I have a friend who is a good person overall but really buys into the “real life is becoming Idiocracy” bit. I was frustrated, because I’m not the best real-time arguer so I don’t think I did a good job of expressing why the movie is disgusting trash.
I attempted to talk about how it blames people instead of systems, and how it’s an awful eugenics narrative. But we quickly got into a rabbit hole about whether intelligence can be passed on genetically or not and if that matters, and other dumb topics that went nowhere.
What’s a concise and offline-compatible way of explaining why Idiocracy is bad & decent people should find it gross?
You make a really good point about initial premise. I think you’re right - that’s the real disagreement, and I think it would be very difficult to convince someone that they’re not fundamentally “the last smart or sane one” in a sea of dangerous idiots. It starts from empathy, and I don’t know how to teach empathy. If teaching is even the right word.
Regarding your second paragraph, I agree, but I would add that it’s very much a product of their environment. When you’re surrounded by a a vast wasteland of inane garbage that encourages uncritical consumption, that’s a natural result. I believe very strongly that people CAN be better, when afforded the opportunity. Including in areas like critical thinking.
In particular I think stand-up comedians makes this worse, which feature heavily in this person’s life. Lines like “think about how dumb the average person is - then realize half of em are dumber than that” are funny, but also IMO make it easier to slip into this kind of framing.
