cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/16659287
First, you need to understand the factors that contribute to one person being low functioning and another high functioning.
Human health, development, and function are multifactorial: Genetics, epigenetics, microbiome, diet, environmental/industrial pollution, socioeconomic influences, etc.
I have a two-step proposal.
- The first step is to limit the impact of low-functioning individuals. https://www.highiqpro.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/IQ-Bell-Curve.png. Right now society is set up so that society is run by the wealthy and the low functioning majority. This results in these people voting for, and implementing policies that exacerbate the problems instead of fixing them.
- The second step is to take action to raise the level of functioning of the human population. This second part probably takes the most learning for the average person. Most people seem to have a very very poor understanding of human health, development, and function. But I tried to condense it into that one article.
My suggestion for tackling the first step is to implement a cognitive (IQ, EQ, etc.) test for city, state, and federal representatives.
Having an IQ test to vote seems problematic. Firstly because of how things like that were used in the past to disenfranchise certain populations. Secondly, the problem right now is that not enough people vote, and that results in the wealthy controlling the government and laws.
I think a better solution is (at minimum) a cognitive test for anyone running for a government position so that can be factored into people's assessment of them. But possibly that won't be enough and it will be necessary to set some minimum requirements for test results.
This way you don't give the option for dumb people to vote for other dumb people. They only get to choose between two intelligent ones.
Some smart people may be corrupt or sociopathic, so this test should be a full psychological evaluation.
I'm curious if it would be possible to get people like Ibram X. Kendi (who gives an interview here on antiracism, anticapitalism and the eugenicist origins of IQ and SAT tests) to agree on both implementation of this solution and an appropriate IQ/psych test for it. I would base my argument to people like him on this type of data [1][2].
My position is also based on polling data from Australia which showed that a political group that is in the vast minority in most countries is the most intelligent, and largest (percentage-wise) supporters of evidence-based policy and holders of evidence-based beliefs. This coincides with the IQ graph I linked earlier. A cognitive test requirement like this should boost the influence of that party and its supporters.
My suggestions for tackling the second step by making people smarter are in this document (which I haven't updated for years). It's doable via a variety of biological and societal interventions.
The problem again is that it's low-functioning people preventing us from implementing these fixes. Possibly if enough intelligent people understand and agree on these fixes and be vocal enough about implementing them we could get it done.
In my opinion, Fecal Microbiota Transplants (FMT) are one of the most promising aspects of this second step. One problem is the people who qualify to be stool donors appear to be extremely rare. You can read more about the current status of FMT in this blog. If you have the ability to influence or fund clinical trials, read this.
As is, with the health of the population rapidly declining, I feel like I'm living in Idiocracy, and surely collapse will be inevitable if nothing is changed.
All your ideas are gibberish, but this?
Like, you know (lol, you don't) that for about 1 in 1200 people, it's always been Idiocracy?
That is (always has been, always will be) the distribution for people to be 3 standard deviations of the mean.
For them, roughly 84% of the world population is at least two standard deviations below them. Adjust the numbers so they're the average, and those 84% would fit the requirements for an intellectual disability. And the rest of those 16% are still a lot less intelligent than you, just not below that threshold.
You know why the smartest don't run shit?
Because going through existential crisis before puberty tends to make someone a nihilist. You can't even imagine what it's like to be a literal child and being smarter than everyone you meet. Because while there are people smarter than you, smart people tend to not like people, because most people are annoyingly dumb.
They're not the ones you run into out in public.
A tiny slice of that 0.1% finds something to be passionate about and focuses on that, but most never get out of the rut of "none of this shit matters, literally none of it".
Because on a long enough timeline in the grand scheme of things, literally nothing that will or could ever happen on our tiny little planet will ever matter.
The few who would actually want to rule over everyone, would be terrible fucking leaders. Especially once it gets a generation in. Because it would be its already easy for someone that smart to think normal people aren't really the same. Formalize that into a system of government?
Can you really not see where that would lead?
Your idea is just so mind-blowing dumb, that I kind of went in a rant, and I know it's not going to do.
But this is just the most ignorant idea I've ever heard.
Like, why not just fucking prioritize public education instead of this fucking shit show you dreamt up?
For fucks sake, your own plan says you shouldn't get a say in anything, yet here you are, proposing plans.
Something that is obviously even worse than what we have now. For like soooooooo many reasons I just can't list them all.
They’re talking about the movie by Mike Judge. It’s a brilliant and upsettingly accurate prediction of our nation.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387808
Brought to you by Carl’s Jr.