Raven's View

Is this really a shift of the normal distribution bell curve for intelligence? Have we evolved this quickly to having less innate ability to think critically about an issue, or is it just a question of less need for it? At one time, having more of the common sense most people shared in, more curiosity, and some plain old thinking about issues, all could give you a competitive advantage. Now it seems that having them is no longer as necessary, and is not really an advantage for natural selection. You’ll coast through just fine, as there’s no shortage of politicians, corporations, influencers, and assorted charlatans that are ready to welcome you into the fold, manage your life for you, discourage your annoying questions, and sort through and simplify all those complicated sciency things the elites are always going on about.

It’s easy for people to see it as a badge of honour to not be edumacated, to not be an egg-head, to not be one of the elite, to be just plain folk and rely on what they call common sense. However, now when people say they trust common sense, they usually mean common to them, to their own interpretation of reality, based more on their beliefs than on any facts. There are certainly a number of complicated problems facing us now in the world, and we do have experts that can explain them to us. However, people have been told to not trust them, as either these experts have hidden agendas or they are just plain wrong. Unfortunately, if a scientist changes their conclusions on an issue, based on the analysis of new data, that’s cited as proof that they must be unreliable. So instead, people find some #AlternateFacts and do their own research, or just listen to Jared Kushner for a solution to the complexities of Middle East politics, or Jenny McCarthy on vaccines, or Gwyneth Paltro on pretty well anything.

I think the distribution of intelligence/common sense still plots to a normal distribution, but it appears to be split more than it was a few decades ago, with a bump out there on each of the extremes. Politics is either hard right or left, science is either all real or all lies, you’re either with us or with the enemy. But in reality, it just appears to be like that, we haven’t really changed that much, we just notice and encourage the edges more. It used to be that we all had a mix of various views and beliefs, spread somewhat across the spectrum, largely based on those of our parents and neighbours and friends in the community, plus whatever bias was in the local media we all followed. Some of these we all shared, some we agreed to disagree on, and the more extreme beliefs stayed as is, spreading only slowly.

Then the Interwebs happened. Newsletters, forums, and blogs - oh my! People were no longer alone with their extreme views, they found other people to support them, to influence or be influenced, they found ‘their people’. Friends changed from a face-to-face acquaintance you could trust, with pluses and minuses you both lived with, to a link facilitated by social media to someone that was just like you. And of course, the more we focused in our silo on ‘us’, the more differences we could find with ‘them’, differences that were suddenly too extreme to resolve.

It’s a myth that all we have to do is show our adversaries the facts, and they will readily change their minds. We all prefer to stay in our comfortable position rather than admit to any errors and explore the unknown. We can choose to use confirmation bias to ignore those pesky conflicting facts and instead find those elusive few that support our belief, even if it means clicking through a dozen pages on Google. There’s also a tendency for people to slide farther to the right, from their middle-of-the-road mixed bag of ideas and opinions to a conservative, closed-in, less logical land, where they can be vocal about their shared status as victims being deprived of fundamental rights and freedoms. Meaning personal rights they feel they are entitled to, and a set of selective freedoms from any mandates and rules they don’t like. Check out the endless series of Sovereign Citizen videos on YouTube. Yes, there are extremes on the left too, but they seem quieter, less newsworthy, generating fewer clicks in the media. Those left fringes are supposedly the exclusive venue of anarchists and insurgents, but I think Trump has shown us his right-wing supporters are flexible enough to look after that too, all in the name of patriotism.

COVID didn’t really help this split. We had forced isolation, along with the associated remote learning and working from home, so there was more of a tendency to stay in our silos and not socialize outside our tribe. We learned how rigid some friends were in their beliefs, and dropped them. When we did get out, it was still with some distancing, and behind a mask. Now our governments have assured us the risks of COVID have diminished, for various economic and political reasons. However, I still see a reluctance in people to get close to each other - aside from the renewed interest in cramming shoulder to shoulder at a concert or sports event.

But ‘dumbing down’ has been going on for decades, since screenplay writers in the 1930s used it as a guideline. Wiki refers to it as ‘the deliberate oversimplification of intellectual content in education, literature, cinema, news, video games, and culture’. Public school standards seek a simplified lowest common denominator, and the exceptional child - gifted or struggling - falls by the wayside. Trades are viewed as a consolation prize, with a degree still the better goal, especially for anxious parents. But many see that golden ticket to success, only to discover that a collection of credits is not necessarily useful in the job market. Especially without developing the ability to think critically, to teach oneself, and to adapt as the world changes. We see a change in politics too, with mudslinging and bumper sticker quotes taking the place of real policies and debates. As for entertainment, TV and theatres have no shortage of silly sitcoms, ‘reality’ shows, and Hallmark movies, as a cost-effective way to distract, entertain, and monetize us. Ditto for social media.

I’m feeling like a grumpy old guy muttering from the balcony of a Muppet show, but I really don’t like the direction all this is taking us.

Yes, critical thinking can be more work, double-checking the facts, moving out of your cozy comfort zone and considering other viewpoints, but it’s worth it. And not everything is dumbed down, there are gems out there, some excellent exceptions. There are entertaining yet challenging British crime shows and European movies. I see a resurgence of interesting podcasts on subjects such as physics, politics, astronomy, or medicine. There are still many dependable reliable websites and news sources, with coverage based on facts. Investigative journalists still exist in the media, or on alternate tools like SubStack. And social interactions with substance are still possible - join a club, check out Meetup, and cultivate some real friends.

I can hope things will change for the better, but I don’t know yet what our motivation might be.