We’re not being led by idiots. That would be easier. Idiots don’t build systems this effective.

Look at who wins now. The loudest. The fastest. The most certain. Not the most right. Not the most useful. Just the easiest to consume and our world is a mess! They’re not stupid. They’re optimized. Politicians perform clarity because solving problems is slow and slow doesn’t trend. Celebrities borrow urgency because urgency travels and understanding doesn’t. Creators package reality because packaged reality gets shared and complicated reality sits there, unread, quietly rotting.

Here’s the part that doesn’t go down easy. You built this. Not on purpose. Not out of malice. But every time you paused on outrage instead of scrolling past it, every time you shared something because it made you feel right rather than because it was right, every time you chose the clean take over the messy truth you were casting a vote. You trained the system. Now it trains back. It feeds you sharper versions of what you already believe. Removes cost. Depth costs attention. So depth goes.

The people rising to the top start to look thinner. Not because they’re incapable. Because the system doesn’t filter out weight. It just pays more for lightness. So everything sounds confident. Nothing actually helps. Nothing improves.

Ask a better question. Not “why are they so dumb?” That question flatters you. Keeps you in the audience. Watching. Judging. Untouched.

Ask instead what someone intelligent would even look like in a system that punishes thinking. Would they go viral? Would you slow down long enough to notice them? Or would they disappear under someone louder, faster, more certain?

If the answer is no, and it probably is ,then we’re not selecting leaders.

We’re selecting for a feeling.

The feeling that things make sense and if someone actually told you the truth, slowly, with doubt, without performance… you’d scroll.