The dumbing down of America. My thoughts. Makes sense now

I felt this was best thread thing for it. Although it could certaintly fit elsewhere, this is more directly correlating.

I will copy/paste and quote a text message i had to sent to a coworker of mine because it is basically the gist of my post here:

“So, i was outside smoking after an extremely frustrating match on xbox that made me wonder how anyone could be so dumb. And not just a single person but as a collective. It applies to work as well, nowdays. And had a thought. I'm very into conspiracy theories and #. But it makes sense. The dumbing down of America. Erasing history. Making the youth simple minded and non objective. They want free # for minimal effort. Never willing to think outside of the box. They need to be told what to do and how to think. That is literally the ONLY reason i'd see anyone voting democrat/liberal at this point. The huge tempertantrum they threw the past 4 years is a prime example.”

I’m gonna get way off topic for a minute, but it makes sense in solidifying the end point and differences of todays vs the yesteryears youth’s.
I was raised not exactly poor but far from well off. We were just getting by. I was raised by a single mother. I remember a few years how she broke down crying trying to explain to my sister and I how we werent going to be able have christmas during a few particular years. Moments like that happened quite frequently through my childhood. Not just Christmas in particular but anything celebratory that costs more money than one should spend on a day to day or week to week basis. I am not sad it happened. I am not resentful at society because of it. I am actually quite grateful that it had happened. It showed me at a very young age that world is dog eat dog. If you want something, you will have to earn it. There is no such thing as a free handout. If there is, theres a catch. Turned 16, got a job at Kentucky Fried Chicken. Worked there for a year. Making $5/hr. And i was satisfied. Because i was earning my way into the world. I knew i was working a MINIMUM WAGE job. I didnt expect more than that for minimum wage work, even though, i busted my butt day in and day out. Best worker they had. To this day, i still dont make much money in what i do, but i make enough. EVERYTHING i own, i have busted my behind for. I have EARNED every single bit of it. Up to and including my freedoms and rights as a US Citizen, even multi generation of people born here, i earned those rights. I joined the Army. ASVAB was so high they tried to talk me out of my desired MOS, Infantry. Didnt work. Still chose Infantry. Fought through two deployments in Iraq. Continued life as a patriotic america first type of citizen. As for political alignment, i will always consider myself an independent Libertarian. I agree with STANCES of each party. Not always the ideals behind them. I can vehemontly disagree with many issues of both sides. I can also wholeheartedly agree with some on both. I feel that is the true spirit of the founding of our great nation. Sorry. My long on/off topic rant/filler is done. I felt it would help if the reader knew my background some before really considering the rest to help understand why i feel the way i do.

So, basically my thoughts are, the school systems are being dumbed down. Kids are being taught to rely on others. The only “systemic racsim”, i see in America is from rappers and gangs saying “You’re young and black, you aint never making out the hood. Might as well just sell crack”. Once people realize that, in all honesty, all you have to do is just apply yourself. Work hard. EVERY DAY. Life becomes a lot easier. And yes, sometimes life sucks. Sometimes you’re going to have to go without a few holidays, birthdays, or whatever... but if you stay strong, perservere through it, those days wont be many.

The school and education systems dont teach this. Instead they teach half arsed common core “just show your work and yeah 2+2 = 5, definitely”. It rewards children for being lazy. It rewards kids for being dumb.

I remember the good old days of if i would have said “2+2=5”, teacher would basically be like “no, you’re dumb, try again, show me your work and i will guide you on what you did and we work through it together, but you still get an F because you’re wrong” rather than “A+ because you showed your work, goodluck figuring out the right answer”

Kids are being rewarded for being dumb and lazy.
Thats how the democrats/liberals are getting so much support. Thats why BLM/Antifa have a platform to even stand on. They need lazy idiots. But not just any lazy idiot, the ones that are rewarded for being an idiot. Keeps them lazy enough to prevent actual thinking about issues at hand but lazy enough to go rally for a cause that is literally the exact opposite of what they rally for, as far as Antifa goes, because if all goes as planned they will get some treats for being the good little female dogs they are.

