I have a coworker who is a traditional liberal now pretty conservative who is starting to really question things. He's talking a lot about how people seem to be getting stupid and Universities don't teach smart things anymore. He read a book called Coddling the American Mind. I looked into the book and it seems to scratch the surface.
In my opinion the problem at the end of the day is equality. Cultural Marxism aka Critical Theory pushes equality and these concepts have been brought into our education along with feminism which has created an education system no longer about promoting superiority in knowledge and expertise but in promoted equality which of course lowers the quality of everything. Are there any good books that highlight the promotion of equality as the problem with "dumbing down Americans" and how this view of equality has been pushed by the rulers of society for the last century leading to the situation we're in now. Could also tie into how wealth and abundance leads to these scenarios etc... any good books on the subject you'd recommend?
By Greg Lukianoff, one of the founders of FIRE (The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression).
FIRE is great. They are old school free speech absolutists. They support students and faculty members who fall afoul of wrongthink or saying something that offends snowflakes. One of the few activist organization I would support with donations.
and Haidt, the one who does all that psychology on liberals vs conservatives (and libertarians).
He's not that far right himself, but his research is widely cited and useful to the right.