# Approving comparisons to Idiocracy: how many actually believe in eugenics?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/approving-comparisons-to-idiocracy-how-many-actually-believe-in-eugenics/640818
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [November 12, 2012, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/approving-comparisons-to-idiocracy-how-many-actually-believe-in-eugenics/640818 "2012-11-12T20:17:31Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2012, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/approving-comparisons-to-idiocracy-how-many-actually-believe-in-eugenics/640818/1 "2012-11-12T20:17:31Z")
Because it seems that the basic premise of the plot is one big love letter to it, creator denials notwithstanding.
Do those who approvingly cite the movie in comparison to real world trends and events _really_ believe in eugenics (majority, I mean)? Do they not realize the implications? Or am I (and, to be fair, others) simply incorrect about what you can take out of the movie (again, disregarding creator intent, at least in this case, since this is about viewers “taking lessons” from the film and directly applying them to real life)?
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### Author:  [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2012, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/approving-comparisons-to-idiocracy-how-many-actually-believe-in-eugenics/640818/2 "2012-11-12T20:20:58Z")
I don’t know who does or does like the movie. I don’t know why they do or don’t like it. What I do know is that it’s blatantly wrong about one prediction. In so far as it’s possible to measure intelligence, it’s increasing on average in most of the world:
> **[Flynn effect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect)**
>
> The Flynn effect is the substantial and long-sustained increase in both fluid and crystallized intelligence test scores that were measured in many parts of the world over the 20th century. When intelligence quotient (IQ) tests are initially standardized using a sample of test-takers, by convention the average of the test results is set to 100 and their standard deviation is set to 15 or 16 IQ points. When IQ tests are revised, they are again standardized using a new sample of test-takers, Test ...
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### Author:  [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2012, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/approving-comparisons-to-idiocracy-how-many-actually-believe-in-eugenics/640818/3 "2012-11-12T20:40:50Z")
I don’t see how Idiocracy is an argument for eugenics. I always viewed it as being much more about culture than being about genetics.
Also, it’s satire.
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### Author:  [@miss\_elizabeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/miss_elizabeth)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2012, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/approving-comparisons-to-idiocracy-how-many-actually-believe-in-eugenics/640818/4 "2012-11-12T21:12:31Z")
It’s satire.
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### Author:  [@Acid\_Lamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acid_Lamp)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2012, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/approving-comparisons-to-idiocracy-how-many-actually-believe-in-eugenics/640818/5 "2012-11-12T21:23:15Z")
It’s Satire.
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### Author:  [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2012, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/approving-comparisons-to-idiocracy-how-many-actually-believe-in-eugenics/640818/6 "2012-11-12T21:24:22Z")
Isn’t it satire?
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### Author:  [@fumster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fumster)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2012, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/approving-comparisons-to-idiocracy-how-many-actually-believe-in-eugenics/640818/7 "2012-11-12T21:33:18Z")
The problem with eugenics is not that it can’t work, it’s that its morally reprehensible. If for several generations we killed off everyone who didn’t have red hair then we would see a change in the gene pool.
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### Author:  [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2012, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/approving-comparisons-to-idiocracy-how-many-actually-believe-in-eugenics/640818/8 "2012-11-12T21:39:47Z")
Right. See, it could be used for _good_.
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2012, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/approving-comparisons-to-idiocracy-how-many-actually-believe-in-eugenics/640818/9 "2012-11-12T21:40:17Z")
FWIW, _Idiocracy_’s premise is not original to that movie. It had appeared before, notably in Cyril M. Kornbluth’s “[The Marching Morons](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Marching_Morons).”
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2012, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/approving-comparisons-to-idiocracy-how-many-actually-believe-in-eugenics/640818/10 "2012-11-13T00:08:19Z")
You seem to be under the impression that _Idiocracy_ is about the future. It’s not. Like most science fiction, it’s _set_ in the future, but it’s _about_ the present.
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### Author:  [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2012, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/approving-comparisons-to-idiocracy-how-many-actually-believe-in-eugenics/640818/11 "2012-11-13T00:17:35Z")
I don’t mind the movie (though I don’t like it).
I do mind the people who seem to think it was a documentary sent back from the future. Who do seem to think that uneducated people getting married are going to produce an even more uneducated child through the magic of genetics.
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### Author:  [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2012, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/approving-comparisons-to-idiocracy-how-many-actually-believe-in-eugenics/640818/12 "2012-11-13T00:32:54Z")
I like sex.
