16 Signs That People Are Becoming Stupider
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Does it ever seem to you like people are becoming stupider than ever? There have always been people out there that have been a few cards short of a full deck, but these days it seems like more people than ever are a few fries short of a Happy Meal. Certainly our education system plays a major role in this. Our children are being systematically “dumbed-down” by our public schools and millions of them are graduating from high school asdumb as a rock. And the endless hours of mindless entertainment that most of us are addicted to certainly is not helping matters either. Will we eventually become a society where only a small minority possess critical thinking skills? In our world today, logic and reason seem to be in very short supply and the sheeple seem to have taken over. As I wrote about recently, in this day and age it is more imperative than ever that we all learn to think for ourselves. Unfortunately, most people do not seem to be doing that. Most people seem content to let their televisions do their thinking for them. Way too many people have a blank look in their eyes as if they aren’t even fully there. But when people are not thinking clearly, they tend to act very foolishly. From the very top of our society to the very bottom, people are doing some really stupid things.
The following are 16 signs that people are becoming stupider….
#1 According to a poll recently conducted for Reuters, about 10 percent of the entire global population is convinced that we could witness the end of the world in 2012. When we get to 2013, a similar poll will probably find that 10 percent of the entire global population is convinced that the world may not survive until 2014.
#2 A whole host of medical studies have shown a connection between cell phones and cancer. The World Health Organization has even admitted that cell phones can cause cancer. But nearly all of us continue to use cell phones very heavily.
#3 Genetically modified crops have been shown to have some very negative effects on the environment and on human health. But the USDA has approved 80 different genetically engineered crops and has never denied a single one. At this point, approximately 70 percent of all processed foods in the United States contain genes that have been genetically engineered.
#4 The TSA is entrusted with making sure that no terrorists get on board our airplanes. But the TSA has been hiring new employees without even conducting background checks first to make sure that the new employees are not terrorists….
In a move that could affect security at airports around the nation, the Transportation Security Administration confirmed Wednesday it had such a backlog of background security checks, airport employers were allowed to hire any employee needed.
TSA officials said the background checks are delayed, but they are processing them as fast as they can.
TSA also will complete background checks on accepted applicants at a later date.
#5 In Los Angeles, it was discovered that four TSA employees were taking huge bribes to allow suitcases full of “cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana” to pass through airport security. But the federal government thinks the TSA is doing such a good job that their duties have been expanded to include buses and subway stations.
#6 Barack Obama wants to convince all of us that it is not a big deal that he is now admitting that the “New York girlfriend” in his 1995 autobiography “Dreams From My Father” was actually a “composite character“. Tens of millions of Americans will believe him.
#7 Down in Florida recently, a frightened wife was able to struggle free from her abusive husband who was choking her and fire a single warning shot into the ceiling. So who is the law coming down on? It is the abused wife that is going to be sentenced to 20 years in prison.
#8 A total of $205,075 was spent to move a single bush that was standing in the way of a highway-renovation project in California. It turns out that an identical bush could have been purchased at a local store for less than 16 bucks….
The bush—a Franciscan manzanita—was a specimen of a commercially cultivated species of shrub that can be purchased from nurseries for as little as $15.98 per plant. The particular plant in question, however, was discovered in the midst of the City of San Francisco, in the median strip of a highway, and was deemed to be the last example of the species in the “wild.”
#9 The federal government is telling us that old-fashioned incandescent light bulbs have to be phased outbecause they are supposedly bad for the environment. But the new CFL light bulbs are actually worse for the environment. They are filled with mercury and they are so toxic that if they are broken they require special clean up procedures.
#10 Obama’s top science adviser, John Holdren, has suggested that we should extensively use geoengineering to purposely cool the climate of the earth. The following is how CBS News described one of his ideas for accomplishing this….
Shooting sulfur particles (like those produced by power plants and volcanoes, for example) into the upper atmosphere, an idea that gained steam when it was proposed by Nobel laureate Paul Crutzen in 2006. It would be “basically mimicking the effect of volcanoes in screening out the incoming sunlight,” Holdren said.
Apparently Holdren never watched The Matrix, because if he did he would know that blocking out the sun is a really, really bad idea.
#11 There are 1.4 million gang members living inside the United States today and illegal immigration is totally out of control. But the Obama administration has decided to make border security even weaker by pulling900 National Guard troops away from the U.S./Mexico border.
#12 In Maryland, one man recently called 911 to report to the police that someone had just stolen his marijuana. Needless to say, the man never got his marijuana back.
#13 It has been estimated that prescription drugs kill 200,000 Americans every single year. Yet Americans continue to gobble prescription drugs down at a faster pace then ever before.
#14 Burger King is testing a new ice cream sundae that comes with two strips of bacon crammed into it. There are some Americans out there that will actually eat such a thing.
#15 Right now, China is holding over a trillion dollars of U.S. government debt. But that didn’t stop the U.S. government from sending China 17.8 million dollars in foreign aid during 2011.
#16 According to Gallup, if the presidential election was held today 46 percent of all U.S. voters would vote for Mitt Romney and 45 percent of all U.S. voters would vote for Barack Obama.
