Idiocracy
id-ee-OK-ruh-seenoun
DiagnosisTerminal
What it means
A system in which the least qualified people travel furthest, which everybody treats as satire right up until they check who is in charge.
What it actually means
The word came first. The film only made it a diagnosis.
How it is used in a sentence
"They put the marketing director in charge of public health. That is when idiocracy stopped being a funny word."
Why this one is here
The film did not invent the word. It is first attested in 1967, and Ambrose Bierce was writing "idiotocracy" as far back as 1909. What the film did was make it the only word available for the feeling, which is why it now does work that "decline" used to do.
Filed under
Systemic Absurdities — Prices, platforms and institutions that were designed this way and would prefer you assumed otherwise.
Diagnosis — The phrase already names a real problem. We define it properly.
Related entries
Enshittification
Systemic Absurditiesen-SHIT-ih-fih-KAY-shunnounDiagnosis
The predictable arc in which a platform is good to its users until it has enough of them, then good to its advertisers until it has enough of those, then good to nobody.
Real meaningIt was good, you were the product, and now there is nothing left to extract.
The Illusion of Choice
Systemic AbsurditiesnounCoinage
Being offered fourteen options that are the same product from four companies, two of which turn out to be the same company.
Real meaningYou are choosing between the same three owners.