{"id":2779,"date":"2026-07-04T21:06:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T21:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=2779"},"modified":"2026-07-04T21:06:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T21:06:07","slug":"trump-loves-the-poorly-educated-and-americas-iq-decline-explains-why-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=2779","title":{"rendered":"Trump loves the poorly educated \u2014and America’s IQ decline explains why"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The most beautiful human experiment in the world is turning 250. Democracy lasting this long is cause for celebration, but an alarming drop in intelligence suggests its future birthdays are numbered.<\/u><\/p>\n

Read more The media keeps calling Democrats extreme. Trump? Not so much<\/a><\/p>\n

For nearly a century, average IQ scores in the U.S. rose consistently, but recent evidence flips this trend on its head. <\/p>\n

Studies now show a measurable decline<\/u> in cognitive scores among Americans across most fields. Northwestern University researchers report that test scores in three out of four cognitive domains have gone down<\/u>. Another confirmed a steady decline in average IQ scores<\/u> \u2014 with each new generation scoring about five points lower than the one before. <\/p>\n

Neil Postman, in his book : Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business, explores this dumbing-down process. Analysts today<\/u> note how it culminated in the election of a functionally illiterate reality TV host as president, an ignorant man who reduces complex problems to binary oppositions: us versus them, black vs. white, patriots vs. scum, opinion vs. science, etc. No doubt our lowered intelligence led 77 million Americans<\/u> to vote against their own interests; polls<\/u> before the 2024 election suggested half the country, lied to by Fox News, was about to engage in self sabotage. <\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s base today is comprised of Christians who defend Trump\u2019s debauchery<\/u>; poor people who donate<\/u> to a billionaire\u2019s Ponzi schemes<\/u> while he illegally pocketed nearly $2 billion<\/u> in profits; and pensioners who still don\u2019t grasp that tax cuts for the 1%<\/u> threaten their own entitlements.<\/p>\n

Trump has done nothing for the common man<\/u> and everything for his wealthy donors, yet somehow, that fact doesn\u2019t seem to compute. To misquote Jesus, the stupid will always be among us<\/u>. But stupid seems to be spreading in the U.S., and data suggest that excessive sensory stimulation may be the reason.<\/p>\n

Our politics reflect a cognitive decline, but what is causing the decline?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s declaration<\/u>, \u201cI love the poorly educated\u201d is a self-own as the U.S. slumbers toward Idiocracy<\/u>, 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<\/u>– because he is loud and manipulative and they don\u2019t know any better. The Trump sequel<\/u> writes itself. <\/p>\n

Funny as that movie is, America\u2019s declining cognition, reflected in falling logic, language, and reading comprehension levels<\/u>, is serious. In 1850, unwashed kids aged 6 to 18 were crammed into – yet still emerged well-versed in Latin, French, humanities and trigonometry.<\/p>\n

Today, with whiteboards, laptops, separate rooms for each grade, and teacher\/student ratios historically unheard of, student comprehension levels are falling instead of rising. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress<\/u>, math and reading scores for 13 year-olds hit their lowest scores in decades. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s our hand held devices, stupid<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u2019s ability to think critically and organically.<\/p>\n

Observational studies in human learning have shown a direct link<\/u> between a child\u2019s exposure to fast-paced television in the first 3 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<\/u> among older children and college students are correlated with subjects\u2019 early exposure to excessive electronic media.<\/p>\n

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 2023, legislators introduced a bipartisan bill<\/u> to study how cell phones affect mental health and cognitive development, but it did not advance to a vote. <\/p>\n

Read more Trump biographer exposes why Melania\u2019s \u2018preposterous\u2019 legal move is doomed to fail<\/a><\/p>\n

Over-stimulation, overall, reduces our ability to think<\/strong><\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

Smart phones aren\u2019t 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 to<\/u> cognitive impairment and oxidative stress in the brain.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been reported<\/u> that 100 million people are exposed to dangerous environmental noise due to traffic, personal listening devices and other sources. Noise pollution has emerged<\/u> 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<\/u>.<\/p>\n

It seems the entire nation could use a long walk in the woods, or an extended visit to one of our 429 national parks<\/u> \u2014 sans devices.<\/p>\n

Education levels are affecting U.S. politics<\/strong><\/p>\n

America\u2019s 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<\/u> in the U.S. elect Democrats, while the least educated districts elect Republicans.<\/p>\n

According to data compiled by Politico<\/u>, Democrats control 77% of the most highly educated Congressional districts, while Republicans control 64% of the least educated districts. The rural poor love Trump<\/u> even though Democrats deliver kitchen table results that benefit them most: jobs<\/u>, infrastructure<\/u>, broadband<\/u>, healthcare<\/u>, and industry regulations so trains don\u2019t derail<\/u> and parts don\u2019t fly off<\/u> aircraft at 16,000 feet.<\/p>\n

Maximilien Robespierre, one of the most influential figures<\/u> of the French Revolution, <\/em><\/em>was known for his attacks on the monarchy and his advocacy of democratic reforms.<\/p>\n

As he astutely observed<\/u>, \u201cThe secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though Trump\u2019s former advisors widely regard him as an undisciplined moron<\/u>, he has a preternatural skill: the manipulation of ignorance.<\/p>\n

Call it a conman\u2019s intuition.<\/p>\n

Sabrina Haake is a political analyst and 25+ year federal trial attorney specializing in 1st and 14th A defense. She writes the free Substack, The Haake Take.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more \u2018Day-old hotdog\u2019: Trump\u2019s state fair torn apart by Jim Acosta<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The most beautiful human experiment in the world is turning 250. Democracy lasting this long is cause for celebration, but an alarming drop in intelligence suggests its future birthdays are numbered.For nearly a century, average IQ scores in the U.S. rose consistently, but recent evidence flips this…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nTrump loves the poorly educated \u2014and America's IQ decline explains why - Next Address America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=2779\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trump loves the poorly educated \u2014and America's IQ decline explains why - Next Address America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The most beautiful human experiment in the world is turning 250. 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