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?
Cynical Theories by Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay
Race Marxism: The Truth About Critical Race Theory and Praxis also by James Lindsay
Lindsay is his own kind of cuckoo, though. Spends more time friendly firing against imaginary Christian theocracy-fascists than he does worrying about the people that actually have institutional power. He definitely has some good understanding and explanation of some things, but I’d worry about using him as an authoritative figure for anyone who might go haring off into his “both sides but actually the right scares me more” mindset.
His understanding of modern Marxism is pretty much unparalleled. You can not like his anti-nationalist takes but he's dead on when it comes to commie fuckshit.
Pretending the the average person on the Left (or even the elite-tier) is driven by hyperintellectual Marxist critique rather than simply envy/stupidity/rage is its own form of mental illness.
You don't cut through the bullshit by buying into the bullshit and then constructing elaborate critiques of it. You are never going to convince someone with logical arguments who has an emotional attachment to a given set of ideas. In this sense James Lindsay is all about misdirecting centrists & people on the Right. No matter how elaborate or effective your critique Robin DiAngelo or Ibram X Kendi, or whichever shitforbrains Leftist, it's not going to help you politically outsmart a mob of functionally illiterate africans who want to steal your house/car/bankaccount.
What the fuck are you talking about? "Politically outsmart"? Words are not going to save you from that mob, for that you need something belt fed.