Signs that Idiocracy is Pushing Eugenics Theory
If you stuck through all of this history so far, you’re probably wondering, “What in the hell does this have to do with Idiocracy? Wasn’t this just a harmless satire about the dumbing down of America?” This is where I get to how this movie is subversive propaganda at its worst–and finest.
On the surface, the movie appears to be addressing Carl Sagan’s stern warning about how America, by way of trash culture, will lead to a society of morons. We see, for instance, the hilarious send-ups of pop culture that have become synonymous with dumbed-down entertainment. However, two things betray the movie’s premise:
Number one, in the movie’s future, the entire human race turns stupid, not just Americans. The reason why this is important to note is that the moral panic about the dumbing down of America was always specific to American culture and American culture alone. So, if the movie were making a comment about this American-specific issue, why would it then have the entire world be as dumb as Americans? Unless it was warning that something else much larger than entertainment would not only lead to the dumbing down of America but the entire world?
Number two, the movie actually makes it a point several times that it’s dumb people having babies that results in the Idiocracy. In fact, the movie ends on a completely sardonic note that suggests that the future is hopeless, because dumb people will continue to breed at a disproportionate rate than smart people. In the last scene, the two heroes (played by Luke Wilson and Maya Rudolph) save the day and become the first “intelligent” American president and first lady in centuries. However, the movie closes with a dumb couple in a trailer having yet another child.
All of this is why I consider Idiocracy as having baited and switched the movie audience. The bait was that the movie would play out everyone’s concerns about pop culture dumbing down Americans. So, initially, we see the snarky references to America’s Dumbest Home Videos, WWE wrestling, Walmart, the whole nine yards–and we laugh.
But then the movie flips the switch and says, “No, it’s not that pop culture will dumb down Americans, it’s that too many mentally retarded people are breeding unchecked.” Of course, the movie never explicitly references eugenics theory as a solution. However, it floats a suggestion in the mind of the viewer that the only way we can prevent the future is to stop the mentally disabled from having kids. This causes the viewer to pine for a solution to all this and what other solution than sterilization or abortion?
Carl
How big is the mirror that you jerk off in front of?
minababe
I normally don’t allow comments like these, but I allowed this for a reason. All of the most abusive comments on this blog have come from foreign nationals like Carl, who hails from Australia. Other abusive commenters like him have come from all over the world, the two most recent ones from Jamaica and Asia, in which the last one issued a death threat to me and my family.
Understand, Carl, that rather than angering me, you’ve helped me make an important decision in terms of this blog. So, thanks for your comment. I would also strongly suggest you post using a VPN if you want to go around trolling people. I would never doxx you but some other blogger would in a heartbeat. You’re not as anonymous as you think you are.