Do you have any examples to add to this list? Please feel free to post a comment with your thoughts below….
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1:01 pm
UNBELEIVABLE IF I DID NOT SEE IT HAPPENING. AND APPARENTLY OBAMAS EDUCATION CZAR IS DOING A NUMBER ON OUR YOUNG PEOPLE.
1:34 pm
This article would also be proof of the dumbing down of people, were it not for the fact that it reflects only on one person, as does many of the examples cited.
2:07 pm
Shouldn't "stupider" be "more stupid" or are you just testing us?
2:44 pm
" I DON'T CARE. IT DOESN'T EFFECT ME." "IT IS SAFE TO EAT THE FDA SAYS SO." "BUT MY DOC TOLD ME TO TAKE THIS MED."" THAT CAN'T HAPPEN HERE THIS IS AMERICA". " STOP WITH ALL THAT GLOOM AND DOOM STUFF." " KIDS ARE NO GOOD TODAY." " BUT THE NEWSPAPER/TV SAID THAT….." " BUT ITS FOR OUR PROTECTION " .HAS SOMEONE SAID THIS TO YOU OR HAVE YOU SAID IT YOUR SELF? TELL ME KIND SIR/MADAM IN WHAT STORAGE FACILITY DID YOU STORE YOUR THINKING BRAIN? OR PLACE IT IN THE THINKING/QUESTIONING PLASTIC BAG? PREHAPS YOU TUCKED IT BETWEEN THE PAGES OF YOUR BIBLE.? CAUSE YOU SURE AREN'T USING IT!! IN DECADES TO COME SCIENTISTS WILL PONDER THE LARGE SPACE IN THE SKULL TO HOLD SUCH A SMALL PEA BRAIN!!
2:58 pm
The way I see it 45% of the voters are wrong. Look at what he does not what he says.
3:00 pm
Actually there are 15 reasons why people are becoming "stupider". #16 gives me some hope that we aren't quite as stupid as the 15 would indicate.
3:52 pm
Why would anyone vote for Obama??
10:39 am
1) race guilt
2) retardation
3) drugs
4) cannot read the ballot
5) ballot stuffing
9:23 pm
Interesting that the author of this article states in their opening paragraph that "Most people seem content to let their televisions do their thinking for them," yet in point #10 they write "Apparently Holdren never watched The Matrix, because if he did he would know that blocking out the sun is a really, really bad idea." Seems like television was doing the authors thinking. The idea of using geoengineering to control climate change was thought up by some highly skilled and highly intelligent people. Maybe if the author check these facts this article would be more credible. At the moment i could put #17 against this article.
9:47 pm
get up off obama he has done better r say just as good as any president we ever had and by the grace of god he will get 4 more years to do the rightthing ,god be with him.
11:53 am
Where have you been? Under a rock??? He has destroyed this great country of ours and will complete the job if he is reelected. God forbid that happens.
10:32 pm
"16 Signs That People Are Becoming Stupider"
I have a really good example. The writer of this article is one of people who is "stupider". Since "Stupider" is not really good grammer. The proper grammer is either stupid, more stupid, or most stupid. There is no such word as "stupider". One does not conjugate the word with 'er' added to the end of it.
I really had a good laugh at this one, because the writer of this article is the one who is really 'stupider'. I hope they are not so stupid as to not understand this post. Wouldn't that be just great! LOL
1:54 am
Yes…Of course I use The Matrix as a scientific reference all of the time. Yes they should not blot out the sun…
LOL
When you are one to point out stupidity the very first place that one needs to go and look is in ones own bathroom mirror.
2:23 am
There is not one person in a hundred that can tell you anything meaningful on economic, fiscal or tax matters, such as:
–How much the federal gov’t spends daily
–How much of that is borrowed
–How much the effective federal income tax rate is
for the middle class (12.5% to 15%–CBO figures)
–And…how is THAT tax rate different from Romney’s
13.5% rate?
9:33 am
obama says waterboarding is torture and should be outlawed, but he sends in drones to kill who knows what and thats ok
11:58 am
'Stupider'…..enough said.
11:54 am
It's meant to be sarcastic…
12:03 pm
People continue to watch mainstream media, Fox news, ABC, CNN etc. & BELIEVE all that is said. What news that is reported is no longer unbiased and factual. It has become rhetorical, opinionated and sadly a sideshow for entertainment. Now not all news is tainted but one must be smart enough to process what is. Adolf Hitler once said: ‘Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it.’
Free will is tainted with propaganda.
Many Americans don’t see the big picture because they are busy struggling with there own personal issues
2:45 pm
Let us review the history of man kind and his concept of something he calls Government. How far back in history should we go? ' The truth is man can not govern man only GOD can'. Truth and Human Nature their like opposite ends of a magnet, No matter how hard you try to put then together they always resist each other. Lets examine the quest for world peace. This involves over 21 centuries of mans inhumanity against man by going to war and annihilating some 4 billion people in order to obtain it, Had they all died in vain? Mans Governments around this world Can not, Shall not , Will not, bring forth PEACE, Why ? It is not his to give! Peace, Righteousness, unconditional Love," WILL COME FROM THE MAN ABOVE" And ALL THE THINGS FROM the time of Adam and Eve from down below Earth, Has put all our lives on hold ! Amen !
