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Since Trump’s election, I have been wondering how so many people could remain blind to his ignorance and stupidity. The question that most of the world is asking, outside of the US, is, “How could such a large group of people willingly choose such an ignorant, vile, and loathsome human being to be their leader?” What blinded them to the true nature of his character? Were they just as stupid or even stupider than he was? Was it inbreeding, genetics, or some kind of mental virus that had affected their ability to think?

When pondering these questions, I remembered something Darwin had written in On the Origin of Species regarding what he called monstrosities. He used this term to refer to large, sudden deviations from normal development — what today we might call mutations or deformities. In Darwin’s time, some naturalists believed such sudden changes could lead to the formation of new species. I first wondered if such a phenomenon could be applied to mental “monstrosities”, such as the people that support the MAGA movement. However, though Darwin acknowledges that monstrosities occur, he argues that they are rarely inherited.

So I started looking into the possibility that there were other Darwinian forces that could account for the evolution of large populations of stupid people. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to be likely that there were definitive genetic or evolutionary arguments to account for the rise of the MAGA movement, but there seems to be a strong argument that cultural rather than biological selection is the force at play.

Anyway, here is a summary of my research as summarized by my AI assistant. In my next post I will explore in more detail how cultural selection aided the success of the MAGA movement.

Can Evolutionary Processes Lead to the Development of Stupidity in Human Populations?

The idea that evolutionary processes might contribute to the development—or at least the persistence—of “stupidity” in human populations is provocative, yet not entirely implausible. While intelligence is often assumed to be a universally advantageous trait, its evolutionary trajectory is shaped by how it is defined, measured, and, crucially, selected for or against. Intelligence is not a fixed endpoint of evolution, but a trait subject to the same forces that shape all biological variation. Under certain conditions, evolutionary dynamics could, in theory, contribute to the stagnation or even decline of cognitive traits across populations. Several key mechanisms support this possibility.

1. Relaxed Selection in Modern Environments

In pre-modern societies, individuals with significantly impaired cognitive function may have struggled to survive or reproduce. Today, however, technological and social advancements have dramatically reduced many of the selective pressures that once acted on intelligence. Access to healthcare, education, and social support systems enables individuals across the cognitive spectrum to thrive and reproduce. As a result, traits associated with lower cognitive ability are not strongly selected against. This phenomenon—known as relaxed selection—allows such traits to persist and potentially accumulate across generations. Importantly, this does not require the active selection of “stupidity,” merely the absence of pressure against it.

2. Cultural Selection vs. Biological Selection

Culture operates as its own evolutionary force, and sometimes it selects for traits that are maladaptive from a biological standpoint. In certain cultural contexts, behaviors and attitudes that devalue intellectualism—such as distrust of expertise, glorification of ignorance, or rejection of critical thinking—can spread rapidly through social transmission. These cultural traits may be reinforced within subgroups that prioritize conformity, tribal identity, or ideology over rational inquiry. While this may not directly alter genetic intelligence, it can cultivate what might be called functional stupidity: a widespread suppression of intellectual engagement, regardless of innate potential. Cultural evolution, in this way, can run counter to biological evolution.

3. Genetic Drift and Founder Effects

In small or isolated populations, genetic drift—random fluctuations in gene frequencies—can lead to the proliferation of traits with little or no adaptive value. Similarly, founder effects, where a new population is established by a small number of individuals, can magnify particular genetic traits purely by chance. If cognitive ability-related traits are not strongly selected for in such populations, they may drift alongside other neutral or even slightly deleterious traits. This is especially relevant in societies where reproduction is not linked to cognitive performance or educational attainment, weakening the association between intelligence and evolutionary fitness.

4. Selection for Other Traits at the Expense of Intelligence

Evolution does not act on intelligence in isolation; it favors traits that improve reproductive success in specific contexts. In some environments, traits such as obedience, aggression, or group conformity might confer greater survival or reproductive advantages than abstract reasoning or problem-solving skills. If these traits are negatively correlated with cognitive flexibility or independent thought, then intelligence could decline indirectly. For example, authoritarian societies or high-conflict environments might reward loyalty and aggression more than creativity or skepticism, leading to selection pressures that deprioritize intellectual capacity.

5. Evolutionary Mismatch and Environmental Manipulation

The modern environment is profoundly different from the one in which the human brain evolved. Our cognitive systems—optimized for small-group interactions, survival in nature, and intuitive reasoning—are now exposed to environments saturated with information overload, social media manipulation, and algorithmic reinforcement of biases. These factors can hijack evolved cognitive heuristics, such as tribalism, confirmation bias, and emotional reasoning, resulting in behaviors that appear irrational or unintelligent. This phenomenon does not imply a genetic decline in intelligence, but rather a mismatch between evolved mental capacities and the demands of the modern world. In this context, the appearance of “mass stupidity” may reflect environmental exploitation of psychological vulnerabilities rather than true cognitive regression.

Conclusion

Although evolution does not “select for stupidity” in any deliberate sense, various evolutionary and cultural mechanisms can lead to the persistence—or amplification—of behaviors that resemble cognitive decline on a societal scale. Relaxed selection, cultural maladaptation, genetic drift, indirect selection pressures, and environmental mismatch each contribute to this possibility. Understanding these dynamics does not imply fatalism but instead underscores the need to align cultural, educational, and technological systems with the cognitive architecture of our species. If evolution can make us smarter, it can also, under the wrong conditions, make us appear otherwise.

