It makes me really sad to realize Mike Judge was only wrong about one thing in Idiocracy… that it would take 400 years for us to get there…because here we are, not even 20 years later.
Idiocracy is a cute movie that I enjoy. I’m disturbed however by the popular notion that it’s prophetic or a documentary considering it’s central premise (that people are breeding wrong, and if unchecked society will collapse) is also the central premise of eugenics and a pillar of Nazi ideology.
People who think evolution works like it is portrayed in that movie have done infinitely more harm to society and scientific literacy than creationists.
You could just as easily make a case that’s about “nurture” more than “nature”. Stupid and negligent people will make bad parents regardless of genetics.
That’s a very sympathetic reading. I’d suggest watching the opening of the film which very clearly frames the story in terms of “evolution,” “breeding,” “genetics,” and “intelligence.”
True, but it’s only about eugenics if you think that intelligence is a primarily hereditary trait rather than a learned one.