2:13 am
Great list.
4:48 pm
#2 is stupid. Cell phones lack the power and the frequency to cause cancer. This is urban legend mixed with the usual abuse of the precautionary principle.
4:00 pm
would he care to tell an entire wing of the Philadelphia Cancer Treatment Hospital Of America that cell phones were not the cause of their brain cancer when every patient said they were constantly on the phone.
8:25 pm
right. Those medical studies are just stupid. Dumb old scientists can't get anything right so we should definately ignore the research
4:58 pm
#3 is simply not true. Alarmists are always looking for something to be alarmed about. They also need to realize that the GMO companies know that their product will not sell if it is bad for the customer. Clearly that is a bad business model.
12:10 pm
Tell that to the tobacco companies, pal.
2:04 pm
bitch please…
11:51 am
what does tobacco have to do with food?
1:51 pm
Wow. You really believe that companies or the government wouldn't sell or approve something that was bad for the customer? I'd rather be an alive alarmist then a dead naive person
2:03 pm
you are absolutely right. Cell phone emit non-ionizing radiation which is not strong enough to disrupt cell structure, therefore not able to cause cancer. If EMFs could cause cancer then everyone would have it, as all tech devices give it out and anyone who has ever had an MRI would be long gone. Alarmists will believe anything though. Otherwise good article, except "stupider" is not really a word.
1:39 pm
Right!!..go back to 4th grade..
1:03 pm
Is this a joke? I really hope it is. If it's not you're one of the stupidest people I'm glad I never met.
1:41 pm
Higley, wtf? Do you work for Monsanto? Or have you just never heard of them? Or are you just slowly digging your way out from under a rock?
It doesn't even require an iota of common sense to figure out that our food is manipulated to get quantity vs. quality. How else do you get "readily available food" every where you look? Look at the normal spoil rate of perishables. There's a reason they're not perishing as fast my friend….
8:40 am
How about the YUGO and the Corvair, sure, sure we can trust that big business will to do the right thing for the public.
1:16 pm
"There are only two things that are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the universe." Albert Einstein I wounder what he would say now?
2:06 pm
#17 there are people who will actually believe all the items listed in this article!
Seriously? quoting the matrix as a scientific source? Geez you're dumb. Additionally – #2 is actually WRONG: pulled directly from WHO.INT "To date, no adverse health effects have been established as being caused by mobile phone use."
So you've outright LIED, or just are idiotic enough to do no real research.
and for #1? people have ALWAYS been convinced the world is just about to end. It isn't a sign they've become stupider, just more vocal.
#9 – there is a BIG difference in a little mercury vapor that has localized, temporary effects, and the HUGE energy use discrepancy between incandescent and flourescent bulbs. "My doctor told me to start using chemo drugs, but is cancer really that bad? after all, chemo makes you go BALD! that means it's BAD for you!!"
1:48 pm
A book around 1975 was about a Prophesy called The Celestine Prophecy spoke of these times. People are stupid. Obama tells them anything and they all believe him!
2:21 pm
That works on both side of the isle. The GOP'ers follow ANYTHING the party throws out there. Yours is no better than mine!
11:51 am
Just like we were 'made' to believe that we were going after the 'alleged' Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq, leading to a war, trillions of Dollars spent in the war, and worse than anything else, thousands of American Lives lost and hundreds of thousands of our service people living with PTSD… No lies there…!!??!!
10:26 am
RIGHT ON!!!!!! GOBAMA!
6:21 pm
Amen
2:52 pm
I think you mean Fox News…studies have shown this…
11:30 am
Your comment about Obama proves the point of this article!
4:47 pm
That goes double for the Fox propaganda channel
8:19 pm
Because you wrote stupider instaed of more stupid.
3:20 am
#6 Every edition of the book included a statement by the author that some of the characters were composites. He simplified the storytelling and protected the anonymity of his past girlfriends by combining their stories. And he said up front that he was doing that.
3:30 am
#9 The move to CFL bulbs has nothing to do with the old bulbs being environmentally hazardous. The problem with incandescents is that they are very inefficient. 90% of the electricity they use is wasted. That means a tremendous amount of our national energy expenditure, and all the problems that go along with it (mountaintop-removal mining, pollution, global warming, dependence on foreign energy sources) is due to the inefficiency of our bulbs. THAT is why we're switching to CFLs.
6:15 pm
See: <a href="http://www.csupomona.edu/~hsleff/EfficiencyEfficacyLamps…” target=”_blank”>www.csupomona.edu/~hsleff/EfficiencyEfficacyLamps…
Your statement about 90% is either false, or baseless, and you prove the point in the article. everything that activists Trolls like you post is baseless opinion.
The efficiency losses cited in the above SCIENTIFIC paper is WORSE than 90%.
We do not express how inefficient a system is, we express EFFICIENCY. Your claim should be "efficiency of 10%"
Thus nothing you write has any credibility.