> [@fumster](#):
>
> The problem with eugenics is not that it can’t work, it’s that its morally reprehensible. If for several generations we killed off everyone who didn’t have red hair then we would see a change in the gene pool.
Eugenics gets a stain with Hitler and such, but many eugenicists had wanted certain people to breed and make “superior” children, without putting people into camps or killing or sterilizing them. People can even do eugenics privately. At that point, it’s not morally reprehensible at all. But maybe probably a bit creepy. It may be because of _Bioshock_ influence, but I feel that libertarians/Objectivists would get their kicks from that shit.
> [@obfusciatrist](#):
>
> I don’t mind the movie (though I don’t like it).
>
> I do mind the people who seem to think it was a documentary sent back from the future. Who do seem to think that uneducated people getting married are going to produce an even more uneducated child through the magic of genetics.
It’s one of my favorite comedies. But I too hate when people say it’s almost a documentary, or that “it could happen.” That said, intelligence is highly heritable. Education is not, at least directly, of course.
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### Author:  [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2012, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/approving-comparisons-to-idiocracy-how-many-actually-believe-in-eugenics/640818/13 "2012-11-13T00:38:27Z")
Shit. I know shit’s bad right now, with all that starving bullshit, and the dust storms, and we are running out of french fries and burrito coverings. But I got a solution.
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### Author:  [@appleciders](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/appleciders)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2012, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/approving-comparisons-to-idiocracy-how-many-actually-believe-in-eugenics/640818/14 "2012-11-13T00:46:30Z")
> [@obfusciatrist](#):
>
> I don’t mind the movie (though I don’t like it).
>
> I do mind the people who seem to think it was a documentary sent back from the future. Who do seem to think that uneducated people getting married are going to produce an even more uneducated child through the magic of genetics.
Is that not how (Lamarckian) genetics works? 😉
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2012, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/approving-comparisons-to-idiocracy-how-many-actually-believe-in-eugenics/640818/15 "2012-11-13T06:14:43Z")
> [@](#):
>
> People can even do eugenics privately. At that point, it’s not morally reprehensible at all. But maybe probably a bit creepy.
Doesn’t _everyone_ do that? I mean, what is being picky about a mate, but eugenics on a private, personal scale?
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### Author:  [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2012, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/approving-comparisons-to-idiocracy-how-many-actually-believe-in-eugenics/640818/16 "2012-11-13T11:28:50Z")
The qualities of potential offspring had close to zero impact on any relationship decision I’ve ever made.
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### Author:  [@lost4life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lost4life)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2012, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/approving-comparisons-to-idiocracy-how-many-actually-believe-in-eugenics/640818/17 "2012-11-13T14:16:26Z")
> [@Leaper](#):
>
> Because it seems that the basic premise of the plot is one big love letter to it, creator denials notwithstanding.
>
> Do those who approvingly cite the movie in comparison to real world trends and events _really_ believe in eugenics (majority, I mean)? Do they not realize the implications? Or am I (and, to be fair, others) simply incorrect about what you can take out of the movie (again, disregarding creator intent, at least in this case, since this is about viewers “taking lessons” from the film and directly applying them to real life)?
You talk like a fag, and your shit’s all retarded.
Come on, someone had to say it.
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### Author:  [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2012, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/approving-comparisons-to-idiocracy-how-many-actually-believe-in-eugenics/640818/18 "2012-11-13T15:15:38Z")
> [@lost4life](#):
>
> You talk like a fag, and your shit’s all retarded.
>
> Come on, someone had to say it.
I think everyone should say it once a day, including gays & the mentally challenged- no, ESPECIALLY them.
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### Author:  [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2012, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/approving-comparisons-to-idiocracy-how-many-actually-believe-in-eugenics/640818/19 "2012-11-13T17:27:31Z")
Idiocracy is about the terrifying present, not the terrifying future.
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### Author:  [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2012, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/approving-comparisons-to-idiocracy-how-many-actually-believe-in-eugenics/640818/20 "2012-11-13T20:18:25Z")
I believe in Idiocracy the way I believe in the Darwin Awards which is to say not at all but it’s fun to think about. With respect to the Darwin awards, it’s fun to think that people make the world better by being stupid and with respect to Idiocracy, I get to imagine I’m evolutionarily better than some hick.
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