So America’s “Cultural Decline” may actually have much more to do with perception than reality. “Part of America’s greatness in the 20th century came from having developed the most capable, vibrant, and productive network of knowledge-producing institutions in all of human history, linking together the world’s best universities, private companies that turned scientific advances into life-changing consumer products, and government agencies that supported scientific research and led the collaboration that put people on the moon,” Haidt explains.
But this arrangement is not self-maintaining, he goes on to note. It requires work. “So what happens when an institution is not well maintained and internal disagreement ceases, either because its people have become ideologically uniform or because they have become afraid to dissent?”
Haidt goes on to explain what he believes happened to many of America’s key institutions in the mid-to-late 2010s. "They got stupider en masse because social media instilled in their members a chronic fear of getting darted,” he writes. “The shift was most pronounced in universities, scholarly associations, creative industries, and political organizations at every level (national, state, and local), and it was so pervasive that it established new behavioral norms backed by new policies seemingly overnight. The new omnipresence of enhanced-virality social media meant that a single word uttered by a professor, leader, or journalist, even if spoken with positive intent, could lead to a social-media firestorm, triggering an immediate dismissal or a drawn-out investigation by the institution. Participants in our key institutions began self-censoring to an unhealthy degree, holding back critiques of policies and ideas—even those presented in class by their students—that they believed to be ill-supported or wrong.”
If you’re from the United States, I realize that this list might not make you too proud of Americans. But it’s all in good fun; we know that you pandas aren’t anything like this! Plus, every country has its flaws. The United States is simply one of many imperfect nations. We hope you’re getting a kick out of some of these photos, as many of them could apply to people from around the world as well, and be sure to upvote the ones that make you facepalm the hardest. Then, if you’re interested in checking out another Bored Panda article featuring memes about the good old USA, look no further than right here!
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