You lack the scientific education to understand that "efficiency" does not apply to a light bulb, because efficiency compares input vs output for the SAME quantity. The relevant term is "efficacy" NOT efficiency.
How "effective" is it?
You have no idea.
You can NOT compare electricity in and photon emission out. It is not a valid comparison
The rest of your post is utter LIES.
A 100 W incandescent bulb is 100% efficient, by your twisted reasoning, during HEATING season where the lighting heat load subtracts from the heat generated to heat the space.
futher, your idea that incandescant bulbs cause global warming is a pure baseless lie
That 100W bulb uses one hundred watts per HOUR. Thats ZERO compared to the gross losses in the transmission lines and power transformer on the pole outside. The refrigerator uses 10-20 THOUSAND watts (some use thats actually measurable)
have you ever attempted to use an ammeter to measure the current through a 100W bulb? Just call it zero for most practical purposes.
Your last part is both "overgeneralization" and "slippery slope" – both are errors made in thinking, writing and speaking.
12:06 am
#11 is ridiculous. What does the existence of 1.4 million gang members in the US have to do with illegal immigration? News flash- all those Bloods, Crips, Hells Angels, Vice Lords, and yes, even Latin Kings are made up primarily of born-in-the-USA types- NOT illegal immigrants! Do you honestly believe every gang member is in the MS-13! Ha!
4:37 pm
Public comment boards drive me nuts every day. Fewer people than ever seem to understand homophones, due to "dumbing down" in our schools: So many don't know the difference in their, there & they're; to, too, & two; break & brake; aloud & allowed; or, our & are; site, sight & cite; led & lead; losing & loosing; throne & thrown; so, sow & sew; tenets & tenants, verses & versus, undo & undue, weekend & weakened; right, rite & write; wait & weight, wine & whine, warn & worn, weather & whether, waist & waste, theirs & there's, its & it's, and one of most common: than & then!
5:50 pm
…and the one I personally despise the most, using the personal pronoun "you" and its variants in the place of a definite or indefinite article.
Its not "your car" its "THE car"
12:35 pm
#16 – The person who writes columns like this actually believes what he/she writes is true and profound when they really should have taken science and statistics courses in college.
12:37 pm
#17: This list.
12:45 pm
#17 This article’s author is proof that people are getting “stupider”.
6:17 pm
No, your post is. You are typical of the increasingly illiterate, narcissistic and arrogant, hate and rage filled Troll on the internet who only is there to post BS opinion, or make childish ad-hominem attacks against anyone who doesnt bow down and worship them.
Notice you didnt post anything relevant to the topic. that is a first proof you cant read.
2:01 pm
This is the stupidest thing I've read in a while – lists like this feed in to our stupidity, who wrote this – Mitt Romney?
2:05 pm
Really? Education is the problem? I'm a conservative teacher, I DON'T vote for liberals or other democrats,
but what you've had written IS part of the problem. I do see a lot of "dumb" students. We'll, guess what,
they came to me that way! Worse, most are unwilling to dig themselves out of that situation by actually
learning. I give them all the benefit of my extensive, non partisan knowledge and they don't care. So
stop blaming teachers and blame the politicians/state government that INSISTS that all students must
be taught as if they are going to college when the truth is they are not. And I have news for you, speaking
as a father of three, the PARENT is the primary educator. Always has been so and always will be so!
2:20 pm
this list is stupid and you should feel stupid
1:08 pm
# 17 That most people who read this list will not know which of these are made up and which are not.
1:13 pm
From your linked article #2: "The agency now lists mobile phone use in the same "carcinogenic hazard" category as lead, engine exhaust and chloroform."
Lead exposure does not cause cancer. It causes mental retardation. Engine exhaust is not a health hazard unless you put leaded gas in it (see above) or you have so many particulates in the air that it triggers asthma in those susceptible (i.e. smog). Chloroform causes brain damage by keeping needed oxygen out of brain cells. Again, brain damage, but not cancer. If you're going to accuse "People" of not using critical thinking skils, use them yourself.
1:46 pm
Back when I was a child we had this thing in school called "left behind"..when you didn't meet the grade to move up you did summer school if marginal or plain repeated the grade..today it's not politically correct to flunk a child….Thankfully for me Art Students weren't dumb!!..when I was teaching..thankfully that hasn't changed….I'm retired..thanks in part to cancer in '05,..thanx to tobacco!!…yeppers just another alarmist looking for someone to blame eh ? higley!
3:20 pm
This article only cites stupid things but claims this is evidence of people becoming stupider. You have to show that these are stupid acts unique to our times which wouldn't have been committed by our predecessors.
3:22 pm
I was first convinced people were becoming stupider when Obama was elected President.
4:03 pm
Well of course in the US our average smartness is declining. Smart folks have few children while others have many.
4:31 pm
Not hard to see we are in major decline we rank 24th in math skills and 23rd in science skills that is really hurting us as far as being competitve is concerned. Teacher unions are a big part of this. We had an adopted Vietnames child in public school they wanted to hold him back and said he was two grades behind. I took him home and home schooled him for one year when he returned to school he skiped three grades and had awsome math skills.
5:05 pm
Re:#3 Genetically modified crops… Where? What studies?
