Aperture

The Death of Critical Thinking: How Stupidity Took Over


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For the first time in recorded history, IQ scores aren't rising. They're falling.

The Flynn Effect, the steady climb in human intelligence across the 20th century, went into reverse somewhere around 2010. The same year smartphones became universal. That's probably not a coincidence.

But IQ decline is just the symptom. The deeper disease is something harder to measure: the slow collapse of critical thinking itself. The ability to hold a complex idea long enough to actually examine it. To sit with uncertainty. To change your mind.

We built a civilization on that skill. And we may be watching it disappear in real time.

Because when an entire generation is raised on content engineered to be skipped, scrolled past, and forgotten in 30 seconds, what happens to the minds inside those skulls? What happens to the societies they'll eventually run?

Hollywood is making a movie about Skibidi Toilet. That's not just a joke. It's a data point.

🎧 In this episode, we trace exactly how we got here, from the science of the Reverse Flynn Effect to the algorithmic forces deliberately designed to keep you distracted, outraged, and incurious.

🧠 Share this with someone who still knows how to think. They'll know what to do with it.

#CriticalThinking #IQ #Brainrot #FlynnEffect #AIAndSociety #Philosophy #Psychology #Aperture #SciencePodcast #ModernSociety #HumanIntelligence #Media #TikTokBrain #Education #ThinkingForYourself

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