InsufferableCynic
Well-Known Traveler
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The virgin "Americans are brainwashed by the evil corporations" vs the CHAD "Americans are just too stupid to think"You're confusing the average American with a pre-programmed bot, I mean cmon now no way this free flow of information they boast of in a nation PROUDLY backed by the Bill of Rights is so thoroughly compromised in terms of information literacy.....right??? My primary school textbooks told me to trust the news. TV anchorman told me I need to buy all of BlacRock's [brand X] because BlackRock's [brand Y] are fascists! lul
Seriously though, I tend to dismiss the idea that humans (or that a certain group of humans) are inherently stupid. Usually when given a complex tasks that actually means something to them, most humans are able to perform. It's very rare to see someone who's just too plain stupid to, say, operate an ATM or a Checkout, or to fill out the right forms needed to pay their taxes. When people are actively excited about something, they can mull over details for hours and make good decisions. I have seen people ditch iPhone for Android after actually sitting down and thinking about it and using reason to determine that the extra cost and lack of features wasn't worth it for the emotional satisfaction of owning a "premium" device. I have seen people who were "too stupid" to understand Algebra suddenly able to figure out those stupid Facebook "3 bananas = 6 apples" puzzles because they bothered to take the time to understand them.
I would say, the major contributor to human intellectual failing is laziness. People just don't care. They go with the flow because it's easier than thinking, and that generally results in extremely poor decision making. Worse, humans are hardwired to prioritise earlier decisions over later ones and so one lazy decision made early on can jeopardise an entire thought process later on, to the point where it can be very hard to actually reason out of a position because it's so ingrained.
I feel like Americans are particularly vulnerable to this because of the disposability of American culture. Everything is being constantly sold as being "a modern status symbol" first and foremost, which obviously is an unsustainable position, because in order to actually sell products, you naturally have to obsolete the old one to make way for the next "modern status symbol". People notice this in technology but it's a staple of American culture in general. In response to this, I feel the average American hasn't really learned to value products properly, and Americans generally have so much unfettered access to wealth that sub-par decision making hasn't been a major issue for them. When you have even a moderate amount of money, really awful, overpriced products aren't as painful as when you're much poorer. If you can only buy 1 phone to last 4 years, for instance, you're going to make sure it's a rock-solid, reliable, sturdy one, not a status symbol that will be obsolete within 1 year. This sort of forced decision making trains the mind and, in my opinion, makes for better decision making.
American consumerist culture and laziness are the reason why Americans are some of the dumbest people on the planet. I tend to find that Americans that buck the trend and think for themselves usually tend to be about as intelligent as most other people around the world. More interestingly, the Americans I do know who are reasonably intelligent usually weren't held back much by "America's crappy education system" and instead made it work for them, because more often than not, access to information is there, but is underutilised.
I don't actually think the American education system is as bas as everyone says it is. People are justifiably upset because it grades work terribly and disincentivises actual learning, but the access to resources and teaching for genuinely interested students seems to be generally fine, at least to the standard of most other developed nations, so I don't buy the more liberal "Americans are actually really smart but their education system is letting them down because of government cost-cutting and corporate greed, that's why they fail" argument either.
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