this post was submitted on 14 Apr 2026
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The new research is the first to measure community water fluoridation exposure during childhood and any potential impact on cognition up to age 80.

The paper is here

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[–] kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world 8 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

The President being dumber than any president before, and frankly dumber than most people in many ways, doesn't mean that humanity as a whole has become collectively stupider.

In the 50s doctors had recommendations for the healthiest cigarettes. In the 70s, they thought they could give people drugs to unlock superhuman mental abilities. In the 90s, people thought mortal kombat was responsible for gun violence. In the 2010s, we thought that social media would free the world from corporate media control and misinformation (and not that it leads to shit like Trump). And today we have people who outsource their every thought, question, and task to an AI chat bot.

Now that last one will almost certainly lead to dumber people. Average IQs fluctuate, and are in part dependent on good health and nutrition and the ability to regularly exercise logic and critical thinking at a young age. As people outsource more of their critical thinking to a robot, they may very well get dumber. But on the whole, as it is now, we've always had smart people and we've always had dumb people. Your bias towards seeing more dumb people is just that, a bias. You'll see what you're looking for. But a single point of reference is never going to be a good judge for the whole system.