While writing a post about the stupidity of the television show V, I was interrupted by a blinking light on my office phone. The question was posed via voice message, “Eman, are people getting stupider, or do the stupid people just have a louder voice?”
Interesting idea… Are people dumber? Is this the realization of the prophesy foretold by Mike Judge in the epic picture, Idocracy? Are the dumb people outpopulating* the smart folks? Are smart folks destined to obscurity like white tigers, heavy metal bands that don’t suck, football players with a clean criminal record, and David Hasselhoff’s career (new tell-all book notwithstanding)?
Or, as my distinguished friend proposed, do the stupid just have more opportunity for expression? In the past, before Al Gore invented the internet, you would have to go look for the stupid people. You would need to make a trip to the gas station, the mall, or a nearby college. Now with the interwebs, stupid is only a click away (c.f. www.failblog.org; www.peopleofwalmart.com; www.foxnews.com; www.tednugent.com/hunting/ ).
You can see stupidity on the TV nightly (Sunday – Family Guy; Monday – Dancing with the Stars; Tuesday – V, NCIS, So You Think You Can Dance, Biggest Loser; Wednesday – Cougar Town; Thursday – Grey’s Anatomy; Friday – Supernanny; Saturday – hmmm, maybe you should get out of the house…) if you just turn it on. Some nights are worse than others (Tuesday), some nights are better. All in all, there are a lot of opportunities for people to showcase stupidity – I didn’t even list all the reality shows that are available, just the ones I find particularly offensively stupid.
I obviously can’t answer this question. I have a blog, that makes me one of the stupid ones. I can only hope for a cold Pabst Blue Ribbon and V on the DVR, because that was the dumbest shit I have seen in a long time. No offense to Elizabeth Mitchell when she reads this… I leave this question for you to ponder: Are we getting stupider as a people, or are stupid people becoming more prominent? Either way, TV and the Internet are suffering, and so are we.
As for you Scott Wolf, you are no Matthew Fox.
*Outpopulate, verb
– To supply with more inhabitants than a competing group; to people an area faster than others.
emanneercs