People often ask how people could vote for him but when you listen to this exchange, you see how much he is like many if not most Americans. Let’s be honest, many (if not most) Americans are intellectually average lack advanced comprehension/ critical thinking skills. https://twitter.com/axios/status/1290497186489348096

I’ve been a people watcher my whole life and one thing I’ve always been amazed by is how basic people’s conversations are. How simple their minds are. How linear their thought processes. How they don’t understand the most basic things but are still very happy and comfortable

We get trapped in social media echo chambers and we seek out friends who are similar to us in beliefs, ideals, and intellect for the most part so it can throw us off and have us thinking Americans are smart

Hate to break it to you, but...

Not trying to be ableist at all but Americans are generally stupid as shit

It’s really, really bad and I’d be embarrassed if I felt any connection to Americanism but I don’t so

Like....painfully stupid

And a lot of folks get mad when they feel confronted by someone else’s superior intellect and it gets ugly. Some feel ashamed that they didn’t receive the education and skills training needed to be more than mediocre while others don’t even recognize they’re mediocre

And let’s be clear here

I don’t put this on Americans as individuals. A cursory glance at research re: our education quality in the last 50 years will tell you all you need to know, including the fact that most wont be able to do said research bc they’re not skilled enough

And that’s kinda the point, right?

Reduce the quality of education, make obtaining higher ed nearly impossible for the majority, redirect citizens to production jobs over thinking/ creating, and socially engineer a nation of laboring drones who make the ruling class richer

“The U.S. education system is mediocre compared to the rest of the world” https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/12/american-schools-vs-the-world-expensive-unequal-bad-at-math/281983/

“Recently released data from international math and science assessments indicate that U.S. students continue to rank around the middle of the pack, and behind many other advanced industrial nations.” https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/02/15/u-s-students-internationally-math-science/

https://hechingerreport.org/third-indication-u-s-educational-system-deteriorating/

People get touchy about this bc no one wants to actually admit they aren’t “smart” and don’t have many of the skills needed to be considered “smart” per various assessments. These convos go way left bc ppl are sensitive and take it personally which is...a product of all this

It takes certain critical thinking skills and intelligence to recognize and understand that these conversations about intelligence aren’t personal attacks

Anyway, when you listen to their banter, you get it (I hope)

So many arguments #onhere happen bc people are coming from very different intellectual positions and aren’t even comprehending questions the same, much less the responses.

I just saw it on a thread abt Black moms being breadwinners. I wanted to scream with frustration

Just reading how wrong people were with charts right in front of them!! The stats were right there!! They were citing them!! And getting them completely wrong

we do a shit job of teaching ppl how to analyze data and stats. That’s how we get 45 supporters w/fake stats

They make up anything and believe anything they read because they don’t know any better. They don’t know how to fact check or research. They don’t know that the president is lying bc they lack the intellectual curiosity and skills to look it up and learn more.

45 can say, “Covid deaths are declining!” and not provide any data to back it up outside of “Many reports say” and folks will accept it as truth bc it doesn’t even dawn on them to look into it. Doesn’t. Even. Come. To. Mind.

Folks will watch that and feel sympathy for 45 bc to them it looks like he is being attacked by an elitist and as “real Americans”, they feel slighted too. They feel attacked by ppl thinking they’re smarter than them telling them off

That’s the shame I mentioned earlier... sigh