To think people are getting noticeably stupider

[CurdinHenry]

At every level of capability it just feels like the species is in decline

Chimpanzees, marmosets, capuchins, elephants, vampires and other bats, orcas, probably more. Altruistic behaviour is widespread in nature.

I love a thread populated by MN brainboxes discussing how [INSERT INSULT] everyone else but themselves is.

Laughable

Wild dogs

Saw loads of this at Butlins in Skegness last week. A girl no older than 2yo with a pink ipad in front of her whilst eating her food at the table. It looked like her norm. She didn't whine or make a sound or make any eye contact with either parent or her older sibling. She was lost in ipad world. Sad.

In the interests of balance - this morning I saw a man pushing his baby along and singing to him so it’s not everyone!!

You are wrong. At least partly. I was watching a documentary about chimpanzees the other day and although they do show some altruistic behaviour such as some basic first aid, they leave the sick and elderly behind and although they will visit them they don't share food. You you read more about it here.

"In most human societies, care of the infirm and elderly is part of the social system. While some cultures may allow the infirm and elderly to die for the greater good of the group, most cultures see caring for those weaker members as not only necessary, but meritorious. In contrast, great apes do not provide much care to the elderly or infirm. Generally, when apes are too weak to keep up and stay with the group, they end up being left behind to fend for themselves, usually resulting in their death. Apes depend on constant movement for foraging of dispersed food resources. Chimpanzee group members have been observed returning to visit with injured/sick group members (documenting the existence of concern for others), but transfer of food to the infirm has not been observed or documented."

https://carta.anthropogeny.org/moca/topics/care-infirm-and-elderly

My friends mother was a midwife 40s, 50s, 60s. If a baby was born with clear abnormalities to a mother who already had a very large family, all living in poverty. That baby never took a breath.

Which is why it took longer to identify thalidomide.

@CurdinHenry You're not wrong, it's as if people are incapable of being able to think for themselves and 'engage AI' instead of 'engage brain'.

So true. My mum's midwife friend offloaded in our kitchen. People don't realise, perhaps because most deliveries have been in hospitals since the '70s. They think more children are being born with abnormalities; the real difference is that more are being saved.

What can be done about all the stupid people?

Ah ha ha ha ha ha

Ha ha yes, I’m guilty of saying my ears stopped working after 1990 during music quizzes!

I don’t mind that. Keeps the child occupied instead of running up and down screaming. Attending dinner with adults can be very boring for kids.

Noting that you mention 6 years ago in your post - so you think that lockdown has had an impact on this particular cohort ?

How are these kids going to find jobs in a few years time if they are so far behind their expected level? Are they destined to become yet more NEETs?

You need to actually report posts to bring them to the attention of MNHQ, they don’t just read through threads to see if anyone’s mentioned them.

Various posters have mentioned how they’ve noticed their own attention span etc dwindling.

I think you need to clarify ‘stupid’. DS2 has genius level IQ and a MEng student. But doesn’t sense check information and his ‘common sense’ is lacking because he does not critically evaluate overwheming information in the social realm.

He does not have a memory of social and political events so is easily confused by claims that x event deaths are the equivalent to y event deaths and so reaches the incorrect conclusion of how many people died in y event. I have to remind him to Google how many people actually died in y event.

I would say that young people, and most older people for that matter, are ignorant of ideology. And ignorant of the way that ideology intersects with inequality, power and control in maintenance of the status quo or increased inequality, power and control.

Obviously ‘conscience raising’ of the oppressed in home grown movements has been suppressed and we see the consequences both materially and in terms of culturally divisive wars.

What will happen next? More inequality? More division? The rise of the right wing? Same old scapegoats. If only we learnt from history.

The problem is that there are too many safety nets and not enough consequences for stupid and thoughtless behaviour. Everything is dumbed down in order to be understandable and/or "accessible" instead of making people have to think about it a bit.

Unfortunately even kids with brilliant exam results could end up being NEETs (after their studies) if the job market is anything to go by 😨

Fancier, tastier, cosier, spicier... Okay then.

Where exactly did I say that it was ‘good’ in the old days? I didn’t say that it was good or bad, I simply made the point that these people were likely less visible than they are today. There have been uneducated people since the dawn of time, but in past, they weren’t interacting with educated people in the way that they are today.

Tbh, I much of this is simply an artefact of people having more money, and more time on their hands. For previous generations, most of your time was taken up by survival.

You're not wrong. The below is a study re the decline in IQ in America, but I suspect we'd be similar.

https://worldhealth.net/news/american-iq-scores-drop-in-4-of-5-measures/

and when I suggested upthread that "happier" was a word someone stated with huge unfounded confidence that "happy" was a one syllable word and thereby proved the OP's assertion!