Idiocracy: How America Is Forgetting How to Think

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When I was a kid, I never hesitated to raise my hand. If I knew the answer, I said it. I wasn’t afraid of being the “smart kid,” and I didn’t hide what I knew to make others comfortable. If I didn’t know the answer, I stayed quiet and listened. That confidence followed me into adulthood. Now I wonder if there’s still room for that kid in a country where America is forgetting how to think and everyone feels the need to speak—whether they know the answer or not.

Yesterday, I watched a video about celebrating stupidity. It didn’t just say we’re becoming less informed. It argued something worse—that ignorance is now celebrated and treated as a virtue. Speaking without facts has become normal. Disagreeing with experts is seen as bold. And asking questions is treated like an attack. I didn’t need the video to prove its point. I see it happening every day in American life—at the grocery store, in restaurants, online, and sometimes in my own conversations. It’s a pattern that makes me wonder if we’ve forgotten how to listen, how to learn, and most of all, how to think.

Table of Contents

• When Small Talk Turns Small-Minded
• The “Leave If You Don’t Like It” Response
• When Confidence Replaces Knowledge
• The Systems That Reward Ignorance
• America is Forgetting How to Think
• Coming Full Circle

When Small Talk Turns Small-Minded

I don’t talk to one worker at the commissary anymore. Our distance started with what I thought would be a simple, friendly exchange. I told her about an African American Read-In happening in Waterloo. She seemed genuinely interested in the event, nodding as I described it. Then, without warning, she shifted the conversation to how excited she was about school vouchers, privatization, and what she saw as Donald Trump’s plan to “make education local.”

I told her it already is local—schools are run by local boards and funded through local taxes. She looked at me like I’d just said something offensive. The warmth in her voice vanished, and the conversation ended. In that moment, I knew we weren’t just disagreeing about policy. We were living in completely different versions of reality.

The “Leave If You Don’t Like It” Response

The moment I realized how fragile public discourse had become was when someone told me, “If you don’t like where this country’s going, you should just leave.” This wasn’t a stranger—it was someone I knew. She didn’t ask me a question or offer a counterpoint. She cocked her head, said maybe, and walked away.

I go to the store every day. But now, I avoid saying anything but hello. It locks us in a room where the only acceptable opinion is the one already being spoken, further proving how America is forgetting how to think in any productive way.

When Confidence Replaces Knowledge

At a restaurant, I overheard a loud conversation about vaccines. Neither person had facts. Neither cited a source. Both spoke as if volume could replace evidence, throwing out half-remembered headlines and hearsay as if they were hard data.

What struck me most wasn’t just what they didn’t know—it was how certain they were about it. They leaned forward in their seats, nodded at each other, and spoke with the conviction of people who had done the work to understand the issue, when in reality, they hadn’t. It was another small, but telling, example of how America is forgetting how to think—confusing confidence for knowledge and performance for proof.

This is what passes for debate in too many spaces now. Winning isn’t about being correct; it’s about sounding certain, even when you’re not. And when certainty becomes more valuable than truth, it’s easy for misinformation to thrive. The louder the delivery, the more people believe it must be right.

The Systems That Reward Ignorance

The video traced this decline back to schools built for compliance, not curiosity. Then came cable news, reducing complex issues to soundbites. Reality TV made foolishness profitable. The internet made knowledge instant but disposable. And social media finished the job—rewarding outrage over accuracy.

But you don’t need media theory to see it. Sit in a diner for thirty minutes. You’ll hear talking points delivered like gospel and watch how quickly a question gets shut down if it challenges the comfort of certainty. That’s how America is forgetting how to think—by valuing comfort over truth.

America is Forgetting How to Think

I refuse to argue with people who can’t tell fact from opinion. Talking to someone who thinks they know more than the experts is a waste of time. People who reject science, insist guns don’t kill people, or believe they’re one decision away from becoming the next billionaire don’t get my energy—especially when this thinking is pushed from the top.

There aren’t two sides to every issue. Sometimes, one side is simply wrong.

The uneducated don’t interest me—not because I think I’m better, but because I’m tired of pretending ignorance is just another valid perspective.

Coming Full Circle

When I was a child, I raised my hand without hesitation. I believed answers mattered, truth mattered, and sharing what you knew was the right thing to do. Now, I still raise my hand—but I choose the moment carefully. The room is different. The stakes are higher. And too often, people aren’t listening.

But I refuse to stop. The day I sit on my hands just to blend in will be the day the death of intelligence becomes personal—and final. That’s when I’ll know I’ve become part of an America that has forgotten how to think, and it will no longer be a headline. It will be my reality.

 

 

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