Idiocracy Tried to Warn You
It wasn't supposed be a documentary...
The movie "Idiocracy"(2007) literally became true.
"Idiocracy" is a brutally honest comedy from Mike Judge that highlights how we're dumbing ourselves down by reading less, indulging in shit food, becoming enslaved to entertainment, and college-educated people have fewer kids.
It wasn't supposed to be a documentary... but here we are.
The funniest thing about "Idiocracy" is it is set in 2500, yet it didn't take 500 years to regress this slowly —it took only a few years… or the time it takes to watch “Oppenheimer.”
Idiocracy is a utopia compared to what is coming.
'Your Shit’s All Retarded'
In the future, the English language deteriorates into a hybrid of hillbilly, valley girl, inner-city slang, and various grunts. It's kind of like a Migos song or an episode of "Jersey Shore" on steroids.
And when our main character, played by Luke Wilson, tries to talk to people they think he's being pompous and highfalutin. A doctor played by Justin Long tells him his "shit is all retarded" and laughs at him.
The culture has become a cesspool of depravity in the future as well.
The number one movie in the country is called "Ass" and a popular show on the "violence channel" is something called "Ow! My Balls." Ask yourself: Is there any reason to be this cynical about the future?
Maybe. IQ rates have been dropping since 1995; simple reaction time, which is considered to be an essential factor that directly affects our general intelligence, has slowed significantly since 1889, and smart people have fewer kids or no kids at all.
Underpopulation
Idiocracy will only be a reality if high IQs refuse to bree- oh wait!
Research published by London School of Economics political scientist Satoshi Kanazawa in 2014 shows that a one-standard-deviation increase in childhood general intelligence (15 IQ points) decreases women's odds of parenthood by 21–25%.
And now several countries are facing a "de-population bomb" including Japan, China, Russia and the United States of America.
"Idiocracy's" intro is the strongest part of conveying Mike Judge's message: smart people have fewer kids due to financial burdens, careerism, "the world is too evil to bring a kid into it"- isms, or simply forgoing it, and this is creating a gap in the gene pool.
Costco
Welcome to Costco. I love you.
Costco is the size of a military base in "Idiocracy," and you can get a law degree in 8 minutes. Starbucks is also now a place where you can get a blowjob and a gatorade-like company called "Brawndo" owns the FDA, convincing everyone that electrolytes are better than water — even for watering crops.
Mike Judge is a goddamn comedic genius.
Will any of that ever happen? No. Maybe. But big companies already strongarm the FDA into forcing us to eat garbage and drink poison, so who knows?
Terry Crews is President
Ha! The movie got something wrong.
Donald Trump's 2016 presidential run is, in all honesty, crazier than Terry Crews' character, President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho, in "Idiocracy.” And that's saying something.
In a recent sit-down with Fox News, Trump shockingly acknowledged— perhaps for the first time in my ears at least—the bizarre and cerebral reality of his presidency:
"I was there 17 times in Washington DC my whole life, I never stayed overnight ever and then all of sudden I'm president of the United States... I'm riding down Pennsylvania Avenue with our First Lady, I have 250 motorcycles, armies, everything — I say 'Can you believe it, we're president? This is wild, right?"
The bottom line is truth is stranger than fiction.
Is Idiocracy Our Future?
Ohh my sweet summer child, we are already there in some places; look at Venezuela. They print money to fix everything and don’t realize that that causes inflation and more scarcity.
Over in China, they had a one-child policy they had to revoke because it was (and is) sending their population into a downward spiral.
And the United States is losing its grip on hegemonic power while our population argues about the political significance of the "Barbie" movie. (my review is coming this week, by the way...)
Either way, "Idiocracy" is a really fantastic movie that holds up.
I don't think it would be made today because everyone is so easily offended so give it a watch!
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Brilliant Isaiah! I must admit, I've recommended this movie to everyone. Sad and hilarious. My thoughts are that an Idiocratic-leaning society like ours is a wet dream for the neoliberals, who would prefer a country with most of the populace unhealthy, severely cognitively impaired, broke, divided and armed to the teeth. Works extremely well for their clan! Keep up the amazing writing.
Yeah! Great flick! Re-watched it recently and (besides laughing my ass off) was creeped out by how much of the material, that was presented for laughs at the time it was made, have already seeped their way into society. Thanks for this piece!