Are not ALL crops genetically modified? See Mendel, fed billions. See Norman Ernest Borlaug, saved hundreds of millions from starvation.
I've got one
#16 A bug net instead of DDT to save millions from malaria. Do any of you know why the CDC is in Atlanta?
5:19 pm
higley7 is a GMO troll
9:46 am
#17. Some people actually believe the garbage spouted in this article.
10:28 am
What about the title of this article? I think perhaps the author incriminates him or herself. We can become MORE stupid, but not "stupider".
10:40 am
Yes Americans are getting dumber. Americans AMERICANS! All of the examples point to American culture. Public school is only to blame insofar as it is reflecting the culture and its values. The American plutocracy does not want a Country full of intelligent and creative people as it is not in their interest. The article cites some very ridiculous examples to smear Obama, but the decline of the Country can easily be traced back to 1981. Does anyone remember who was President in 1981? Does anyone remember what also happened to news at that time with the birth of cable network news?
This is such a poorly written an stupid article written by a poorly educated and stupid individual.
10:56 am
Their inability to think critically is not a "bug", it's a "feature". That is, none of this is by chance. To achieve and maintain political power, 1) Make sure people are ignorant. Have the schools on your side teaching what YOU want them to. 2) Offer "free" stuff (healthcare, foodstamps, tuition "assistance"….). 3) Promote envy. 4) Get the "takers" to outnumber the "makers". 5) Pit groups against each other (race, gender, social and economic status) based on some absurd notion of fairness. 6) Promote the government as the "fixer". That is, if we only have more regulations or another bureaucracy or a "law" or even "more funding" everything will be just fine. Of course, ignore history.
11:57 am
the fact that we give money to any nation is absurd. That is MY retirement (social security) money going to those bastards. China, Russia and other enemies of the USA are laughing at us for this crazy policy. We need to rid ourselves of our current government and start over with a common sense approach to protecting our country, eliminating 90% of spending we currently waste on pork barrel projects.
12:13 pm
This is not proof of renewed and intensified world stupidity, except maybe the author's own. When people, as a group, seem to be doing somethings that are really stupid, like buying bottled water at soda pop prices, or growing consumable plants inside instead of outside – there is usually something more to it than sheer stupidity.
If everyone who made a cell call, or smoked a cigarette, and got cancer, then they'd be stupid to do it again. As it happens, most of us are as likely to die from something else than the dangers mentioned here. RE: look both ways before you cross the street and don't expect the driver to do it for you.
12:16 pm
Money talks safety walks.
12:33 pm
#17 – Obama is President.
12:36 pm
Did anyone catch the title? I thought 'stupider' was not a word. It should have read 'more stupid.'
5:28 pm
#1 Remember the people that said 2000 would be an economic disaster? The Dow crashed in February 2000 with the S&P following in March. Twelve years later both indices are still below those levels and the world economy is still ashambles. The 2000 Doomsayers may not have all gotten the cause correct but they were completely right. The way things are going I think it'd be crazier to say 2012 won't be a major disaster of one form or another.
#10 The administration uses sulfur emmissions as an excuse to shut down coal mines and coal plants which employ tens of thousands of people throwing the areas dependent upon them into economic depression and causing the use of replacement energy sources of much greater cost to people who can't afford it because they're now unemployed. Meanwhile the top science adviser to the president suggests we inject the same sulfur into the atmosphere (and also the same sulfur blamed years ago for acid rain) undoubtedly at hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer expense payable to a company run by administration cronies which will go bankrupt a few months after the check clears.
5:30 pm
#13, Prescription Drugs, looks suspect. My daughter was diagnosed with Addison's Disease. She takes a prescription drug to control it. She will be taking that for the rest of her life, or else her life will be over fairly shortly. I'm not sure where the author found the '200,000 people die from prescription drugs' statistic. It could well be that some (maybe ,many) were in terminal stages of an illness and their doctor was prescribing drugs that might help, or might not. I 'd take prescription drugs any day v.s. 'positive thinking', homeopathic remedies, or a diet prescribed by some some 7th century Bhuddist monk. Before a pharmaceutical company can begin selling a prescription drug, it must pass a rigorous panel of tests. That's not the case for remedies built on folklore and blind faith.
6:01 pm
People no longer believe in God. Why? They believe the father of all lies, Satan.
6:02 pm
Another case of junk science making the news
11:17 pm
“No one in this world, so far as I know — and I have searched the records for years, and employed agents to help me — has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.” – H. L. Mencken (1880-1956)
This was commonly misquoted as: "No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public," and incorrectly attributed to P.T. Barnum.
The point is that people may not be getting stupider; they were stupid all along. Numerous tests have observed that as many as 50% of those tested are of below average intelligence. No matter. Refugees from the halls of higher learning have often found other far more effective ways to succeed.
1) Marry the boss's daughter.
2) Be of magnificent appearance, particularly in the beauty, physique, height, and wardrobe departments.
3) Win the lottery, or more probably, rob banks or armored cars.
4) Inherit a fortune, or in the case of the young and lovely, disinherit someone else of his or her inheritance.
