idiocracy

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We can find idiocracy in the 1870s for “personal rule.” The -cracy part, seen in words like aristocracy or democracy, is from the Greek kratos, “rule.”

Idiocracy, as a coinage for “government run by idiots,” is found as early as the 1960s. The term was popularized, though, by the 2006 film Idiocracy though. A similar term for a government run by society’s worst is kakistocracy. Use it with your friends today … you’ll sound smart.

Directed and written by Mike Judge of Beavis and Butthead and Office Space fame, Idiocracy was released in 2006. It follows two people (played by Luke Wilson and Maya Rudolph) who awake after 500 years of suspended animation only to discover that the human race has become extremely stupid due to a commercialistic culture that discourages smart people from having children. Most memorably, Terry Crews portrays US President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho, a gun-toting muscleman whose ineptitude and braggadocio make him a poor leader.

Idiocracy had a very limited release and wasn’t even screened for critics, though it earned relatively high ratings on sites like Rotten Tomatoes and built up a cult fandom. It was thrust into the mainstream, though, during and since the 2016 presidential election, with cultural observers comparing the candidacy and presidency of Donald Trump to Idiocracy. To his critics, the comparisons center on Trump’s rejection of facts, norms, and principles for nativist rhetoric as well as to Trump’s vanity and professional disinterest and his administration’s lack of preparation.

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During the 2016 presidential campaign, Terry Crews hinted at reprising his President Camacho role in ads against Trump, but they never materialized (nor did talks of a sequel in 2012).