Carl Sagan, in 1995:

I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time -- when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness...

The dumbing down of American is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance

This.

It's an absolutely unfair comparison for Camacho, who was a pretty good leader considering the setting of the film.

I guess it shows what I believe: that eventually humanity will tire of punching ourselves if we don't cause our own extinction first.

we get further past idiocracy every day

Camacho actually wanted to solve the country's problems.

No, as others have pointed out, Camacho knew he wasn't the smartest and listened to the guy who was. That's leagues above where we are.

Don't make me beg

They were stupid but not evil.

Nobody in the movie sought to oppress others for their own gain.

I wouldn’t be surprised that Musky just grabbed a chainsaw with no safety precautions.

I sure as hell wouldn't mention that ahead of time.

Which one was that? You can, uh, hold the images. Words will do fine here.

It's worse. There is stupidity and ignorance and then there is melevelence and outright hatred.

Not only is he not just some "thumbs up guy" he's "libertarian" president of Argentina Javier Gerardo Milei... Who is currently doing a bang up job of ruining his country too.

We live in the worst timeline. :/

He is the chainsaw guy. He campaigned using a chainsaw as a prop for slashing budgets.

I dunno but I really hoped sometime else was going to point out how shitty that chainsaw looks, I'd also love to see Elon cut down a tree without an Internet connection to look it up.