Of course there are counter-arguments to all of this, so to be fair, I will provide them on my resources page. Here is the link: Counter-Arguments

In this post I want to give you my reasons for starting this blog as it is not something I thought I would ever find myself doing. But I have become more and more concerned about the state of world affairs, especially as how they are being influenced by the current president of the US. The fact that he was elected at all sent me, like many others, into a state of disbelief. However, as the weeks and months have passed the insanity of his actions and plans has made me feel that I have somehow stepped into an alternate universe. So instead of sitting around fuming and wringing my hands in despair, I want to contribute in whatever way I can to fight against the forces of ignorance that are threatening our world.

I said I surprised myself by suddenly feeling compelled to contribute my voice to the public domain. I am certainly not new to computers as I’ve been using them since the days of floppy discs and the infancy of the Internet — a time when you had to use Unix code to access it. I would definitely call myself computer literate. But I have never felt interested in using social media. I tried Facebook for a while but I soon lost interest because of the sheer banality of most of what gets posted on the platform. Neither did I develop an interest in Instagram, TikTok, and other social media apps. When people asked me if I used Twitter, my response was always, “Real men don’t tweet.” I have, however, always used email and that will continue to be the method I use to communicate with people I can’t speak with directly. Writing in broken and half-sentences punctuated with emojis holds absolutely no appeal to me. Maybe this makes me some kind of Luddite. You be the judge, But just maybe this foray into the world of blogging represents a softening of my harsh views of social media.

Now back to the purpose of this blog. I have been looking into the possibility that Darwinian processes might help explain the rise and spread of stupidity and ignorance in the US. Can ignorance be passed downed from generation to generation? Can it spread like a virus? What makes some people so susceptible to superstition, irrationality, and sheer stupidity? Well it seems that there is some research that says it is theoretically possible for certain human populations to develop cognitive or behavioral traits that make them more susceptible to belief in superstition or resistant to reason and logic, and for these traits to become more prevalent over time. This is a theme I want to explore in more detail in later discussions.

But first, I’d like to share a fable I wrote exploring the theme of a plague of stupidity. The inspiration for the story began when I started thinking about how ignorance and stupidity can spread through a population and what it can lead to. The story also clearly represents my feelings on the state of our times. I have posted the story on my Resources page. Here is a link — Unnatural Selection

Let me begin with a brief explanation for my interest in Alexander Von Humboldt and things related to him.

 I recently read a book by Andrea Wulf entitled: Magnificent Rebels: The First Romantics and the Invention of the Self.  Von Humboldt was not the focus of the book, but Wulf talked enough about him to make me want to know more. I had heard of Humboldt before, but I had not realized what a powerful and influential thinker he was. This both surprised and humbled me because I thought I knew at least something about the great thinkers, scientists, and literary figures of that era. So I realized I had to quickly fill in this knowledge void and I immediately started reading books by and about Humboldt. It has been an enlightening and rewarding voyage and it was partly the result of this intellectual journey that made me want to create my own website to give me a place to record my thoughts on the state of the world. 

In my first post I also want to make something of a disclaimer by saying simply that the only reason I created this site is to provide a place for me to express my thoughts. I have no intention of trying to sell or advertise products. I am not going to be promoting any kind of business or service. I am not going to be actively seeking followers or subscribers. I have no commercial intentions whatsoever. I simply present this blog as a site people might stumble across in their endless journey through the myriad way stations of the Internet. I offer it as a place to pause for a moment to simply think about things —

nothing else.

To try and achieve this vision I wanted to create a very simple site — one without clutter or confusion. But creating this simple design proved to be much more challenging than I had anticipated. I have been using PCs since they first came into existence and have used many kinds of software and I thought I could figure out WordPress, especially since they promised in their advertising that I could get a website up and running within minutes. It was supposed to be that easy, but it was far from it. I found WordPress to be anything but intuitive. Unless you were already familiar with the vocabulary, techniques, and practice of setting up websites, it was, for me, as confusing as trying to read hieroglyphs.

Now they do offer you an AI assistant that promises to help you get a site up in minutes, and a variety of templates to choose from that they say you can customize to your preferences, but they were all focused on setting up commercially oriented sites and I failed in all attempts to simplify them. 

I tried following some YouTube tutorials, but again I couldn’t make the changes to the sites they were teaching to help me get to where I wanted. I would get hopelessly messed up and as I could never figure out how to undo the mess, I had to continually ask my service provider to reset my site so I could start from zero again. After the third time, they showed my how I could do this for myself, which was one of the best bits of help they gave me because I had to start from zero quite a few more times before I finally began to “somewhat” understand the software and how to use it.

I simply wanted simple and that was proving very elusive to achieve. However, my mounting frustration made me even more determined to get what I wanted and finally I stumbled across a video that I could follow well enough to get started. There are still many, many things I don’t understand, but now that I’m started, and have figured out “simple”, I may slowly be able to go from beginner to competent user. I may even learn how to add a few bells and whistles to the site — who knows. Anyway, I feel a certain sense of accomplishment at getting this far. As the saying goes — even a thousand mile journey begins with a first step.