The General Theory of Stupidity

Fri 5/22/2009 12:23 pm. It explains everything! ... I already discussed the way Nigerian spam is stupid; but then I realized, it’s all like that!

Television shows are stupid so they can attract stupid people who will watch and buy things from stupid advertising.

Or, substitute “mass media” for “television”. ... Our world is like this because of the nature of mass-market advertising, that it’s much less costly the more of it you do....

The internet changed all that. ... But even, heaven forfend, there was no internet, the accumulation of wealth makes people smarter, and the Americans have drifted away from mass market advertising as part of the demographic shift all my life. The internet definitely accelerates the trend drastically, by drawing-away anyone with half a wit, so that the only people left are ever-more stupid....

But it’s always been thus; advertising obviously doesn’t affect everyone, it only affects some people. ... Who might those people be? The affluent smart insightful people? ... Nope; it’s like the all-important “undecideds” during elections — in fact, it’s exactly that! ... Which is why politics is so stupid!

It created the Age of Lies; it gradually — or rapidly! — debases all forms of mass communication; it is the guiding spirit of the — thankfully! — passing time: mass-market stupidity! ... It is, indeed, free-market stupidity; socialist countries have no such system, so they have to create their own stupidity...