5) Smuggle a boatload of cocaine, or during Prohibition, smuggle many boatloads of liquor.
6) Computer hack into corporate databases to redistribute the wealth and to get information for insider trading.
7) Invest in ethically challenged companies and stocks, such as: shell companies for money laundering; slave labor racketeers, such as garment distributors in South Asia, porno producers in Los Angeles, and electronic gadget peddlers in China; a gang of warlords in the Congo that sells blood diamonds and bootleg uranium, take your pick; a collective of international arms dealers in Bulgaria which buys atomic bomb triggers for clients in Asia and proximity sensors for IEDs in demand by jihadis from Morocco to Mindanao; and a lobbying firm which uses underhanded means to peddle influence from Washington to Warsaw and from Capetown to Reykjavik. You don't have to be intelligent to buy into crime syndicates, just devoid of integrity.
11:45 pm
People no longer know how to write monetary amounts. The correct way to write 79 cents is $.79, not .79 cents, or $.79 cents. They incorrectly use a decimal point with the cent symbol.
12:43 am
you should have posted 17 facts with the same headline just to make the point
2:50 am
Humans have been growing and eating genetically foods for thousands of years. Just take a look at the plant "corn" looked like before humans changed it to its present form which has also been changed over and over again. Ditto for wheat, cattle, sheep etc. So why hasn't the human race died out by now from all this genetically changed food?
11:16 am
#17. People read this stuff
7:40 am
Published by a right-wing conservative group that wants us to believe liberals are the enemy and causing the end of the world. Why is this being cited by any news organization?
9:55 am
I was involved with training of new fire service personnel for nearly two decades. I saw that the "No Child Left Behind" policy did exactly the reverse. I had applicants with four year degrees that were illiterate. I had personel who had no idea what common tools (pliers, screwdrivers etc.) were. Many could not drive standard transmission vehicles. Some asked to be given verbal tests as their supporters echoed that written tests were "biased". Giving everybody a passing grade insures that at some point we will accept breathing as a skill and give them a trophy for it. Bill Gates said that school may not have failures but life does and he was exactly right.. We had best tighten up very quickly and make our young more intelligent.
10:54 am
Although some of the items demonstrate a serious problem with the intelligence of our society, others show a lack of critical thinking on the part of the writer, who might also be part of the "stupid epidemic." For example, how would border agents address gang members ALREADY living in the U.S.? I agree that society lacks some of the common knowledge, evident of earlier generations; however, I believe many of these problems stem from poor parenting. Too many people allow video games and TV to raise their children, and most electronic media fail to deliver classic academic material. Although many people try to blame teachers, our educators work to improve the situation, but they can only accomplish so much when the influences outside of the classrooms seem to have much more influence on our youth.
12:02 pm
Such a poorly selected list of topics — without any consideration of relevance or impact. This article is proof that more stupid people than ever are publishing content on the Internet.
3:41 pm
11 There are 1.4 million gang members living inside the United States today and illegal immigration is totally out of control. –Linking gang members to illegal immigration is an improper way to link topics that are not correlated. I guess the author of the article is getting "stupider" as well. Just like illegal immigrants may be gang members, there are plenty of native born citizens of different ethnicities that make up gangs. Could the KKK not be classified as a gang as well? I hope this nut didn't get paid to write this.
11:33 am
you're stupid for writng this stupid article. i'm even dumber for reading it.
12:00 pm
#16 means people are getting smarter.
12:12 pm
It's an indication that people are getting stupider when dumb, cranky guys like this can earn a living writing claptrap.
3:44 pm
Totally RIGHT ON!
2:00 pm
Most of these examples should be attributed to corruption, greed and laziness, not stupidity.
3:11 pm
look at all the Stupid people that voted in this MORON we have for Prez…need i say more…
3:39 pm
The fact that you seriously equate #6 with the other items in this list is a sign of supidity.
4:06 pm
#6 huh? does this really mean anything??? (other than author doesn't like Prez)
#11 Barack Obama's government has deported more illegal immigrants than any previous president and the illegal immigration population is at it's lowest levels in at least a decade.
#13 Flexible Spending Accounts stopped covering over-the-counter drugs. The recommendation to all FSA users, request a prescription for OTC meds (ibuprofen, acetaminophen, ephedrine, etc.). Thus an increase in "prescription meds."
2:48 am
Many of the comments here support the "Americans are getting stupider" theory.
7:03 am
# 16 is the true indicator of the collective stupidity of Americans.
2:50 pm
Stupider is not a word – idiot
3:05 pm
"Stupider" should read "More stupid"
Just FYI
3:20 pm
yeah, the fact that 45 percent of people would vote for Obama is definitely the scariest.
8:01 am
I believe that the writer is on solid ground in saying that cell phones are dangerous. My doctor is a great authority on environmental medicine, and he is strongly against cell phones.
8:13 am
# 1, they keep voting republican.
2:27 pm
#16 is outrageous. I cant believe that 45% of so called Americans would for for Obama again. This man is worse than Jimmy Carter. This man is destroying America, is destroying our military, increasing the national debt, making America weaker. This man has got to go, and new blood brought in to make America strong, vibrant, and proud again. Keep your Bibles close, and your guns and ammo close by as well. Obama will make those a thing of the past as well.
