Yesterday, I saw Dune 2 in a huge theater (with only one other patron.) Before the feature presentation, I was subjected to 35 minutes of torture. First a series of ads, then one preview after another full of loud explosions and ridiculous CGI monsters. (Remakes of Planet of the Apes, King Kong and Mad Max, among other things.)
It’s fruitless for me to bemoan the state of modern cinema, as these films are not aimed at me. In fact, Hollywood is doing an increasingly effective job at giving viewers what they want. As a film lover I’m appalled, but as an economist I applaud.
During the course of my life, I’ve seen corporate America become better and better at figuring out what people want. Here are a few other examples:
My wife and I often complain that restaurant food is too salty. But why is that? it probably reflects the fact that most people like salty food. The restaurant industry is become more efficient, better at producing giant portions of the sort of salty (and sweet) food that people wish to consume. Hence obesity.
When I was young, the news media consisted of dignified figures like Walter Cronkite and David Brinkley. Now you turn on the cable news and see mindless bimbos screeching out partisan propaganda at the top of their lungs. (Fox is the worst, but many other news sites have also gotten worse.) The TV industry figured out that people don’t want Walter Cronkite; they want wild conspiracy theories promoted by people yelling at the TV screen.
In the film American Splendor, there was this exchange between two characters
Mattress Guy #1: So is the girl smart?
Mattress Guy #2: Well, I guess she’s about average.
Mattress Guy #1: Average! Man, average is dumb!
With a few notable exceptions, the vast majority of readers of this blog have IQs well above 100. It’s tempting to assume that people with IQs of 100 are stupid. But they aren’t—they are average. In the days of Cronkite and Brinkley, TV news was pitched to people with IQs of 115. Now it’s aimed at average people. They only seem stupid, because you and your acquaintances live in a bubble surrounded by people who are above average.
The modern media is getting better at delivering what consumers want. Don’t like it? You are not the target audience.
PS. Even Trump and Biden presumably have IQs above 100. They only seem dumb because we subconsciously expect our presidents to be above average.
PPS. So what does average intelligence look like? This:
Robinson, who is the state’s lieutenant governor, has said he “wouldn’t be surprised” if the 1969 moon landing was fake and the 9/11 terrorist attacks were an “inside job.” He’s “SERIOUSLY skeptical” of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination and of the 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas. He falsely accused David Hogg, a survivor of the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, of being a paid actor. He’s claimed that climate change is based on “junk science.” . . .
In lesser-noticed social media posts, Robinson has said that news coverage of police shootings is part of a media conspiracy “designed to push US towards their new world order.” He and his wife both liked a since-deleted Facebook comment that stated, “WWG1WGA are my ‘Identity’ letters,” a reference to the QAnon rallying cry “Where we go one, we go all.” In October 2018, on a day when authorities intercepted pipe bombs intended for President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and CNN, Robinson suggested on Facebook that they had done it to themselves. “If you can’t beat ’em, bomb yourself,” he wrote.
When Trump finally passes from the scene, Robinson will be the new face of the GOP.