Recent polls suggest half the country could vote against their own interests in November. Self-sabotage is something to look away from: Christians defend debauchery. Poor people giving money to billionaires in a rotating Ponzi scheme. And pensioners who don't understand that a tax cut for the 1% threatens their rights.
As revealed in a new Time magazine interview, Trump is doing nothing for ordinary people, but everything for wealthy donors, and somehow that fact is calculated. Apparently not.
There will always be fools among us when we misquote the words of Jesus.
Our politics reflect cognitive decline
When President Trump celebrated his 2016 victory, his declaration, “I love uneducated people,” made headlines. Eight years later, it's not that half the country supports a violent coup attempt, it's that they truly believe the 2020 election was stolen, despite all evidence to the contrary. Thing.
America seems to be leaning toward “Idiocracy,” an unfunny and unfunny satire about Americans in 2500 A.D. who have lost the ability to think. In the movie, Americans elect an unintelligent professional wrestler, President Camacho, as president. Because he's loud and manipulative and they don't know any better. Trump's sequel writes itself.
That movie was interesting, but America's cognitive decline is quite serious. Americans' levels of logic, language, and reading comprehension are visibly declining. Last year, researchers from Northwestern University and the University of Oregon reported that while Americans' IQs have improved dramatically over the past century, their cognitive abilities showed a measurable decline from 2006 to 2018. Scores in three of the four broad areas of intelligence declined during this period. , Vocabulary, Visual/Mathematical Problem Solving.
May be caused by excessive use of personal electronic devices and social media
In 1850, children between the ages of 6 and 18 were crammed into smelly school rooms, unwashed, without air conditioning, without technology, and often without books, but they still learned Latin, Children emerged who were well-versed in French, humanities, and trigonometry.
Now, with whiteboards, laptops, separate rooms for each grade level, and historically unprecedented teacher-to-student ratios, student comprehension is decreasing rather than increasing. Last year, 13-year-old math and reading scores hit their lowest scores in decades, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a gap that can't be explained by recent gaps caused by COVID-19.
The explanation may lie in our increased dependence on smartphones, social media, and electronic devices that provide rapid and overstimulating stimulation, dulling the brain's ability to think critically and organically.
Observational studies of human learning show a direct link between children's exposure to fast-paced television during the first three years of life and later age-related attention deficits. Excessive sensory stimulation (ESS) during childhood has been shown to increase global cognitive and behavioral deficits. Even elevated levels of ADHD among older children and college students are correlated with the subjects' early exposure to excessive electronic media.
Overstimulation reduces your ability to think holistically
It seems logical that overstimulating the human brain with bright colors and noises would reduce our ability to think critically over time. Just as relying too much on crutches can atrophy the muscles in your legs, overexposure to electronic devices and addictive but thoughtless social media can atrophy the brain's learning centers.
Smartphones are not the only culprit. Recent studies have shown that high levels of noise, such as high-decibel music at home or in the car, or exposure to ubiquitous loud televisions, can also cause cognitive impairment and oxidative stress in the brain.
Education level influences US politics
America's growing political polarization may have more to do with education and cognitive levels than actual beliefs. By a wide margin, the most educated districts in the country elect Democrats, and the least educated districts elect Republicans.
According to Politico, Democrats control 77% of the most educated districts, while Republicans control 64% of the least educated districts. Rural poor people want Democrats to bring table results that benefit their lives, including jobs, infrastructure, broadband, health care, and industry regulation to keep trains from derailing and parts from planes flying off at 16,000 feet. I love Trump even though he is.
One of the most influential figures of the French Revolution, Maximilien Robespierre was known for his attacks on the monarchy and his advocacy of democratic reforms.
He famously wrote, “The secret of freedom lies in educating the people; the secret of oppression lies in keeping them ignorant.”
Even though Trump's inner circle widely views him as a fool, he has a conman's instincts for how to manipulate ignorance.
Sabrina Haake is a Chicago attorney and Gary resident. She writes her Substack newsletter, “The Haake Take.”
