When Did We Start Rewarding Idiocy and Punishing Intelligence?

Somewhere along the way, we confused having a platform with having expertise, confidence with competence, and popularity with credibility.

And I think it is costing us.

We live in a culture where someone can become famous for saying ridiculous things into a camera, while the person quietly studying history, economics, engineering, public policy, medicine, or science is told they need to make their explanation shorter because people will not pay attention.

Apparently, knowledge needs better marketing.

Everyone Has a Political Opinion. Fewer Understand the Government.

Social media has created an entire class of political commentators whose primary qualification appears to be owning a ring light.

They will confidently explain what "the government" should do, what the President should order, or what Congress should immediately change.

Then ask a few basic questions.

What are the three branches of the federal government?

What is the difference between a law and an executive order?

Who actually controls federal spending?

What does the Supreme Court do?

What powers belong to the states?

Suddenly, the livestream gets a little less confident.

You do not need a political science degree to have a political opinion. Democracy depends on ordinary citizens participating.

But there is a difference between participating in government and pretending to understand something you have never bothered to learn.

The problem becomes worse when algorithms reward the second person more than the first.

Nuance is boring.

Outrage gets clicks.

Certainty gets followers.

"I don't know enough about this yet" may be one of the most intelligent things a person can say, and it may also be one of the worst strategies for becoming an influencer.

We Turned Ignorance Into Entertainment

This is not entirely new.

For decades, television has discovered there is money to be made by putting people in absurd situations, asking painfully simple questions, encouraging terrible behavior, and allowing the audience to laugh.

Sometimes that is harmless entertainment. We all need mindless television occasionally.

The problem is what happens when mindless entertainment becomes a cultural standard.

We celebrate people for being spectacularly uninformed.

We turn bad decisions into television franchises.

We make celebrities out of people whose primary talent is attracting attention.

Then we wonder why young people increasingly associate success with visibility rather than competence.

Meanwhile, the kid who loves chemistry, history, mathematics, mechanics, literature, computer programming, or philosophy is sometimes treated as the weird one.

That seems backward.

Then Come the Celebrity Lectures

This may be my favorite modern contradiction.

A celebrity, musician, professional athlete, or influencer worth tens of millions of dollars explains to ordinary Americans how they should think about the economy, housing, employment, healthcare, energy prices, taxes, or the cost of living.

Certainly, wealthy people are still citizens. They have every right to an opinion.

But wealth and fame do not magically produce expertise.

Being able to throw a football does not make someone an economist.

Selling out an arena does not make someone a constitutional scholar.

Winning an Oscar does not provide special insight into the federal budget.

Having 15 million followers does not transform an opinion into a fact.

And when someone whose lifestyle bears almost no resemblance to that of an average American starts lecturing people about sacrifices they should make, perhaps a little humility would be appropriate.

The "common man" they are lecturing may be trying to decide which bill gets paid this week.

Perspective matters.

Intelligence Is Increasingly Expected to Apologize for Itself

There is another side to this problem that bothers me even more.

We sometimes treat intelligence as arrogance.

Someone uses a complicated word? Pretentious.

Someone corrects incorrect information? Know-it-all.

Someone asks for evidence? Difficult.

Someone says an issue is more complicated than a meme suggests? Elitist.

Someone actually reads the legislation before commenting on it?

Well, now they are just ruining everyone's fun.

There is nothing inherently virtuous about intelligence, of course. Brilliant people can be spectacularly wrong. Highly educated people can lack common sense, and people without formal education can possess extraordinary knowledge, wisdom, and practical intelligence.

Education and intelligence are not interchangeable.

Neither are intelligence and wisdom.

That is precisely why we should value critical thinking rather than credentials alone.

Can you examine evidence?

Can you recognize when you might be wrong?

Can you distinguish fact from opinion?

Can you understand an argument you disagree with?

Can you change your position when new information proves your original position incorrect?

Those abilities matter far more than whether someone has letters after their name.

Common Sense Should Not Be a Revolutionary Concept

I would also like to nominate common sense for a comeback.

Common sense tells you that actions have consequences.

Common sense tells you that money has to come from somewhere.

Common sense tells you that a 30-second video probably cannot adequately explain a 1,000-page piece of legislation.

Common sense tells you that someone being famous does not mean they know what they are talking about.

And common sense should tell us that a society eventually gets more of whatever it rewards.

If stupidity generates attention, stupidity will be produced.

If outrage generates money, outrage will be manufactured.

If ignorance generates fame, ignorance will be performed.

If thoughtful discussion generates nothing but eye rolls and accusations of "overthinking," fewer people will bother doing the thinking.

That is not an intelligence problem.

It is an incentive problem.

Maybe We Should Change What We Reward

I am not suggesting everyone needs to become an intellectual.

I am suggesting we stop treating ignorance as an accomplishment.

Make being curious respectable again.

Make reading cool.

Teach civics.

Teach history.

Teach financial literacy.

Teach people how to identify bad statistics and manipulative arguments.

Teach children that saying "I don't know, but I'll find out" demonstrates more intelligence than confidently inventing an answer.

And perhaps most importantly, stop assuming that the loudest person in the room is the smartest.

Sometimes the smartest person is the one sitting quietly in the corner listening, reading, thinking, and waiting until they actually have something worth saying.

Unfortunately, that person probably has fewer followers.

But maybe that says more about us than it does about them.