Methodology & disclaimer

The Idiocracy Index measures, on a 0-100 scale, the level of civilizational stupidity displayed by the political decisions and collective behaviors reported in the news. The "69 line" marks the critical threshold: past it, Brawndo has won.

⚠️ Disclaimer (please read). This site is a work of satire in the tradition of The Onion and the Babylon Bee. The scores are humorous, hyperbolic exaggerations. They are not verifiable statements of fact about any country, government, or population. Any resemblance to reality is… frankly concerning, but still a joke.

What we rate (and what we refuse to rate)

We rate actions: absurd decisions, anti-science rhetoric, political spectacle, surrenders of reason. We never rate peoples, ethnicities, religions, or named individuals. Wealthy countries get judged just as harshly (harder, in fact) than poor ones. Our number-one target is, of course, the superpower that turned Idiocracy into a documentary.

How the score works, the six "Idiocracy" axes

Forget pseudo-objective indices. The Index is built on the six forces the film itself identifies as dragging a civilization toward idiocracy. Each country is rated 0-100 on every axis (0 = resisting idiocracy, 100 = full Idiocracy), and the overall score is their weighted average:

Axis	Toward idiocracy ↑ / away ↓	Weight
🧪 Science vs. pseudoscience	↑ anti-science policy, pseudoscience as law · ↓ evidence-based decisions	20%
🎪 Substance vs. spectacle	↑ governing by show, meme, brute force · ↓ competent, sober governance	20%
🏛️ Public good vs. corporate capture	↑ corporations capturing the state · ↓ institutions serving citizens	20%
📚 Knowledge vs. anti-intellectualism	↑ mocking expertise, dumbing down · ↓ education, literacy, nuance	15%
🧠 Critical thinking vs. propaganda	↑ conformity, attacks on the press · ↓ skepticism, free press	15%
⏳ Long-term vs. instant gratification	↑ short-termism, ignored consequences · ↓ planning, sustainability	10%

Every day, an AI reads the real news (via GDELT), classifies each relevant story onto one of the six axes, rates its impact (+ toward / − away from idiocracy), and re-rates the country's six axes. The overall score is the weighted sum above; continents and the world are averages of their countries.

Honest caveat: this is a satirical, qualitative judgment made by a language model, anchored on the film's themes, not a peer-reviewed metric. A score only moves when there's actual news. The "69 line" (40 = sensible, 69 = critical, 90+ = Brawndo won) is a vibe, not a law of nature.

Why we BAN "national IQs"

The "average IQ by country" datasets floating around online come from the work of Richard Lynn, published by a white-nationalist press, built on invented data (for 104 of 185 countries, no real data existed), and scientifically discredited. Using them would be both racist and false. We do not use them, period. A "stupidity score" built on that would just be a xenophobic ranking in disguise. Exactly what we despise.

Data sources

GDELT Project: global news monitoring in 100+ languages, updated every 15 min (free).
Transparency International: Corruption Perceptions Index.
Reporters Without Borders: World Press Freedom Index.
Economist Intelligence Unit: Democracy Index.
UNESCO / OECD (PISA): education and literacy.

The "news stupidity" scoring runs automatically every day via a language model, following a public satirical rubric. The humor, however, stays handcrafted.

Right of reply

A country feels defamed? A reminder that reputation is an individual right: you can't defame "everyone who lives in a country" (Supreme Court of Canada, Bou Malhab, 2011). But we'll still read your angry emails with pleasure.

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