Discussion
I’m a big fan of Mike Judge, normally, but the concept that stupid people are out-breeding intelligent people and that this will lead to a planet of idiots is literally Eugenics 101
Edit: you’ll notice (if you haven’t been failed by your education 😊) that I made no mention of shadowy cabals, but that doesn’t magically invalidate my point any more than the fact that movie’s writer made some good cartoons back in the day
The 101 level of things is so basic that it can be used accidentally, as Mike Judge has explicitly confirmed was the case.
You’ll notice that the movie does not have any themes or morals any eugenics outside of using a basic and limited concept of it as the premise for the world.
Is a handmaids tale written by a misogynist?
No, because that’s a massively false equivalency.
The plot of Idiocracy explicitly accepts the eugenecist premise that ‘genetically stupid’ people breeding will result in a planet of idiots, whereas the Handmaid’s Tale merely demonstrates the result of misogynist policies being implemented by society.
I don’t remember genetics being mentioned in the movie. How do you know it isn’t about something like social inheritance?
It is literally the opening sequence. Well educated people focusing on their careers and having less children, whilst uneducated, unemployed people breed like rats. It’s not even subtle, it has infographics. Surprised you missed it. Love the film, have issues with the premise.
my brother in christ have you even watched the fucking movie? it doesn’t even try to pretend it’s not about the “wrong people” having too many kids, it has scenes explicitly dedicated to showing that. whether they intended it that way or not, that’s the movie that got made.
How do you know it isn’t about something like social inheritance, all knowing christian?
My point was more that I’m like 99.9999999% sure that wasn’t the intent. Not everything is a conspiracy.
The purpose of a thing is what it does
The purpose of a system is what it does. This is based on the observation that systems can be changed by those with the power if what it is doing is unsatisfactory to those with the power.
That doesn’t apply to all things. The purpose of my cat wasn’t to puke on my carpet. That was just something I unfortunately had to deal with.
How many people has Idiocracy convinced that eugenics is the way forward?
Propaganda doesn’t have to be convincing to be propaganda. When people are saying we live in Idiocracy, it’s not a very far leap to say that we need policies in place to direct the growth of the human population. That idea is eugenics.
I also doubt it was his intent, but “accidentally pro-eugenics” is still “pro-eugenics.”
It’s a funny movie that’s easy to draw comparisons to in terms of how brazenly stupid things have gotten, but it has always bothered me when people call it “prophetic,” as it implicitly accepts some deeply flawed aspects of its premise.
The term “propaganda” was used. That requires intent.
Hundreds of people participated in the production of that film. Maybe thousands. Because it’s a film. It takes a big social collective effort.
I would say that if you have a society that produces a feature length film whose basic premise is deeply eugenic and could plausibly be mistaken for intentionally-produced pro-eugenics propaganda, that you have a society deeply steeped in eugenics as a concept, maybe even moreso than one which would intentionally produce such a film as propaganda.
As someone else said: the purpose of the thing is to do what it does.
Again, I never mentioned any conspiracy. You’re reading things into my comment that aren’t there. His intent has no real bearing on the matter.
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Stupid people tend to make more babies. OTOH, we should be overrun à la The Marching Morons, yet IQs go up every generation (in the West, no idea about elsewhere). 🤷🏼♂️
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25131282/
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov