The most frightening answer came from the woman who said "I should know this, I'm going to be a teacher." Dear God, help us.

Idiocracy wasn't a comedy, It was a documentary.

As my Dad likes to say: "The scary thing is that their vote counts just as much as mine!"

"Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups." -George Carlin

“Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.” - George Carlin

I heard my 22 year old brother in law literally say once "Capitalism sucks." and "I wanna start my own business" in the same breath. The dumbing down of America is a very real thing.

I graduated high school about 2 years ago with a slightly below-average GPA of 3.2/4.0. Now, out of the people that I know from my graduating class I was one of the only ones who could tell you the date that Pearl Harbor was attacked or in some cases even worse when 9/11 happened. Another example is working in the banking field now, I should not be instructing people who have a bachelor's degree how to write a professional email when I'm only a high school graduate. It feels like the education system attempted to lower the bar but ended up removing it entirely.

But it isn’t just the schools! It’s the overall attitudes, culture, and motivation of Americans. Having graduated from high school in the early 90s (Gen X, yes), I was once astounded at university regarding how well we compared with students from other nations. So in almost 30 years, the decline is astounding! It can’t be just the education system. The people themselves need to take responsibility...for once.

I quit my job as a professor because I could no longer stand the unrelenting pressure to pass nursing and pre-med students that could not write a complete sentence, of having to look the other way as students cheated and God forbid should a minority student say that I was unfair. It's pathetic. Today you can graduate with a science degree and literally be semi-illiterate. This country is screwed!

If you're parent, one of the best things you can do for your child's education is to buy a globe and have it in the house. It doesn't have to be an expensive one, but having simple things like globes and atlases and dictionaries and things like that in the home really makes a positive difference when it comes to learning.

Having worked at a public school during the pandemic, I can tell you one sad fact: parents don’t want teachers to actually teach, they want tax-funded babysitters. They wanted their kids back in the buildings asap so that they could get back to work, because kids at home caused too much disruption to parent’s’ schedules. I’m not blaming these parents, it’s just a sad indication of the world we live in

In my 20 years of education the issue has rarely been the students but parents and the broken system in which we are asked to work. It’s disheartening

An old school quote: "Ignorance can be educated and crazy can be medicated but there's no cure for stupid".

I am a teacher and I concur with this message. Teachers are expected to “entertain” students versus teach them. The kids are awful, exceptionally disrespectful, disinterested in learning, and addicted to their phones. It’s sad. Most of the issues extend to the home where parents are not being parents. They are busy “living their best life”. Our education system is in serious trouble if we don’t get back to holding students accountable versus worrying about a kids feelings.

If I was American, I'd be wearing a paper bag over my head right now

my hope is that 99% of the people being asked those basic questions got it right but weren't included for obvious reasons.

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that there are limits to genius.” -Albert Einstein

Winston Churchill: "The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter"

As usual Bill is right on most accounts and threads the needle between both sides of idiocy.

Bill Maher show never disappoints we love them

As a teacher myself, I can tell you exactly why this is happening. The education system has completely failed them. Teachers are no longer allowed to teach. Kids can no longer be held accountable and are passed without getting them the help they need. Too much focus has been put on demographics and kids can no longer be disciplined. Kids are not being taught that actions have consequences and if kids aren't being taugh that lesson, then you're not teaching them anything. We have to accept that not all kids are the same and need to provide the appropriate learning environment for kids that have needs beyond what can be provided in the typical classroom.

Being a German in America I literally was asked: "So, you are from Germany! Have you ever been in Europe?"

Looking to be saved by politicians is like depending on the stars for the lucky Powerball numbers

Back in 1973 I visited the US and was shocked to read that there were teachers who were functionally illiterate. Coming from the UK I was already aware that our A levels, (school leaving exams taken at 18) were the equivalent of US degrees. But that even some of your school teachers could barely read and write was a shock.

"I am going to be a teacher so I should know this." Now that's scary.

"This country simply has no education standards anymore." Never have truer words ever been spoken.

"Stop The Madness, Stop Melanie Stansbury!" Still gets me😂😂

Before I even went to school my brother, who later for a time decades later was a grade school teacher, taught me how to count, colors, we did memory games with magnets on the fridge. I remember my brother chastising me on my coloring exercise that Incolored out of the lines and went all over the place. i remember asking why does it matter! He showed me. It made sense. Dad would take my brother and I when were in grade school during the week to the library. This was in the 60’s. We learned to use the card catalogue to look up books. I’d remember in second grade I took out a book on Archeology. Never learned it in school but it was interesting. And he book was. Dad said you don’t understand that book! It’s too hard for you! a high school level! I said Insure do understand! So dad, who was a Harvard grad, found a passage in the book, read it, and then ordered me to read it. Math was my downfall but I was darn good with reading. So I read the passage and summarized the paragraph. Me! Only in 2nd grade at the time. He was amazed! My parents thought it odd that I loved reading our encyclopedias often. It had black and white pictures and also some colored pictures especially with Indians. It only went up to 1968. So one day I came upon a picture of a horseshoe crab and read it. A couple years later when we went to Cape Cod there were lots of dead horseshoe crabs that I’d never seen in person dead, but remembered what they looked like from the encyclopedia, told dad and said I don’t believe you! We got home, showed him a picture and he never questioned me again. I chose to learn things on my own. I learned things from when dad would take my brother and ai to the library and I was good enough at reading so I understood and was able to summarize what I read and I was never taught how to summarize! I figured it out on my own! Dad took me to the planetarium. He slept I listened to the program. He took me to the health museum. He slept I paid attention. Ironically dad went into the medical supply business later and I used to read his Lancet and JAMA magazines asking questions. Dad then bought a game for me where it was a human body and I was to put the plastic organs where they should be. I did it because I wanted to learn not because I had to. I never had an anatomy class until high school. Dad would take me to the Art Museum. The pictures were fair. But my favorite room was very bright and had a giant horse in armor along with his knight rider. I loved that room. He took me to the Natural History Museum. It was the first time I’d seen diorama displays. And my hobby art work are diorama displays. Are people a little dim nowadays? Yes! But then you have to ask yourself why. Dependent too much on teachers or not bothering to look up things and learn new things on their own! Nowadays you have the internet to learn. There was no internet when I was a kid. In 1966 when I was 7 family went to Washington D.C. I had a little flashbulb camera and took my first pictures out of the window in the Washington Monument. I begged for a camera! I have a Polaroid now that I just keep around but played around with that. No one taught me about photography I learned on my own and watched my brother develop pictures the old fashioned way with a darkroom. Note to self. Open the door of a darkroom you get hit. But ai learned the concept that a dark room is dark for a reason not just a word. We went to a Japanese restaurant and sat on the floor with those little tables. The staff were all Japanese and the waitress wore the first kimono ai’d ever seen. I asked a bunch of questions. Mom expected me to be ignorant. Chastised me for asking so many questions, but the waitress was intrigued by my insatiable curiosity. She loved my questions. I have three beautiful Japanese dolls in kimono and I think of that waitress. Was taken so much by her culture I have Japanese dolls and after having a Chinese e-mail friend who was going to school here and doing genetics, she sent me her artwork in cut outs. I opened myself up to new cultures and on my own! Are people nowadays dimmer? Yes! Now we can blame the education system all we want, but let’s also blame the people themselves for not trying to learn things on their own. Not listening carefully to questions to test knowledge. We yell at the school system. Yell at those schools who ban books with teachers and librarians complying by covering or removing books because their job is more important than kids learning! What are you doing parents to enrich your kids and teach! YOU teach them not to bully! That’s not the job of teachers! YOU get your snoots out of your smart phones and take your kids to libraries, museums! Mom once took me to an art store. I didn’t get clay it was this sawdust stuff. Mom said are you sure? I said yes. Well couldn’t shape it like clay so made a plaque with it. I taught myself! Mom once asked do you want to learn how to bake. I said sure! So we would bake chocolate chip cookies. Mom got the supplies, and under her watchful eye I learned measurements, how to use a mixer. Back then it was the kind with two spinning thingies. I learned about how to turn on the oven, how to set it, how to time it. I never forgot it. I took cooking classes. Only thing I remember was making sugar cookies. The point is I wanted to learn! We had school field trips to symphonies. Everyone else was bored. I loved it! I begged mom and dad to sign the permission slip. Yell at stupid people? Where are parents teaching their kids! Why do teachers have to be forced to be policemen, disciplinarians! Parents should be doing that! My father said the most interesting thing when I wanted to drop out of the 10th grade. He said what will you do for a job? I said work for you. He said I don’t care if you go to college but you WILL have a high school diploma! No such thing as a G.E.D. that ai ever heard of. I had tutors to help me with math. Everything else ai was good in. And I graduated! High school class of 1978. Today no one values a high school diploma. Now my parents were Harvard and Penn State. My brother several colleges. Me nope. But I wanted to learn so I got to sign up for sign language classes, Spanish Classes, had a French tutor. I wanted to learn! I learn Spanish off UKposts. The point is we can laugh all we want about how dim these people are who can’t answer questions. But the real question should be, why did they not want to learn! Why did they not pay attention! Why do they not try to learn new things. And why do parents not encourage it! Once I proved to my parents that I’m not stupid, they decided you want to learn we’ll help you. Books, games, museums, you have a hobby go all the way with it! I cringe listening to these people. They like being OK I’ll say it, stupid. Laugh all you want about it, but ask yourself, are you any better? I look things up all the time. I need to learn something! I do my hobby art figuring out things, testing paints, fabrics. Why I made myself a stem for a paint brush. No one taught me. I figured it out for myself. I did it with incense sticks. I had to cut them to the right length. I had to look closely to see which sticks were the thinnest. I had to figure out mathematically how to arrange them so they’d fit the brush tip. Doesn’t sound like much. But I didn’t need to depend on a school to do it. I figured it out myself. People nowadays don’t want to figure out things for themselves. Not exactly being an Einstein to make your own paint brush handle? You try it! I never did it before and was successful. Learning has to come within. You want to learn you’ll go to any length. And you never stop learning! If it’s not taught in school you look it up since everything is online. You complain something is banned from learning in school you find that banned book online and read it. You want to about other cultures you find that online and learn it. The day one stops learning is the day they’re passed on. My paternal grandfather never finished he fifth grade forced to drop out and work to support the family. No child labor laws back then. He could read and write and his cursive writing was magnificent. He listened to news, absorbed newspapers. Read books. He was the most self taught educated fifth grade drop out I’d ever seen. I remember in nursery school we planted radishes. We did art. And I wasn’t allowed to do the simple stuff. In 4th grade we learned how to make clay with flour water and other things I can’t remember. It was in regular class not art class. We were supposed to make hanging Christmas ornaments. I wanted to make a simple bird. Oh no my teacher said.you can do better. You make it detailed. So I did. I fell in love with art after that and got good grades in it. The point is I was encouraged, the second point is I chose to continue learning and improving. Lots of my teachers had no expectations of me. Three decided I needed to live up to expectations. You make the best art you can. Figure it out! You can write script better than that, do it and I did. Never stop learning! The education system may be awful nowadays but it’s up to you not say fine and not try to learn on your own if parents don’t want to spend the time to help.

I watched this and laughed. Then the reality of this hit me hard. We are so screwed.

Pure George Carlin!!! I started teaching in 1969. My students were non-academic high school students. I retired as a college professor in 2018. With few exceptions, my 15- and 16-year-old high school students of1969 wrote and spoke more articulately than my 20- and 21-year-old college students of 2018. How do I know? Over the years I kept writing samples.

A great man once said "Of the people, by the people, for the people" but what if the people are a bunch of idiots?

Beautiful. Bill Maher has become the George Carlin of our generation. I've been watching his Club Random podcast to hold me over for the long wait till Real Time returns. Thankfully Bill will be back, strike or not.

Living in this country Is like watching the evolutionary chart going backwards.

Like Carlin said, "The owners of the country do not want a population of critically thinking people." But after watching that clip, I' certain even Carlin would be stunned by it.

Bill Maher is telling it like it is!! Rock on, Bill!!!

I once had the surprisingly difficult job of trying to answer the following question: "How can you drive 55 miles per hour if you drive less than one hour"?

I taught Kindergarten in the Seattle Tacoma area for 20 years. About 15 years ago we were told to “just pass them”. Even if the parents were BEGGING for their child to be held back, they wouldn’t do it. It was sickening. I resigned a few years ago because I just couldn’t be part of it any more. They are so worried about social justice and being innovative that they have lost what the basic fundamentals on why we teach in the first place.

My sister gets angry when I use words she doesn't know the meaning. I told her I'm trying to improve my vocabulary, not belittle her. Hence, this would be a good opportunity for her to learn. I think that because I earned an MA in history, some people get intimidated. I'm not that smart. I just worked hard to earn my degrees.

You know what, I'm from Greece and it's an election year and I'm sad to say that if the political ads that Maher is making fun of were made in my country, it would be a big improvement.

"The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists." ~Hannah Arendt

Like bill says: "politicians can do anything, because the people don't know anything."

Have been laughing with and at Maher for more years than I can count. Thanks Bill!

Bill Maher tells the truth. Am very grateful.

“The perfect dictatorship would have the appearance of a democracy, but would basically be a prison without walls in which the prisoners would not even dream of escaping. It would essentially be a system of slavery where through consumption and entertainment, the slave would love their servitude.” ~Aldous Huxley

There's a scene in The Incredibles that's absolutely brilliant, but played off as a joke. When Mr. Incredible doesn't want to go to his son's "graduation ceremony," his reasoning is "It's not a graduation. He is moving from the 4th grade to the 5th grade... It's psychotic. They keep creating new ways to celebrate mediocrity. " I taught 8th grade. I watched parents cry at the 8th grade graduation, as if their kid accomplished something. You literally could not fail, could not be held back, could not NOT graduate. It was psychotic.

3:57 That's actually very interesting. In my country, whenever there's a crime story in the media, I've noticed reporters very strictly refer to the victims by their first names, to the suspects by their last names, and to any other person of interest by their profession. So you'd have something like "The Gardener claimed to have last seen Betty leaving with Wozniak that afternoon"

Hi Bill Maher and team, a fan from India. Although I get see your New Rule segment later than the US audiences I never miss one. You and the show are truly are a lucid, unbiased & a clever window in to the American society for me and I hope you win an Emmy soon…although the you’ve already won the “Cojones” 😅. All the best !!

This is what "No Child Left Behind' gets you. Entire generations of college grads who struggle with pre-algebra but feel entitled to every position of power and responsibility.

I'm a teacher and let me tell you: it might be counter-intuitive, but the problem in our schools is not a lack of standards--it's too many standards. That's why they are churning out so many standardized idiots. Top-down educational reforms will always make things worse.

"Truck, gun. Me like these things you like. Vote me!" the delivery was too good !

Absolutely accurate ! They can't even fix their passwords 😂

I never could understand how a generation with hand-held information devices that connect to the internet, giving them all the info in human history at the touch of a button can actually be dumber than generations without the internet.

And this is why I'm a history teacher. To make the world a little less dumb. I'm hoping none of my students ever appear on any of those segments, otherwise I might quit.

This monologue is so accurate and damning... I don't know whether to laugh or cry

Brilliant as always. And what a joy to see Douglas Murray!

This is quite terrifying. It's not only geography they don't understand, they don't know ANYTHING. A deli owner told me that a kid working for him had to use his phone to figure out how long half of a foot-long grinder would be, and when I told a kid selling flowers at the farmers market that I was buying flowers so I could paint them, he couldn't figure out for the life of him why I'd put paint on flowers since they were already colorful. I'm so thankful I'm old and nearly dead!

I’m a conservative, and he’s totally right about the ads. LOL

They all have a diploma and a trophy…… the educational system IS BROKEN!

When I was in school teachers knew their shit. Plus, they didn't give kids the answers nor think that they all deserve trophies.

Frightening...just frightening. As a teacher I'm trying VERY hard to fight back against the culture of social media...and to be honest...social media is DESTROYING our youth.

Involved in Education for over 30 years and he’s 100% correct. I’ve been saying this for 2 decades.

I am self-taught. I dropped out of school in the fifth grade, which is why my critical thinking skills are still intact. I had plenty of time to perfect my craft as a writer. I have spent the last nine months on the street. I had over two thousand dollars taken from my account due to the lack of any effective corporate oversight by our government, and there was nobody else I could have turned to. Believe me, I tried. I don't know what you were expecting from an educational system designed to create capable factory workers for the eighteenth century. Not much has changed since then. Oh, wait, I take that back! They've dropped some curriculum and now I hear that they are not even teaching whole sections of history and banning books.

I’m thankful for Bill Maher Because regardless if we agree on things He speaks what he really thinks and feels Even if it’s not very nice One knows where he stands And that, I respect

This just goes to show what the rest of the world has been saying about America for years

I worked in public schools for years and the amount of kids who were passed through and couldn't read or write was astonishing

We need to upgrade our public education system.

As always, education is one of those issues that is complex, never simple. But at the risk of coming across as if I'm simplifying things to one issue: I do think the reading curriculum debates, and subsequent outcomes, of the past generation or so have had much more of a negative than positive impact...maybe just as much if not more than social media addiction. And this is in consideration, too, of how reading affects EVERY subject area of teaching and learning, not just the English/Language Arts classes.

My 25 year old niece, who has been in college for 5 years now (without a degree yet), says she loves Socialism. When I asked her what she loves about it, she said "everything is free". I reminded her that someone has to pay for things, nothing is absolutely free. "She said, very proudly, "I know that, the money comes from the Government". So, I asked, where the Government gets the money, and she replied, "from the US Treasury". She truly believed that money is just printed by the Treasury and no one has to replace it. How did we end up with kids like this?

I appreciate that Bill has also pointed out the semi literate society we currently live in as well. People not only don't know shit, they can barely read and spell which only adds to the frustration when dealing with idiots and their lack of logic or reasoning.

Yep. Nothing the rest of the world doesn’t already know!

ask them science questions and it gets worse.

Remember what Hannah Arendt said about education: "The aim of totalitarian education has never been to instill convictions but to destroy the capacity to form any"

I want to highlight that as a teacher, one of the key problems we have is our professional standards for teachers suck. The video's "I should know this, I'm going to be a teacher." alludes to this issue. In college/university, professors are more concerned now making sure teachers in training are vessels of empathy and put more emphasis on socialization or kids emotions rather than making sure they actually know, or are passionate about what the f*ck they're teaching as a subject. All the while making sure kids know, and more importantly *can process*, knowledge. Edit: This isn't meant to lean politically. It's an observation that our society has maybe gone a little too far in the direction of feelings and emotional incontinence. Perhaps to the point it's detracting from everything else and even hindering kids becoming more resilient to adversity, which in the coming years- There will be plenty of.

I used to not be able to tolerate Bill Maher but I have to admit, I realize he makes a lot of sense. And yes, we are overrun with dumb asses; zombies entranced with their cell phones and bright, shiny things.

Political ads like that are illegal here in the Netherlands. The creator can be sued for libel if he/she has no evidence for the accusations, which can get you in jail for up to 5 years. This is one of the limitations of free speech I'm all for!

The last decade has really helped in the dumbing down, by creating people who focus on which side of the political spectrum you believe in, rather than on the issue. You need to be able to think and to accept opposing views.

I laughed soooo hard at this entire monologue great great stuff

"me like these things, you like, vote me" 😂

I remember watching "Are you smarter than a fifth grader" a few years back. One of the questions posed to an elementary school teacher was - "You are in America. You get in your car and drive as far north as you can until you hit the border of another nation. If you cross that border, what country would you find yourself in?" She was stymied. She had no idea. The fifth grader had to help her. "Pssst. Canada!" Ouch.

Absolutely pathetic. The teacher was especially sad. My wife retired from teaching 28 years, she had enough. She used to complain how dumb the average teacher was, it was a job of last resort for many because the classes are so easy. Teaching now is more about indoctrination instead of transferring knowledge, sad but true.

Bill you are wonderful, thanks!

And what's really bad is that these people vote.

Bill Maher gets right between the lines and shows how crazy both sides can be. Very impressive I must say.

It's amazing that a generation that has at their literal fingertips more information than that of ALL their ancestors could actually know less

In Australia the “Liberal Party” are the conservatives whereas the “Labor Party” tend to be more left.

It is crazy how I barely skated through high school but it shocks me how high school graduates don’t know things I was taught 20 years ago and still remember somehow. I do construction and is scary teaching a 19 yr old how to reduce fractions

Lilly Tomlin said something like: "No matter how cynical you get, you just can't keep up."

"Idiocracy" is a documentary ahead of its time.

When I was in fifth grade back in the Dark Ages, one guy in my class whole contribution to the class was to sign his name at the top of every test we took, and to answer here when roll was called. He was passed into the sixth grade just like the rest of us. Sounds like most of the class in fifth grade today would be behind him, because he could write his name correctly. What happened to that kid from my class? Most likely he voted for Trump in both 2016 and 2020.

I was in line at a local supermarket when a teenager asked me what time it was. Looking at my trusted analog Timex I responded, "9:35." The young man asked what I meant, and I said, "It's 9:35." Staring at me as if my face simply vanished he asked what time "is that." Reason left me and I envisioned myself driving him to a gravel pit miles from home and kicking him out of my car. Instead, I said "noon", which I instantly regretted when he said, "seems earlier than that."

100% thank you. I remember vividly being in middle school and thinking the show Street Smarts was fake, I couldn’t imagine anyone actually being that dumb. I thought this is a child! I’m first generation went to public school so didn’t have any fancy education but I liked to learn and I didn’t realize how out of the ordinary that is until I joined the work force. So many people are really just sleep walking through life.

Bill is totally back on top of his game: relentless reality

Some are always everywhere. But there,way to many.

Bill you are the best.

This was the most "Carlin"-istic Bill Maher has ever been on this show! Love you Bill.

As a teacher in New York State I do know that diplomas are handed out to students that have not earned them. I believe this practice undermines the value of a diploma and gives it the same worth as a piece of toilet paper in some cases. I also know that the reason for this is because public schools are terrified of having low graduation rates and high drop out percentages which invite state scrutiny and threaten them with the loss of funding the situation turns into a nightmarish catch-22. You either stand up for the standard of your school's education and have students repeat grades (which can be refused by parents) or drop out while losing your funding or you pass students along through the industrialized education processing machine and know that the valedictorian and the 'Queen Elizabeth is from Brazil' graduates will be sporting the same diploma. It's tragic and, while a bit more complex than a quick comic quip, is leading to a slow undermining of the country which, at length, will make social control a highly successful enterprise.

Laughter 🤣🤣

The crowd clapping doesn't realize he means you too... But not me of course 😂

We have lots of education and learning standards, Bill, we're just not allowed to enforce them. If you read any state's standards you will be impressed with what they're expected to do! But when a student misses 20-30 days per nine weeks, turns in no work, fails exams and doesn't bother to even take a retest--not to mention discipline problems--that student is expected to pass anyway. I've literally been flatly told by an administrator, "if a student fails it is the teacher's fault." No teacher is ever praised for having high standards if that results in a failing grade.

Preach, Bill