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by jrs235 1638 days ago
I felt the underlying message was "Intelligent people, stop focusing on career and start having more kids (we really are in a race to the bottom)!"
4 comments

I think that was more of a minor plot point to move the story along rather than the real message. Judge just took a common theme, probably popularized in The Time Machine (The HG Wells book, not the ride in the film), to get us from point A to Point B quickly. After all, it was such a small part of the movie compared to how much time was spent focusing on lowest common denominator entertainment (ow my balls), commercialism (Brawndo), corporatism (Brawndo owning the USDA), issues with automation, etc.
The real genius of Idiocracy is that it realizes that the audience wants to see "ow my balls" but doesn't want to admit it. So it provides a framing where you both get to feel above it and get to indulge.
Haha, I have no trouble admitting it. Be it Ow my balls, Beavis and Butthead or something else, I don't feel above a little bit of schlocky TV, really.
If we think we need intelligent people in order to have intelligent children that seems like an argument for nepotism and hereditary positions, which isn't very progressive.
Perhaps the fact that we DO need intelligent people to have intelligent children will lead to some forced changes in our society down the line, progressive or not
Maybe: the way we structure professional life is incompatible with a healthy society.
Wouldn't the Dunning-Kruger effect mean that unintelligent people would just keep having kids while the Imposter Syndrome would mean Intelligent people would not?
guess you'd better not have kids then. don't worry, i'll do extra
You think you know more about the Dunning-Kruger effect than you do.