Canadian TV alert: "Stupidity" documentary

[Newsjock]

http://www.cbc.ca/roughcuts/feature_211004.html

On CBC Newsworld
STUPIDITY
Repeating Tuesday June 7 at 10pm ET/PT

Stupidity is Albert Nerenberg's hard-hitting and often hilarious look at stupidity as a driving force in society. The documentary is a controversial investigation into what may be a characteristic unique to our species-a chronic resistance to intelligence.

Stupidity sets out to determine whether our culture is hooked on deliberate ignorance as a strategy for success. From Adam Sandler to George W. Bush, from the IQ test to TV programming and the origins of the word 'moron', Nerenberg examines the "dumbing down" of contemporary culture.

Stupidity careens at warp speed through sound bites on topics from television news and reality TV shows, to Internet sites and popular films. Featuring opinions and comments from some of today's most recognizable figures, cultural critics, authors and academics, including John Cleese and Rick Mercer, Noam Chomsky and David Frum, Salma Hayek and Michael Moore, Stupidity reveals that, despite our culture's extensive access to knowledge and information, humans continue to choose stupidity. The film suggests that unless stupidity is dealt with, we may all be doomed.

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[tuvor]

1. I saw it several weeks ago.

It was entertaining, but seemed to me that there was a lot of cherry-picking in making their point.

I also seem to recall thinking that for all the focus on the problem of "stupidity," no solutions were suggested.

Still, it was an entertaining way to kill an hour.

[trotsky]

2. The flipside is certainly true.

One of the right's main weapons in rallying the troops is sowing the seeds of contempt towards those "intellectual leftists." Routinely in school the smart kids are mocked and picked on. And then there's gym class, where the tables are usually turned and the smart kids REALLY suffer.

[unhappycamper]

3. The Darwin Awards celebrate this trait annually. n/t