The Top 40

All it needed was a link to discounted furniture or something and it would have been the spambot post ever.

It's hard to know what ArtfIdgr's's point is. But I would make these observations and hope that they are on point.

Intelligent people do what they do. They are everywhere and they are present in every socio-economic strata. The world's population is increasing and, so, I think it is reasonable to conclude that the population of "smart" people is also increasing.

ArtfIdgr's main mistake is that he thinks that intellectuals and ideologues are "smart" people. They are not. They may get high scores on "intelligence" tests but I thought we were long past any notion that I.Q. tests measure intelligence. They measure academic ability (VR + NA) and that is quite distinct from being "smart".

If our country is in bad shape it is because we have come to conflate academic achievement with superior ability and appoint and/or elect these people to positions of power.

That intellectuals, ideologues and their disciples are not procreating, i.e. exterminating themselves, is, in my view, a good thing. In fact, we could hasten the process of exterminating what passes for the intellectual class, aka: the left, by hiving off the hard sciences from the universities, burning the remainder and driving a stake through the hearts their inhabitants.

BTW, do you think that ArtfIdgr's first name is "Joe" and didn't he used to be in Lil Abner cartoons with black clouds following him wherever he went?

Artfidgr's post strikes me as apocalypse porn. How many predictions by whatever govt agency has actually been what happened? So worrying about what happens in 2050 as predicted by such an agency is probably about as pointless as worrying about what happens in 2525 according to Zager and Evans.

Artfldgr does an amazing amount of research. Obviously has way too much time on his hands. There are, however, nuggets in his long posts that are often worthwhile, but you have to screen too much pyrite to get to the gold. He should write conspiracy theory novels. He can spot a conspiracy where even a double agent could not.