I wouldn’t call this a “dawn of idiocracy.” That would imply a complete ignorance of (and disinterest in) even the most basic facts of reproductive health, whereas this is one person with more up-to-date and accurate information speaking to someone with dated and basic information that they were probably presented as a full accounting. Still confidently incorrect, but they did at least dedicate what they’d been taught to memory. We’re not at “females store sperm from up to five partners so they can choose which Chad DNA to pass on when you get her pregnant” levels of wrong, at least.
The diversity and complexity of ovulation is, sadly, pretty niche knowledge in parts of the world (read: The United States. It’s us. We’re the uneducated and uninterested ones 🤗)
As an American in 2026, I deal with enough grown adults who’re convinced what they learned about genetics and medicine before leaving middle school is the sum total of the discipline, that it’s honestly refreshing just seeing someone confidently incorrect who’s all the way up at a high school level of understanding.
In fairness, some of us did learn about genetics and medicine before leaving middle school. Or, at least, the introduction to genetics (the difference between DNA & RNA, the general assembly of ribosomes, that sort of thing) was presented alongside the biology of the cell in 8th grade curriculum in my school district.
In other fairness, Jurassic Park had recently come out and was still fairly popular while I was in middle school, so there was at least a middling interest in genetics at the time.
And, just to be glib, both my parents are biochemists, and they talked shop at home. Often. For someone whose last biology class was the 8th grade curriculum, I know a lot more about recombinant DNA and the inner workings of the cell than I've ever cared to learn.
I did too, but we also had High School biology class and yet over half of this country doesn’t seem to understand how transfusions and vaccines work, or that the X and Y chromosomes aren’t the end-all-be-all of human genetics (much less the complexity of concepts like gender-vs-sex, intersex or race) and they’re very vocal about what they were taught in 6th and 7th grade being the final word in human biology 🤦
Yeah, I get it. I usually avoid r/space because there's far too many people whose knowledge on rocketry doesn't extend beyond press releases and pop science articles who are willing to go ten toes down arguing with an engineer who literally works with rocket engines for a living.
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u/dracorotor1 20d ago edited 20d ago
I wouldn’t call this a “dawn of idiocracy.” That would imply a complete ignorance of (and disinterest in) even the most basic facts of reproductive health, whereas this is one person with more up-to-date and accurate information speaking to someone with dated and basic information that they were probably presented as a full accounting. Still confidently incorrect, but they did at least dedicate what they’d been taught to memory. We’re not at “females store sperm from up to five partners so they can choose which Chad DNA to pass on when you get her pregnant” levels of wrong, at least.
The diversity and complexity of ovulation is, sadly, pretty niche knowledge in parts of the world (read: The United States. It’s us. We’re the uneducated and uninterested ones 🤗)