Log In


Reset Password
Opinion Editorial Cartoons Op-Ed Editorials Letters to the Editor

Are we really getting what we deserve?

“The EPA polluted the Animas River, so obviously that arm of the government should be closed. Should we also shut down the Department of Education because people are getting stupider?”

That was a question posed to Action Line guy, Mike Smedley, and Smedley’s response, as usual, was articulate, intelligent, informative and entertaining. Mike’s response focused on the apparent paradox of falling standardized test scores alongside rising IQ test scores.

These disparities between standardized tests and IQ tests may be an indication that it’s not about intelligence, it’s about how we use or don’t use intelligence. The idea that intelligence is as much about behavior as it is about IQ is not new. (Google “What human beings do when they behave intelligently.”)

Are some Americans behaving more stupidly?

Current polls show that Donald Trump could be the next president of the United States of America, leading to the conclusion that the United States of America could be first entire nation to win a Darwin Award.

Honey, hold my beer, I want to try something. What? Partisan politics.

There is substantial evidence that what is causing the stupid behavior is what political scientists call “affective partisan polarization.” Yes, the more partisan, the more stupid, because when motivated reasoning trumps objective reasoning; when acceptance of partisan nonsense trumps questioning and critical thinking; and when logical fallacy trumps logical validity, there’s a big stupid problem.

Some signs that intelligence is being superseded by partisanship: the inability to listen to another point of view with understanding and empathy; believing that volume, not logic, wins arguments; the inability to consider alterative solutions; believing that Barack Obama is a foreign-born Muslim; believing climate change is a hoax perpetrated by anti-capitalists; and, most of all, believing that Donald Trump, Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, Hilary Clinton, et al., are the best we can do.

Oh, there is a partisan camp that would say that Clinton is more qualified than Trump, Carson and Cruz, but the same could be said of Bugs Bunny.

Kevin Devine

Durango



Reader Comments