this post was submitted on 04 Jan 2026
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Showerthoughts
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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:
- Both “200” and “160” are 2 minutes in microwave math
- When you’re a kid, you don’t realize you’re also watching your mom and dad grow up.
- More dreams have been destroyed by alarm clocks than anything else
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Idiocracy is an entertaining fictional comedy, but any time someone tries to compare it to real life I want to smack them. IMO, the movie would've been improved if they'd chopped off the eugenicist intro and just said he'd been isekai'd into a world of idiots.
The movie portrays a world where everyone is stupid, no exceptions, but nearly all of them are well-meaning. President Comacho cares about doing the right thing, he just has no idea how to solve the problems the country is facing. But then when someone smarter comes along, Comacho at least understands that he can step aside and let Not Sure save the day.
The problems facing the real world come from people who are both intelligent and evil. Smart people at the top use propaganda to manipulate dumb people at the bottom. That's nothing like Idiocracy, not even close.
I've been making this argument every single time. What we're living through right now is a mean idiot in charge of the government with a relatively smart, evil fucker pulling his strings. Not a bunch of morons with a 1st grade reading level who are, at the very least, not doing blatantly evil things. The folks in Idiocracy are indeed idiots, but they're well-meaning idiots. These folks are just plain malicious assholes doing everything they've always wanted to do because they're just corrupted individuals.
I'd much rather live as I am (I was the "gifted kid" in school) in Idiocracy than where I do now. Idiocracy was actually merit based. These fuckers are cultish in everything they do.
Yeah I don’t think comparison between what we have right now and Idiocracy is fair. However, I can completely see where we are now as leading to idiocracy. Making education harder and harder to get, anti-science, anti-intellectualism, pseudoscience, too much power and wealth concentration, etc. I totally think it could happen.
Those things are actively being done by the 'smart' people who want to horde all the benefits of those things for themselves. The concept of lifting up the unwashed mashes via education is considered niave now. What people are doing is isolating themselves into geographic bubbles of extreme wealth and making rules to keep everyone else out who doesn't have a few million in the bank to afford the ticket.
I think the meaning is the less educated you are the more kids you make, the less you have to educate them etc. That does tend to happen, but we are not talking about inteligencd but just lack of education, so ignorance, and therr is a great antidote for ignorance, it's called Education
I agree with you I just think the movie missed that out.
Some people come from families where no one ever even finished high school, but they become doctors. If it was only about dna this would not happened
Yes, Idiocracy misses that education matters far more than genetics. And education is something that has steadily gotten better for each generation. We stand on the shoulders of giants with access to the combined knowledge of everyone that came before us.
Ypu vastly under estimate the number of flat earthers and spiritualists.
I think you vastly overestimate the education level of previous generations.
Tge quality has but not everyone has access to it. Most of our problems (in the world as a whole) could be solved by givis everyone access to good education and critical thinking
Because Mike Judge is terrified of poor people.
anyone who has any money whatsoever is terrified of poor people. including other poor people.
idiocracy is meant to portray the end-result of our society, the intelligent evil people eventually get outnumbered and overrun by the stupids. stupid people (people in general really) tend to be well meaning, when they're not fighting over limited resources. it takes dogma/propaganda to get people to want to go kill X group...
a society of stupids whose needs are largely serviced by a slowly failing nanny/bread+circus state would probably end up fairly benevolent
I wish we lived in idiocracy...sadly we are mid-downfall not end-stage downfall
There is no evidence that people are getting dumber
Actually people are getting smarter thanks to improvements in education and lifestyle