenics if you think that intelligence is a primarily hereditary trait rather than a learned one.
Agreed. The Idiocracy==eugenics concept seems to be localized entirely to the internet, and seems to be paraded around by those that understand neither literature, nor how human genetics actually work. Evident by how they glaze over the remaining 80% of the opening sequence that’s about the juxtaposition between American idealism, and the reality of what American culture actually promotes and produces.
It also shows the “intelligent” couple as having fertility issues, while Cleetus the Slackjawed yokel has a hundred children.
Because they prioritised their work, which is extremely common.
It is harder for older couples to have children.
I said this same thing almost verbatim a few days ago and got downvoted to hell lol. Idiocracy is fine. It’s okay. Some of the punchlines are pretty dated. But reddit incels love it because they think it validates their thoughts on eugenics.
It’s your frame of reference.
For about 1 in 1,200 people, over 80% of the population is more than 30 points below them.
That’s the agreed upon difference where frustration is common, and even the lower IQ person will blame the smarter person for any confusion like in the movie. They literally don’t understand what the problem is, and will just throw out insults instead of of asking questions to try and understand.
Idiocracy was if a regular 100 IQ person went to where everyone was maxing out at the equivalent of 70 and everyone else was much lower.
But there’s always been (and always will be) the people who are already that out of place in their own time period.
It is not a pleasant existence.
I don’t think IQ ever considered willful ignorance though. It’s meant to be based off the average intelligence of a population, but how do you factor in those that would rather be angry and hateful than think for half a second?
how do you factor in those that would rather be angry and hateful than think for half a second?
That’s never been new…
And it’s a very common coping mechanism. They do think, it’s just not productive and most people get frustrated and upset.
There’s plenty of people who have voted the same as me for president for 20 years, and when I try to explain that what we’re doing clearly isn’t working…
They just call me nonsensical names.
They’re not choosing to do that, they’re just failing to understand and getting upset about it. And with an IQ differential greater than 30 points, both people will be very frustrated.
The vast majority of people believe they’re the good guys and what theyre doing will help everyone. They’re just not smart enough to see the obvious result, so when people try to explain it, it conflicts with their current behavior and they reject it.
Oh for fucks sake. Idiocracy is a movie about Eugenics. It’s a fascist idea wrapped in a “comedy” movie.
i mean, yes it definitely is positive about eugenics, but looking at mike judge’s other works i’m not sure it was… on purpose? like, the guy has a super diverse set of creations with social commentary as a through-line, usually mocking authority and conservative views. king of the hill, office space, beavis and butthead, extract… he swings wide.
It’s what plants crave!
