[Ads-l] idiocracy

[MULLINS, WILLIAM D (Bill) CIV USARMY CCDC AVMC (USA)]

>  Mike Judge's crude but prophetic film satire appeared in 2006, but this may
>  be the first time I've seen it used as a common noun. (Surely not!):
>
>
>  https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/max-boot-blame-coronavirus-column-103956270.html
>
>
>  " 'We are living — and now dying — in an idiocracy of our own creation,'
>  conservative columnist Max Boot concluded his latest column for The
>  Washington Post.

OED has 1967 [1907 for idiotcracy, from Ambrose Bierce, natch]

1831 _Leicester Chronicle_ Feb 19 3/5 [newspapers.com]
"Perhaps they vary in equal extent to the human countenance, and may be said to constitute the peculiar systems of our mental idiocracy."

1859 _Baltimore Sun_ Oct 6 2/1 [geneaologybank.com]
"And his openly expressed wish that the riot had included the little episode of pitching the captain overboard, imparts to the bench of the Criminal Court of Baltimore an idiocracy that will be esteemed abroad as singularly in keeping with the unfortunate notoriety the record of certain exploits in our city has inflicted upon it."

2005 _New York Times Magazine_ May 8 25/2
"Something against this idiocracy, against the mass product, which is the sign and symbol of all the world today."
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