It was all just random slightly drunken thoughts to me while i had a cig. But the more i think on it, the more it all becomes quite clear. What are the opinions of y’all?

a reply to: PhatalError

Did you really just write a thread about the dumbing down of America after you said you had to go smoke because you were frustrated by an Xbox match? Point proven lol!

originally posted by: MRinder
a reply to: PhatalError

Did you really just write a thread about the dumbing down of America after you said you had to go smoke because you were frustrated by an Xbox match? Point proven lol!

More or less the fact that i smoke one every 45 min or so and i was heading into the 3-4 hours without one area because i was playing matches.

Idk if you use any nicotine products but deviating that far off your usual pattern causes some very noticeable irritability. And i mean, if i have to martyr myself to get a point across. I dont mind doing so. I can handle. I’ve been through much worse.

During these covid lockdowns, please tell me, what else am i supposed to do? Since my state is still severely locked down? Perhaps i break into a bar and invite all my non mask wearing buddies? Perhaps we’ll go break into a bowling alley for some good old fashioned bowling matches. Perhaps we’ll go break into a movie theater and have a marathon on the latest 2019 flicks. Sorry, i dont side with your antifa thugs. I’d rather respect law and keep my city civil. I’ve seen enough violence in Iraq. I’d rather not see that here.

a reply to: PhatalError
I agree to a point, I also feel that we are way to focus on cookie cutter life styles. If you don't fit the criteria you are cast out and I'll be the one to say it, people are wanting you to just off yourself. No one cares if you're not providing for them.

Kids grow up never seeing their parents and instead try to be buddies when at home or they are just a nuisance to the parent in between work and bed buddies.

And some kids refuse to grow into the complacency, our system is broken, talking heads broadcasted daily break the law and nothing happens. There is no trust in the adults and there is no trust in the transfer of responsibilities between generations.

There is no one size fits all here. But the reality of what needs to happen is too big for majority of individuals that it's easier to just do the daily grind and get smashed after getting to your abode.

How many people can't get through a week without alcohol or "other" substance" then claim to be happy, non-addicts?

People are seeing the farce and misery of "status-quo" but see no way to fix things. So they tune out, just like their parents, just like their leaders, just like they're suppose to.

originally posted by: Nivhk
a reply to: PhatalError
I agree to a point, I also feel that we are way to focus on cookie cutter life styles. If you don't fit the criteria you are cast out and I'll be the one to say it, people are wanting you to just off yourself. No one cares if you're not providing for them.

Kids grow up never seeing their parents and instead try to be buddies when at home or they are just a nuisance to the parent in between work and bed buddies.

And some kids refuse to grow into the complacency, our system is broken, talking heads broadcasted daily break the law and nothing happens. There is no trust in the adults and there is no trust in the transfer of responsibilities between generations.

There is no one size fits all here. But the reality of what needs to happen is too big for majority of individuals that it's easier to just do the daily grind and get smashed after getting to your abode.

How many people can't get through a week without alcohol or "other" substance" then claim to be happy, non-addicts?

People are seeing the farce and misery of "status-quo" but see no way to fix things. So they tune out, just like their parents, just like their leaders, just like they're suppose to.

.

I can definitely relate to what you said. Although my reasonings are a slight bit different. Yet still very much the same. I drink every day. To a point that is considered excessive. In fact, i’m quite drunk right now.
But my reasoning is not just to get through ordinary life most civilians face.
More so to forget or at least suppress the stuff i’ve aeen/experienced in Iraq. Equally unealthy either way and provides validation to your point.
But i am still a contributing member to society, work a 9-5 job, earn my keep, keep my head up and drive on. I am exceptionally fit. I go to the gym regularly. Push elite level weight on all my lifts. I dont let it ruin my life. I dont let it make me think i’m a lesser person. I feel i am an exception to the generalization though. Most would be exactly as you described.

