• Cyber Yuki@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Despite that, its depiction of an ignorant society unaware of the technology supporting it was incredibly prophetic. If we ignore the “dumb people reproducing” bit, we can see it as a warning about how an uneducated society is detrimental for everyone.

      I mean, we have flat earthers, for fuck’s sake.

      • Zorque@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        The problem is it’s also a society without users and abusers. It’s just a story about dumb people.

        But the reason society seems to be trending stupider isn’t because we’re naturally focusing on shunning intelligence… it’s because the rich and powerful are using their influence to put that idea in our heads. They want a stupider, and more malleable, society to manipulate.

        That is the biggest problem we’re facing right now. And ignoring the root cause basically means you’re pushing a boulder up a steep hill, just for it to roll back down again.

      • UnrepententProcrastinator@lemmy.ca
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        4 months ago

        We always had village idiots. Social Media just allowed them to find each other.

        I’m not worried with flat earthers as much as theocrats amd other form of politically motivated extremism.

        • Zyansheep@programming.dev
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          4 months ago

          Eugenics (by some definitions) doesn’t even have to be unethical if you turn left off of “state-enforced sterilization highway” and on to “provide the opportunity to let people optimise their children’s genome street”. It is basically transhumanism at that point. Probably still some problems there, but at least its not coercive, and its also already possible today. Equality of access to polygenetic screening I say!

    • Honytawk@lemmy.zip
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      4 months ago

      That is the thing.

      Idiocracy is a universe where intelligence is shunned. Being smart is a bad thing and reading books can get you beaten up. It is basically anti-intelligence.

      While in our universe we have more of a pseudoscience problem. People who want to be smart, it is revered. But they fall for pseudo-intelligence. (Flatearthers, anti-vaxxers, climate deniers, …)