Polls suggest half the country may vote against their own self-interests in November. The self sabotage is head-turning: Christians who defend Donald Trump’s debauchery; poor people who donate to a billionaire’s Ponzi schemes; pensioners who don’t grasp that tax cuts for the 1% threaten their own entitlements.
As the April 30 Time Magazine interview made clear, Trump has done nothing for the common man and everything for his wealthy donors, yet somehow, that fact doesn’t seem to compute.
To misquote Jesus, the stupid will always be among us. But stupid seems to be spreading in the U.S., and data suggest that excessive sensory stimulation may be the reason.
When Trump celebrated his 2016 win, his declaration, “I love the poorly educated” made headlines. Eight years on, it’s not that half the country supports violent coup attempts, it’s that they sincerely believe the 2020 election was stolen, despite all evidence to the contrary.
The U.S. seems to be slumbering toward “Idiocracy,” a funny-not-funny satire about Americans in the year 2500 who have lost the ability to think. In the movie, Americans elect as President a dimwitted pro-wrestler — President Camacho — because he is loud and manipulative and they don’t know any better. The Trump sequel writes itself.
Funny as that movie was, America’s declining cognition is serious. Americans’ logic, language, and reading comprehension levels have fallen measurably. Last year, researchers from Northwestern University and the University of Oregon reported that, while American IQs increased dramatically over the past century, cognitive abilities showed measurable decline between 2006 and 2018. Scores in three of four broad domains of intelligence fell during that period: logic, vocabulary, and visual/ mathematical problem-solving.
In 1850, unwashed kids aged 6 to 18 were crammed into a smelly one-room school house with no AC and no technology — and often no books — yet still emerged well-versed in Latin, French, humanities and trigonometry.
Today, with whiteboards, laptops, separate rooms for each grade, and teacher/student ratios historically unheard of, student comprehension levels are falling instead of rising. Last year, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, math and reading scores for 13 year-olds hit their lowest scores in decades, which isn’t explained by the COVID-19 gap of recent years.
The explanation may be found in a growing reliance on smart phones, social media and electronic devices that offer addictive and excessive visual and audio stimulation, dulling the brain’s ability to think critically and organically.
Observational studies in human learning have shown a direct link between a child’s exposure to fast-paced television in the first three years of life and his subsequent attentional deficits as he gets older. Excessive sensory stimulation (ESS) during childhood has been shown to increase cognitive and behavioral deficits overall. Even rising levels of ADHD among older children and college students are correlated with subjects’ early exposure to excessive electronic media.
Educators are paying attention. This year, dozens of schools across the country have taken steps to remove cellphones from the classroom.
Although three-quarters of U.S. schools already disallow cellphone use in the classroom, it’s up to individual teachers to enforce, which results in high variability among schools and classrooms. Unruly and disruptive students who need instruction the most may be getting it the least as exhausted teachers pacify them with their cellphones to keep them quiet and in their seats.
Congress is catching on too. Bipartisan concern is growing over how cellphones and social media may be harming children. With about a third of U.S. teens reporting they are on social media “almost constantly,” the U.S. surgeon general recently issued a warning about social media and mental health.
More studies are needed on how excessive online stimulation affects cognition and mental health, regardless of age, and Congress may (shockingly) do something about it. In November, legislators introduced a bipartisan bill to study how cell phones affect mental health and cognitive development. The Focus on Learning Act, presently in committee, would require the U.S. Department of Education to complete a study on the effects of cellphone use in K-12 classrooms, both on students’ mental health and their academic performance.
It seems logical that over-stimulating the human brain with loud colors and noises would, over time, reduce our capacity for nuanced and critical thinking. Just as over-reliance on crutches can cause leg muscles to atrophy, over-exposure to electronics and addictive but thoughtless social media can atrophy the learning centers of the brain.
Smart phones aren’t the only culprit. Recent studies have also shown that high levels of noise, including exposure to high-decibel music at home or in the car, and loud, omnipresent television, also leads tocognitive impairment and oxidative stress in the brain.
It’s been reported that 100 million people are exposed to dangerous environmental noise due to traffic, personal listening devices and other sources. Noise pollution has emerged as a risk factor for depression, cognitive impairment and neurodegenerative disorders of the central nervous system leading to emotional stress, anxiety, cognitive and memory defects.
It seems the entire nation could use a long walk in the woods, or an extended visit to one of our 429 national parks — sans devices.
America’s growing political divide may have more to do with education and cognition levels than policy differences. By wide margins, the mostly highly educated Congressional districts in the U.S. elect Democrats, while the least educated districts elect Republicans.
According to data compiled by Politico, Democrats control 77% of the most highly educated Congressional districts, while Republicans control 64% of the least educated districts. The rural poor love Trump even though Democrats deliver kitchen table results that benefit them most: jobs, infrastructure, broadband, healthcare, and industry regulations so trains don’t derail and parts don’t fly off aircraft at 16,000 feet.
Maximilien Robespierre, one of the most influential figures of the French Revolution, was known for his attacks on the monarchy and his advocacy of democratic reforms.
As he astutely observed, “The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant.”
Even though Trump’s former advisors widely regard him as an undisciplined moron, he has a preternatural skill: the manipulation of ignorance.
Call it a conman’s intuition.
Sabrina Haake is a Chicago trial lawyer and left-of-center policy wonk. See sabrinahaake.substack.com.
From The Progressive Populist, September 1, 2024
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