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Notes -
(Stupid) Kids These Days
Article link - no paywall
Rough summary:
(Emphasis above added)
Excellent CW quote:
UCSD isn't an online for profit school. It has traditionally admitted kid from middle to upper middle class families that maybe weren't deeply thinkers, but were assumed to be strongly better than average. Their grads go on to form the professional classes of California suburbs, albeit not the ones with $2m media home price gated communities. Far from a bad life.
And the faculty be saying kids are real, real dumb. Like, really tho.
The rearward looking CW angle is too obvious; DEI, affirmative action, grade inflation in High Schools and a "no child left behind" attitude. I'd sprinkle on some helicopter-parent pressuring as well. For those of you interested in that angle, I await your hopefully hilarious takes.
I'm more interested in the future CW angle. Color me skeptical that these kids, already 18+, are going to really buckle down and crack the books now. If you've been retard-maxxing for nearly two decades, it's hard to slow the Downs and speed up the study. But, as the Dean in Animal House, said, _"Fat, Drunk, and Stupid" is no way to go through life. So what happens to these kids?
10 years from now, are we seeing a new sub-class of horrifically incompetent 30 year olds? If so, how does that change policy outcomes. A lot of well intentioned liberals have been smashing the vote button for welfare programs for going on six decades now because they see "structural" problems everywhere - of course the less fortunate need our benevolent support (definitely not noblesse-oblige). But when it just becomes plainly obvious that the COVID generation just has permanent banana brains, does that suicide empathy actually start to dry up?
There's a lot of discourse on the online dissident right about what will finally "wake up" the productive members of society. It usually ends up in HBD adjacent spaces. I wonder if the real "oh shit" moment will be far more obvious - stupid people, of any race, create massive problems and we've been boosting the stupid coefficient for somewhere near 15 years straight now.
Infinity Indians. I'm not even joking.
I wish I could form an opinion on this, but there is simply no good data. Kids today are fucking stupid, sure, that's a data point. Is it because of screens? Is it room temperature IQ third worlders? Is it Asian cheating rings? Indian fake credentials? Decades of teachers being activist forwarding a social agenda instead of teaching the "Three R's"? All of the above? None of the above?
We'll never know, and we'll never fix it in time. The default option is to mass import workers from countries that at least fake teaching more convincingly, so that's the option that will be taken. This study won't contribute to any positive change what so ever, and will instead by another talking point behind the further ethnic cleansing of the nation.
I've read so many of your comments but I never realized you were Justin Trudeau's alt account this whole time
I do sound like someone who's worn blackface, don't I?
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I seriously doubt that the Indians struggling in math courses. Indians struggle at writing and capacity for self-actualization. But, 'math' ? That's like saying the Brazilians struggle at football.
Given the nature of affirmative action, Asians at UCs (Indians or East Asians) are already more qualified than their peer whites or POCs.
What informs your negative perception of Indians ?
That's not what Coil meant - he meant that the "policy outcome" of the existence of "a new sub-class of horrifically incompetent 30 year olds" will be increased immigration from India to fill their slots in the economy.
Ah, that makes more sense. I am a 30 something Indian engineer in the US. So..... guilty as charged.
America's missing STEM kids is an incentive problem. Most STEM grads make average salaries, have a demanding job and are considered uncool. CS was the exception, but CS new grads have been in dire straits since 2023. Why would American kids pursue STEM degrees ?
Contemporary US is a nation of lawyers, salesmen and MBAs. America's smartest grow up admiring one of these 3. Ofc they don't want to be engineers. If they are nerdy and smart, they become doctors instead. More reliable money and higher status.
Even among tech billionaires, there is a reason why many are STEM program drop outs. It says : "Gaining expertise in this difficult subject is meaningless. I must transform into a salesman, make money and then I'll hire all the experts".
In the US, the Senate is about 50% Lawyers and the house is about 33% lawyers. In contrast, the Senate has 1 engineer and the house has 9. Now see China. 13/24 Politburo members are have engineering degrees and only 2/24 are lawyers. Tells you what the culture and people think is prestigious.
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