But again, maybe its the mindset of being rewarded for not putting in the effort thats makes the generalization true. I am of the mindset you can make yourself anything you want to be. It all depends on how hard are you willing to try to get there?

I feel younger kids these days just arent taught that. They get rewarded for being dumb. Things like common core contribute to that. Social programs like how relaxed welfare is, contributes to that. I agree with the current welfare programs as a whole, i just feel they need to be more stringent.

One thing I have thought before is that everything seems dumber now because any idiot can get on the internet and get 50k instagram followers with a cat doing banana tricks or whatever. See, in the old days to get into print you would have to submit something well-written vin competition with other writers, then it would be edited, and you would only have a handful of national magazines printing these complex massaged ideas, or long books that would have to hold your attention to get published. Now the "information age" means every yokel who would be out drooling and telling dirty jokes in Farmer McGee's celery patch can now set themselves up as a twitter superstar or whatnot if they have a gimmick or a skill like playing video games. Look how influential the words of people like PewPewDie are just because he can move his thumbs fast.

The other thing is that half the kids in their 20s go to college now, whereas 50 years ago only professionals like teachers, lawyers, and doctors went. Now college is a business and they pack the kids in there like a big farm, the more the better, because the college's want that sweet sweet government loan money flowing like a gusher. Colleges have become factories for stupid...partying, studying topics that have no job opportunities...sure we are still turning out doctors and lawyers, but there are too many if the latter and even formerly lucrative tech careers are drying up as everything gets shipped to China and beyond.

TLDR: information age means too much information. Too much information means most of it is low quality information. Low quality information is the secret sauce of stupidity.

originally posted by: Never Despise
One thing I have thought before is that everything seems dumber now because any idiot can get on the internet and get 50k instagram followers with a cat doing banana tricks or whatever. See, in the old days to get into print you would have to submit something well-written vin competition with other writers, then it would be edited, and you would only have a handful of national magazines printing these complex massaged ideas, or long books that would have to hold your attention to get published. Now the "information age" means every yokel who would be out drooling and telling dirty jokes in Farmer McGee's celery patch can now set themselves up as a twitter superstar or whatnot if they have a gimmick or a skill like playing video games. Look how influential the words of people like PewPewDie are just because he can move his thumbs fast.

The other thing is that half the kids in their 20s go to college now, whereas 50 years ago only professionals like teachers, lawyers, and doctors went. Now college is a business and they pack the kids in there like a big farm, the more the better, because the college's want that sweet sweet government loan money flowing like a gusher. Colleges have become factories for stupid...partying, studying topics that have no job opportunities...sure we are still turning out doctors and lawyers, but there are too many if the latter and even formerly lucrative tech careers are drying up as everything gets shipped to China and beyond.

TLDR: information age means too much information. Too much information means most of it is low quality information. Low quality information is the secret sauce of stupidity.

I can see your points.
Internet can be good for both old and new school, though. Just means more people will see your content. I think the reason it seems more technical stuff gets seen is because the folks interested in that stuff, simply arent interested in the internet, until they have to connect with their grandkids on a facebook. It’s a relatively new technology. My Grandma is in her 90s. I’m sure she couldnt work a facebook account if she spent the rest of her days learning it. The technology disconnect from then to now is enormous. I’m in my 30s and still have to help my mother with tech stuff. Computers especially develop exponentially. 20 years ago, the largest, most powerful computer, could even do what my cell phone does.

