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A comment on Idiocracy: A disturbingly prophetic look at the future. Parent comment

Re:Idiocracy: A disturbingly prophetic look at the future by quacked on Thursday December 30, 2021 @12:37PM (#29738894)
IQ is not rising; literacy rates are falling in the developed world. As an example, fewer people are literate in Massachusetts now than when it was founded.
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Re:Idiocracy: A disturbingly prophetic look at the future by loteck on Thursday December 30, 2021 @01:09PM (#29739374)
fewer people are literate in Massachusetts now than when it was founded

I'm also sensing we may be having some trouble in the math department.

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Re:Idiocracy: A disturbingly prophetic look at the future by quacked on Thursday December 30, 2021 @04:22PM (#29741590)
You're right. I can barely identify a number on sight.
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Re:Idiocracy: A disturbingly prophetic look at the future by SquibblesRedux on Thursday December 30, 2021 @01:19PM (#29739527)
I found a reference about literacy in Massachusetts [0] and literacy for all states [1], but nothing suggesting literacy rates are worse than over 200 years ago. I would presume literacy rates for over 200 years ago would be worse due to lack of public education, gender inequality, and jobs/trades not requiring reading and writing skills.

I am suspicious of the literacy rates in [0] and [1]. It seems that someone who immigrates from a foreign country would be considered illiterate if they did not speak English, but had high proficiency in reading and writing in their native language. Not knowing one specific language is very different from being generally uneducated.

[0] https://mblc.state.ma.us/programs-and-support/adult-literacy...

[1] https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/us-literacy...

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Re:Idiocracy: A disturbingly prophetic look at the future by chillacy on Friday December 31, 2021 @12:35PM (#29750297)
The parent said the metric was “people” not a rate of people normalized by total population, so by virtue of there being more people alive today than ever, many stats like this will be technically true but imo uninteresting.
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Re:Idiocracy: A disturbingly prophetic look at the future by ramphastidae on Friday December 31, 2021 @01:07AM (#29745452)
Citation needed …
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