2:43 pm
The Celestine Prophecy was a work of FICTION. However, your reference certainly supports the premise of this article.
5:12 pm
Now that I've read this article I feel "stupider" but I'm pretty sure the author will always be the "stupidest".
4:40 pm
And I'm pretty sure you're right!
7:52 pm
An author who would use a SciFi story to refute a Nobel Laureate sounds pretty stupid himself.
3:39 pm
Okay, here goes.
2: Hard to find anything now a days that doesn’t cause cancer. So cells have been linked to cancer. Guess what? So has the sun, but I am still going to go out in it. And the sun has caused more cancer than the “link” from Cells.
3: Some crops have shown not to be so great, others have shown to be much better. lumping all together is like me saying “cars are bad, people die in them.”
5: 4 employees FOUR. Just because 4 employees screw up, doesn’t mean all TSA employees are doing the same thing. Should I talk about the police that have been caught taking bribes? And they still let the police on the streets?
9: CFL lights last longer, and use less electricity. That is why they are deemed better for the environment. Now they have areas where you can turn the old ones in.
10: find out what Ozone is. You may be shocked.
11: barring a few and I mean FEW exceptions. Latin gang members are primarily US born. Some may be the children of immigrants, but US born. Most illegal immigrants are wise enough to keep a low profile, meaning not being a part of street gangs. And not all gang members are Mexican, very racist statement to say the least. Oh, and by the way, the US has two borders, seems people like you are only interested in the illegal immigrants who are not white. Very telling.
13: Prescription drugs DO kill 200,000 Americans every year. Ever care to research how many they help, or even save?
14: Some people like bacon. Is that so wrong? I have a bag of Jalapeno jelly beans, and I like them.
15: After hurricane Katrina, China sent the US a large aircraft full of generators. After the 9/11 attacks, China offered help in the way of even offering to send people to help with recovery. It may just be a gesture, but kindness is kindness. When the richest guy in town, has a house fire, guess what? The Red Cross is still going to set up their van, serve coffee, and offer blankets, whether he needs it or not.
4:28 pm
Its humor, with a dose of Anti-Obama mixed in. I enjoyed it for the humor, not for its scientific accuracy..
4:54 pm
The woman in Florida left the scene, got her gun, fired into a wall and the bullet went through the wall and almost hit her daughter. No warning shot there! The credibility of the author of this article is shot. Even if he were to be telling the truth about something, he is going to have a hard time convincing anyone. He has apparently become more stupid, not stupider .
5:00 pm
Why would anyone put stock in an article with the word "stupider", instead of the grammatically correct "more stupid" in the title? You're a professional writer for crying out loud!
5:18 pm
#13: The Vanity Fair article you link to leads with this assertion, but it is not until late in the article it discusses where the number comes from. They write:
"In 2009, according to the Institute for Safe Medication Practices, 19,551 people died in the United States as a direct result of the prescription drugs they took. That’s just the reported number. It’s decidedly low, because it is estimated that only about 10 percent of such deaths are reported. Conservatively, then, the annual American death toll from prescription drugs considered “safe” can be put at around 200,000."
So, it isn't 200,000. It is about 20,000 and then they assert that someone (they don't even suggest who) thinks this is about 10% of the real number.
That is not evidence. That is conjecture.
Further, if 20,000 or 200,000 people die each year in the US from prescription drugs, that has to be measured against how many people each year have their lives saved or extended by prescription drugs. If the latter number is greater than the former number, and if one is careful to discuss medications with his doctor and other health resources, then one might well benefit from prescription medication.
To not think past the claptrap would be indication of one's stupidity.
5:19 pm
If Obama's done so many stupid things, why is it stupid that more people would vote for Romney?
5:48 pm
Actually proper English is "more stupid" not "stupider"!
6:28 pm
Obama has taken a bad economy and brought it to the verge of collapse…and 45% of the population will still vote for him. STUPID!
7:38 pm
this article[is dumb
7:38 pm
Education does not affect intelligence. (Intelligence affects education.)
Entertainment is not mindless. In fact, it's mentally far above and beyond the mindless labors of 1800s farmers/factory workers. By freeing up our time from mundane repetitive labor, we have allowed ourselves to participate in mentally sophisticated replacements.
Beyond that, for all people love to talk about how mindless our entertainment is, it's mostly composed of sports (a competitive system leading to a very sophisticated environment.) and the news (I should hope that politics is considered intellectually sophisticated.).
#1- First off, belief in apocalyptic scenarios has existed pretty much as long as our written record extends. It's a very human concern. Furthermore existential threats are real. Some don't even give any particular warning. It's perfectly plausible that the only reason humanity has survived this long is the anthropic principle. Sure, people like talking about the end of the world because it is fun/exciting/etc. but it's also a serious issue that deserves attention. Not taking our survival as a species for granted is not evidence of stupidity.
#2- The evidence that cell phones cause cancer is weak at best. Beyond that, cell phones are useful enough that activating them is a version of reasonable risk taking, not stupidity. Intelligence isn't just about maximizing lifespans.
