Through my time at reading other message boards, talking to people, seeing them on TV and any other interaction (passive or active) with people, I’ve noticed that the average person is genuinely an idiot. I’ve said, often in jest, that society is getting dumber as a whole.
I stumbled upon this website which traces IQ trends, minimally, and gives some explanation. Any thoughts?
Even if it is true, this isn’t the way to prove it. Assuming for a minute that IQ is an accurate reflection of intelligence, I think we’re talking about such a modest decline that you wouldn’t be able to notice anything.
If you read the lower part of the page, the web guy lists an ENORMOUS number of problems with the data. My emphasis in here:
Q: Lynn and Vanhanen only actually have IQ data for 81 countries and they’ve estimated the rest. How reliable are those estimates?
A: I don’t know. In most cases their estimates were made by averaging known IQs of adjacent countries with similar demographic mix. In the few cases of countries with ethnically diverse populations, they estimated IQ based on a weighted average of IQs of the country of origin of each group. They tested this process by using it to estimate IQ of several countries with known IQ and the results correspond well with the measured IQs of those countries. Still, one should bear in mind that 56% of the country IQ figures are estimated, and not based on any actual in-country measurement at all.
Q: And those 81 countries they have IQ data for–there seem to be an awful lot of fudge factors used in computing the numbers they cite in the tables. How trustworthy are they?
A: Fudge factors? Indeed. . . . More than 25 pages are devoted to explaining the “adjustments”, “corrections”, “calibrations”, and “weightings” which go into that table of 81 numbers. The state of the raw data is more or less hideous. There is no regular, standardised measurement of IQ in nations of the world. One is forced to use sporadic studies, published at widely spaced intervals, using a variety of tests with more or less cultural bias, on populations which may exhibit a variety of selection effects.
So basically, this is pretending to be MUCH further-reaching and more definitive than it actually is. Big time. And if I remember correctly, in America IQ tests are re-centered periodically - if they weren’t, the scores would keep getting higher and higher.
What you are thinking of is the
Flynn Effect - since IQ testing began, IQ has been rising at about 3 points a decade.
Only the portion that watches Fox News. 
Yes.
Huh? I don’t understand the question… 
Well, considering that there is ancient Greek and Roman literature that includes passages bemoaning the ignorance of the masses (no, I don’t have a cite handy), I think it’s pretty safe to say that people have always been pretty stupid. If you look at what we have left of ancient societies, human nature has remained pretty constant for the thousands of years for which we have written records. Technology has changed dramatically, but people haven’t.
Just remember, half of everybody is below average. 
/wonders how true that adage really is
Well I think… OOOOHHHHH, shiny!
[Pakled]
You think we are not smart.
We are smart.
[/Pakled]
No, we’re getting flat dumber.
I don’t think that people are really getting dumber, but the visibility of those who are dumb has been vastly increased. Used to be you only knew that a person was stupid if you knew them and their family didn’t keep them locked in the attic. Now you see stupid people on TV through news stories, talk shows and reality shows, you read their inane messages on message boards, you hear them on NPR and talk/sports/morning radio shows…Media in all formats has brought more of the world into our homes, and as you would expect, a lot of that world isn’t too bright. Even if only ten percent of humanity is made up of blithering idiots, that’s a lot of idiots to be exposed to that you wouldn’t have noticed in days gone by.
I would think humanity would be getting smarter, actually. Hundreds of years ago, only the priviledged got an education. Everyone else just worked on the farm. Today, with immediate access to the world via movies and internet, people can easily find knowledge, even if it is in factoid form. Like was mentioned, it seems the world is getting stupider because the media loves stupid people.
Really half of everbody is below the median.
99.?? % of people have above the average number of legs. (Since some people have less than tw0 legs but noone has more than two legs.)
I would add that most people then strove to be more genteel. Today, we are inundated with the message that it’s not only cool to be crass and rude, but necessary. I think a lot of people have stopped trying to improve themselves because it takes thought and energy and in our “me first” society there isn’t always an immediate gratification.
OK, now I know for sure that if something exists, there’s a webpage devoted to it.
You look for things that make you go?
We are strong! We look for things!
In all seriousness, the notion that people are getting dumber is absurd. Christ, just look around you; do people in their fifties seem like real geniuses as compared to people in their 20s? This is one of those things that cynics and standup comics have been saying for centuries, along with some of the other standbys:
None of these things are true, but some people always believe them.
MY pet theory is that humanity, over the past several hundred years, HAS been getting dumber due to…wait for it…the SCIENTIFIC METHOD!!! Previously, in order to survive, people had to rely on “wisdom” and, to a lesser degree, introspective philosophical inquiry in order to have a chance of answering life-affecting questions.
Even these answers were not always effective and what’s more they took much more brainpower and energy to perform, since you basically had to have enough intuition to automatically filter out the BS. You didn’t, you could die.
Now, we just use trial and error. And what’s more, our societies are so huge that we share these solutions with millions or billions of people. So even the stupid ones live on
