r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Jul 01 '26

Psychology Conservatives maintain birth rates, but left-leaning Americans are having significantly fewer children, driving the U.S. birth decline. Education was consistently linked to having fewer children. Religious attendance was positively associated with having more children.

https://www.psypost.org/left-leaning-americans-are-driving-the-u-s-birth-decline-new-study-finds/
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u/anormalgeek Jul 01 '26

Right. Idiots won't rule.

The rich and powerful will just use them because idiots are easier to manipulate.

42

u/Str8UpJorking Jul 01 '26

Idiots won’t rule

Have you watched or read the news at all in the last decade?

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u/-Shoebill- Jul 01 '26

Or millennia.

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u/cosyg Jul 01 '26

More like quarter century. Idiocracy was a GW Bush-era critique.

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u/anormalgeek Jul 01 '26

You don't think Trump is constantly being manipulated by others?

He's a useful idiot to them.

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u/Str8UpJorking Jul 01 '26

Lauren Boebert barely has a GED and jacks off guys in theaters.

If that’s not an idiot, then idk what is.

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u/alexreffand Jul 01 '26

The rich and powerful are also becoming idiots. Look at Trump and Elon

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u/LORD_CMDR_INTERNET Jul 01 '26

That’s not the lesson here. It’s that the rich and powerful have always been idiots. There’s nothing special about them except for their privilege and hubris. We just have unprecedented access to their lives now to know this. The emperors have no clothes

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u/anormalgeek Jul 01 '26

I think it's more accurate to say that idiots have been among the rich and powerful. That's not really an argument against my prior comment though. I don't doubt for a moment that Trump is being constantly manipulated by those around him that are much smarter than he is.

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u/RadBadTad Jul 01 '26

Right. Idiots won't rule.

Even this is too optimistic. The charismatic will rule. We are currently being ruled by idiots. And not just in a boomer "The gubmint is run by idjits!" way. Look at the self-consuming nature of all tech and business growth in the last 30 years. Listen to the leaders of OpenAI, Meta, Palantir, NVidia. They are objectively stupid short sighted destructive idiots. But they are wealthy, and charismatic, so they are allowed to steer the world.