#3- See #2 but replace cell phones with genetically modified crops, and cancer with environmental damage.
#4- Anecdotes are not evidence of overall trends. The TSA and other governing bodies around them may indeed be idiotic, but I can find periods wherein the government swung in an idiotic direction in every period of history, from Greece and Rome, to Grant and Carter. Sometimes, governments, or aspects of governments, just don't work as their creators envisioned.
#5- See #4
#6- How many Americans care about whether their president is a liar/exaggerator/etc.? The government is a system, and if it works, then it's getting its job done. Random nonsense is beside the point. Many Americans believe the government to be doing a good job right now, and looking at America's relative indices- it is. It may not being doing as good a job as it used to/could be, but it is doing a good job compared to its competition. Beyond that, the modern day is one pretty much free of warfare between major parties. That's actually, really good government. Even if a perfectly libertarian state that magically also gave every imaginable medicare/social security/welfare benefit could exist, if the system leads to obliteration by nukes, it would not be worth it.
#7- see #5
#8- see #7
7:39 pm
#9- Environmental damage is not just caused by direct environmental damage. The incandescent is being phased out because it wastes energy, leading to a plethora of issues. Beyond that, it's being phased out because it carries no benefits. We are willing to damage the environment in order to get something of greater value in return. It is precisely because we are intelligent that we eschew worthless obsolete technology, but do not abandon potentially useful technology.
#10- Strawman. The plan is not to block out the sun, merely to reduce its influence. Humans can only survive under a certain range of sun strength. Trends state that the sun is moving towards the higher ends of our ability to utilize it. Even if these trends don't pan out, the technologies developed to control sun strength could be valuable in the future anyway.
#11- People who do not live in America, or another comparatively civilized nation, are doomed to a worse life compared to what they could have had in America. Americans, having both the compassion to care for these people, and the luxury provided by our highly intelligent investing patterns, find that the best way to advance our objectives is to share some of our fortune with others. Doing so does certainly reduce the fortune of these altruistic people, but that's how altruism works. And no, psychopaths are not simply smart people, nor are altruists chumps. There are ramifications to both sides, and the truth is likely somewhere in the middle. If you wish to claim that modern day humans are becoming too altruistic, that's a different argument, but simply calling altruism idiotic is stupid.
#12- Criminals being stupid is nothing new. Nor is it surprising for a drug addict to act insane. Furthermore, anecdotes are not evidence for general change.
#13- Prescription drugs also save lives. Beyond that, they provide pain relief and other benefits that fit right into logical risk taking and valuing things beyond mere survival.
#14- Taste buds are unrelated to intelligence.
#15- America is willing to go into debt to help our neighbors. We are even willing to borrow our neighbor's money and then spend it for his benefit. This is because we are smart, and know how our neighbor's should be using their money, but are kind enough not to steal their money so that we can manage it. We are simply trying to achieve the same things we used to engage in through colonialism, in a kinder and gentler manner. Altruism is not stupidity.
#16- Isn't it cool that we've learned how to track statistics in almost real time? This record will be useful three hundred years ago when a computer program wants to look into early American politics.
I'm not sure if #16 even makes sense as a statement. It's a self inherent truth that these numbers prove we're stupid? The American electoral system is working, does work, and is not a sign of stupidity. Compared to bloodline descent paired with constant internal warfare, modern day politics is awe inspiring.
As far as I can tell, people have simply become too smart to be understood by those ancients who wish to retreat 100 years into the past.
7:54 pm
If we want a yardstick to determine if people are stupid, we just had a gold plated stick to use in solving this matter.
Look who we elected to the most powerful position on earth!
8:11 pm
People are dumbing down ! All you need to do to see it is look at Barracks approval rating ! No thinking person could possible approve of the job he is doing !
8:58 pm
#6 False At the very beginning of his book, Obama states that some characters in the book are composites. Who ever wrote this article is stupid.
2:02 am
After saying the private sector is doing fine, the Obama administration announced a plan to "Beef up" the private sector by spending money in the public sector. The Erudite press secretary explained that "money spent in the public sector will filter into the private sector." Dummies like me would have directly stimulated the private sector to stimulate the private sector.
7:30 am
LOL figures you censor the truth. The truth is that this article is a pathetic excuse for journalism… and you are no writer. nohope said it right, the author is even stupider than this list.
6:20 pm
The premise is proven by the Troll posts here.
People with nothing useful to contribute, posting personal opinion off topic, posting error and downright lies, particularly as to global warming and other opinion based (and NOT science based) hysteria, prove the point.
Its especially obvious when all they post is OPINION instead of something credible, like the environmental whacko citing that a 100 W incandescent bulb causes global warming.
There is no cause and effect there. If there is, notice the fool in the rain never posts any evidence of proof, just a hysterical politically biased OPINION.
The post by Matt above is evidence of this lack of intelligence.
2:22 pm
It's not the light bulbs themselves that are dangerous, you mouth-breather. It is the energy they use that the rule is trying to curb. That one cynical point (that I assume even stupid people know) puts the lie to the whole list.