Tuesday, May 23, 2023

The American Right To Be Stupid

What's going on in the United States is truly puzzling. Michael Enright writes:

In February, 2013, in one of his first public utterances as U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry told a group of Europeans that in America, people have the right to be stupid.

As his listeners choked on their canapés, he went on to explain. Sort of:

“Now I think that’s a virtue, I think that’s something worth fighting for. The important thing is to have tolerance, to say, you know, you can have a different point of view.”

Recently, it appears that Americans have become tragically tolerant of stupidity:

A recent analysis of IQ test scores indicates that the Intelligence Quotient test scores of Americans has dropped over a 13-year period.

For researchers, this is a troubling reversal of the so-called Flynn Effect, which suggests that IQ scores rose consistently during the 20th century and would continue to do so. However, this does not mean that Americans are stupid.

In a 2006 study of IQ and global inequality in 190 countries, the American levels pretty much averaged those in other industrialized countries.

In his important 1963 book Anti-Intellectualism in American Life, the noted historian Richard Hofstadter traces a suspicion of intelligence back to the founding of the republic by religious fundamentalists. The early settlers were uncomfortable with glorifying any virtue that wasn’t godly.

Hofstadter links the historic rise of religious and evangelical fundamentalism with anti-intellectual bias in all walks of American life, particularly pronounced in the politics of the country.

It appears that when religious fundamentalists rise to positions of power, stupidity becomes a pandemic.

Image: Psychology Today

10 comments:

lungta said...

OUCH
I am taking that to mean anything less than atheism is religious fundamentalism
On the other hand it is the cleverness and inventiveness of the naked ape that is steering us into the 6th great extinction.
It is really hard to judge
Our smartest smarts got us plastic, atomic bombs, global warming, ecological disaster and (fill in your pet peeve here)
It is better to be lucky than smart and lucky and ignorant will always be bliss.
OUCH

Owen Gray said...

I'm not opposed to religion, lungta. St Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, and Teilhard de Chardin had much to offer us. But the preachers who rail against masks and who insist that Donald Trump is God's chosen messenger suffer from mental constipation.

jrkrideau said...

If anyone has been following the recent saga of US education, they should not be terribly surprised that IQ scores are declining. The Flynn Effect assumes exposure to modern education/culture. Kids in seriously underfunded schools, taught by overworked, underpaid and often poorly trained teaghers, practising lock-downs and active shooter drills between intensive training sessions for useless mass testing probably are not getting the best education.

The recent rash of witch-hunts and book burnings probably does not help.

Hey WAIT A MINUTE! Are you suggesting that Donald Trump is God's chosen messenger?

Owen Gray said...

I'm not suggesting that, jrk. But there are some -- who are convinced they have God on speed dial -- who are.

Northern PoV said...

Based on the reaction from 'the usual suspects' (most of CDN punditry) to Johnson's report,
I'd say that our neighbours have no monopoly on stupid.

Owen Gray said...

As I've written before, PoV, the American Disease has crossed the border.

zoombats said...

"Are you suggesting that Donald Trump is God's chosen messenger"?
Donald Trump would be of that opinion

Owen Gray said...

Perhaps he thinks he IS God, zoombats.

jrkrideau said...

@ POV
Based on the reaction from 'the usual suspects' (most of CDN punditry) to Johnson's report,I'd say that our neighbours have no monopoly on stupid.

You have to remember that Johnson is basically saying that all those media reports were inaccurate or outright fantasy. He is hitting the pundits in their amour propre.

Also, Johnson has taken a real dislike to Polievre.

Owen Gray said...

He has reason to be contemptuous of Poilievre, jrk.