As far as colleges go, i can agree. When younger people think of college they think hot chicks and frat parties. While all the college see is 20 years of the student repaying me. They dont care about the quality of education. On either side. It’s basically a 2-4 year vacation on their parents dime before getting sucked into the real world by young adults and a huge check for the colleges for the same time frame. Very few care about actual education. But again going to my OP, with the piss poor system we already have, how could they differentiate between good and bad, in comparison to what is available now. If you had common core in grade school saying 2+2=5 but you showed work so got an A, then by the time you get to college and they said, no, you get an F, and then actually show you why 2+2=4, it would be a drastic improvement upon public education and would further the scams false validity

a reply to: PhatalError

The dumbing down of America. Erasing history. Making the youth simple minded and non objective. They want free # for minimal effort. Never willing to think outside of the box.

Wanting a return on the money I’m forced to give the federal government every year will never equate to “free stuff” no matter how hard you guys try to frame it that way.

I pay enough that I should be able to get things like affordable or free healthcare and quality higher education without putting myself into debt for the rest of my life. Republicans break the government on purpose and then wave it around as proof that government doesn’t work. All the while selling it (and us) out to private corporations.

Thinking outside of the box would be trying a different approach than selling our country out to corporations who we have even less control over than the government.

For years now, every time I have heard someone talk about what a failure the US educational system has been, I have replied that it, on the contrary, has been a signal success. It has done exactly what it was designed to do; produce an society of imbeciles, idiots, breeders and consumers whose general cognitive abilities would be limited to planning what to watch next on television, who would find it too troublesome to think for themselves, and who would not understand the basic economics of credit and debt.

The system has succeeded, by and large. There are still a few holdouts that insist on thinking independently, but we are a threat to the system.

This movie was not a paradoy or a comedy, it was what I have come to call a "future documentary." This is pretty much where we are on some level, where we are headed on a deeper one. This is what our educational system has produced.


:

There never was an obesity epidemic until everything became automated, from factory farming to elevators instead if staircases. The modern body became flabby.

Now with the information age and Google, AI, apps, phones, spell-check, etc. to automate mental work, minds are getting flabby. Why memorize anything when you can just look it up? There are kids these days who can't even memorize their own 7-digit phone numbers.

originally posted by: Never Despise
There never was an obesity epidemic until everything became automated, from factory farming to elevators instead if staircases. The modern body became flabby.

Now with the information age and Google, AI, apps, phones, spell-check, etc. to automate mental work, minds are getting flabby. Why memorize anything when you can just look it up? There are kids these days who can't even memorize their own 7-digit phone numbers.

Hell, my 30+ y/o son can't read an analog clock and doesn't want to learn. I try to tell him how easy it is and he gets pissed.

Yeah, loosing hope for humanity.

originally posted by: MRinder
a reply to: PhatalError

Did you really just write a thread about the dumbing down of America after you said you had to go smoke because you were frustrated by an Xbox match? Point proven lol!

Tobacco is a nootropic which makes you think better, unless of course you smoke too much than it overloads the nicotine/acetylcholine receptors in the brain which causes a person to actually dumb down.

Can't have people that can think in this country, smoking cigarettes is bad for you. It is easy to check what I said, just highlight the first four words in my post and google it.

a reply to: PhatalError

Very few care about actual education

Further up in the post you wrote this

Computers especially develop exponentially. 20 years ago, the largest, most powerful computer, could even do what my cell phone does.

Then your English failed in this:

Computers especially develop exponentially. 20 years ago, the largest, most powerful computer, could even do what my cell phone does

You should have written

Computers especially develop exponentially. 20 years ago, the largest, most powerful computer, couldn'teven do what my cell phone does

If you notice my sentence above I shouldn't start with "then"'


english.stackexchange.com...#:~:text=Yes%2C%20you%20can%20start%20a,with%20then%20should %20go%20last%3A&text=Then%20indicates%20a%20consequence%20or,actions%20that%20create%20that%20consequence.

Yes, you can start a sentence with then. However, the clause that begins with then should go last:

She asked, "Could I have a drink of your water?" I said, "No, you can't." Then she walked away.

Then indicates a consequence or a result, which is why it should go at the end of any group of sentences that describe actions that create that consequence.

