Do you get the impression that we as a people are dumbing down?

Some people perhaps, but others just don’t give damn, it’s knowing the difference between ignorance and conscious choice to opt out of the insanity.

Can one afford to opt out of the insanity? How do you avoid the consequences?

@stanleybmanly Well, you just find a way to live on the fringe and not concern yourself with things you have no control over. Life’s too short to be co-dependent on the state of global affairs. Do what you can and forget the rest.

Yes

And just when did you think we, as a people, were smarted up?

Honestly?

Not at all. Most young people I meet are far smarter and better informed than youth were when I was young. We didn’t really know anything. My 13-year-old daughter is smarter than I am, and probably has been for a couple of years. Also, I’m exposed to young people at work (I’m a software developer), and they are intimidating and brilliant.

No. To the contrary, society is more educated than it has ever been.

I was using TeamVeiwer to help my sister’s fifteen year old fix the VPN on the router so their ATV could see my Plex server. I said something like “This is being a bigger cunt than Malcolm Turnbull”. Abby asked what the PM of Australia had to do with MPE settings.

She is 15 and knows who the PM of Australia is. I think that is a win.

When I was her age I didn’t even know the governor of the state I lived in. I was busy skateboarding and trying to put my mouth on boobs.

No. I think there are “dumb” and smart in every generation. The masses have more access today to knowledge than ever before. Some take advantage of it done don’t.

Your perception of general trends are influence by the people you hang with and the media you pay attention to. Keep in mind that what you see in the U.S. is commercially driven media, tailored to fascinate the larger population—the unwashed masses, so to speak—and not necessarily representative of the top of the bell curve.

History, however, bears out that we are not dumbing down. I ask you to campare the life of a peasant from the 14th century to your own lifestyle today. Or the life of a working class female of a century ago compared to the opportunities and lifestyle of a working class female today. The arbitrary arrests of homosexuals en masse on any Friday night in NYC just 5 decades ago, compared to the freedom from unreasonable search and siezure they enjoy today in that same city. We have progressed.

This has been a complaint since Socrates and if it were true, you and I would by now have the intelligence of an amoeba. Have a little faith and keep your eye on the big picture.

And just when did you think we, as a people, were smarted up?
Seriously?

Step it back and find a time when a smarter society prevailed.
Decade by decade, my history is too rusty to get beyond slavery, but it doesn’t take a lot to get me that far.

As to our current situation, Americans have a long way to go to reach the hysteria of the Japanese Internment (1942) through McCarthyism (-1956).
Especially since much of that time was viewed as idyllic (I like Ike!) when I was a kid of the late 60’s, early 70’s.

I think the media is very dumbed down but the average IQ is actually increasing. I think we are losing a lot of the practical knowledge, though. There are just too many of us.

Maybe this is wrong or there is more than one meaning, but doesn’t “dumbing down” refer to lowering one’s communication style in order to get a point across to a specific audience?

If the question is meant to pertain to the general population becoming less intelligent, then read @Espiritus_Corvus’ response.

Personally, my opinion is that the more intelligent one is, the more they don’t invest in any of the bullshit of life, to the best of their ability anyway. They go their own way and offer no apologies for doing so.