“One potential explanation was quasi-eugenic. As in the movie “Idiocracy,” it was suggested that average intelligence is being pulled down because lower-IQ families are having more children (”dysgenic fertility” is the technical term). Alternatively, widening immigration might be bringing less-intelligent newcomers to societies with otherwise higher IQs.
However, a 2018 study of Norway has punctured these theories by showing that IQs are dropping not just across societies but within families. In other words, the issue is not that educated Norwegians are increasingly outnumbered by lower-IQ immigrants or the children of less-educated citizens. Even children born to high-IQ parents are slipping down the IQ ladder.”
The idiocracy theory was just Mike Judge poking fun with (he is good at that) a phenomenon that is somewhat obvious to those who observe but not so easily explained.
Personally, I would refine it a bit. I used the word darwinism in the colloquial sense, but that’s what modern civilization is eliminating. Yes, I suppose you could argue that with big cities and zooming automobiles, we have our own pitfalls, but sheltered and coddled modern people have no clue what having a bad day used to really mean to human beings.
“Even children born to high-IQ parents are slipping down the IQ ladder.”
That’s gonna be a tough argument to sell to my kids. They’d be more amenable to the immigration/welfare argument.
” Even children born to high-IQ parents are slipping down the IQ ladder.”
Some of that is simple reversion to the mean.
And some of that is cross-breeding with morons.
“Even children born to high-IQ parents are slipping down the IQ ladder.”
That may just be regression to the mean, not indicative of a downtrend.
I think it might be daycare. Infants and toddlers parked in daycares do not get the hours of parental tutoring that the children of SAHM’s do.
I don’t care how good the quality of care is, spending all the best waking hours in the care of strangers instead of a parent is making kids dumber and public school instruction completes the abject stultification of our youth
In that case, it's because of inferior food, GMOs, and families that don't have a decent dinner together, but pick up nutrition-free things like pizza. Advertising contributes enormously by extolling the virtues of disgusting things like fruit-loops.
I was forced to eat boxed dry cereal during a 10-day power outage, when that's all that was left on the drugstore shelf. OMG, it's 60 - 80% sugar.