Think of then as a result of if, where if always comes first:

If she may not have a drink of your water, then she will walk away.

Overall though you've posted a great post that whoever should read it gets exactly what you mean. You speak a fundamental truth about the Education system in general. I see the same traits here in Australia. My son who went to University would have these philosophical discussion with me about his co-students. He was required to partner up with Chinese students who were lazy and he had to do extra to complete the assignments because the other knew she couldn't be marked down because she was a higher paying Chinese student.

a reply to: Never Despise

Don't discount food additives.

wiki

What hormone is linked to obesity?
The hormones leptin, insulin, oestrogens, androgens and growth hormone influence our appetite, metabolism and body fat distribution. People who are obese have hormone levels that encourage the accumulation of body fat. Obesity is a risk factor for disease.J

a reply to: incoserv
There was a very interesting experiment a few years ago. For some years, they had been asking people to recall the flags of different nations. While the test subjects thought about it, a brain scanner hooked up to their heads showed the different areas in the brain that were being activated: the researchers could see the thought patterns for different flag colors and shapes lighting up different areas of the brain.

A few years ago they noticed a radical change. Instead of all these different neural circuits lighting up on the scanner, the subjects kept lighting up the same small corner of the brain over and over, no matter which country's flag was being asked about. It turns out they were all lighting up the "I want to google it" part of the brain, over and over, instead of conceptualizing each individual flag.

a reply to: rickymouse

Tobacco is a nootropic

Well I'm glad I smoke and long ago started using fluorine free toothpaste.

I read long ago that Fluorine was 1st used by the Nazis to pacify their captives
Fluorine was also used as part of the gold extraction practice and was a toxic by product. The mining industry sold it back to the Government

I can't seem to find the "nazi" bit, appears it may have been a myth.

a reply to: PhatalError

I have to agree... the idea was that exceptionalism was bad for society, and that whomever they are wanted to create a society where exceptionalism wasn't relevant. How can we support marksism if people are running around striving to be great? I think it will backfire- the docile, brainwashed lemmings will become empowered by their triumphs, and they will begin to expect more. The arrogance is astounding, and we are already seeing the decay of their post modern socialism.

a reply to: PhatalError

What's really stupid is to pretend it's just the left that's stupid.
What solutions do republicans offer? To go back in time? Lol

They play on your fears, that's it, to gain power, end of story. Read up on Terror Management Theory, if you're half as smart as you think, you'll see how Republicans only push different buttons but with the same result.
You're not free. No matter what you choose it was and is never a free choice.

a reply to: TheConstruKctionofLight

Evidently they cannot find any evidence of the claim about the Nazi's. But just because they cannot find any evidence anymore does not mean it happened or didn't happen. There was a claim it happened, but no evidence to back the claim.

In certain situations Fluoride does dumb people down....different than milk and wheat that contains opiate peptides that pacifies people. The two or three point IQ loss from flouridation is not enough to make much different in what I am seeing in society today. I do not know exactly what is causing people to believe in political BS or that so many people do not seem to be able to reason correctly these days, both those two are related somehow.

With the use of this rising, it is important to note the side effects of this chemistry, it is a triptamine chemistry meaning it is psychoactive in nature. Check out the forth side effect, sound like it may be something to be concerned with, especially when people taking SSRIs are using it. I personally know half a dozen people using this and at least three are getting a little weirder...they were a little weird to begin with just like most of us humans are.

www.mhanational.org...

a reply to: PhatalError

I wouldn't write off kids too quickly. After being nice little kids, my kids became horrendous A-holes for a couple years... Self righteous, angry, entitled A-holes and yet once the brains grew into adult mode and the hormones settled down they are radically different, productive, happy members of society. Both work and one put himself through his first level electrical and they are only 19 and 20. Two short years ago... A-holes.

So, all in all, don't most generations go through this? And education is totally different now with the internet. They need to adapt to their own time frame as ours no longer exists as it was.