2 words:
Public education

I was too dumb to realize I was being dumbed, so it had no effect on me.
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I used to get a lot of teasing and bullying, but for the most part, I did not respond and it mostly all went away. Its no fun for your would be tormentor if you are not responding to them.
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Similar to the troll ' problem ' here. No response ? no fun. no fun ? no Troll.
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Yes I know I got off topic, but the 2 things are related, to me.

Yes - by an apathetic, abscessed school system complete with completely inappropriate lunch selection for growing kids being forced to not only sit still for more than 8 hours a day, but to sit still for more than 8 hours while enduring the mockery of learning they call that force-feeding they do nowadays; by a constant assault of industrial byproducts, and even products, and the chemicals of unrecorded effect therein; by a fluoridated water system, despite a mountain of evidence that fluoride's dental benefits offset the harm they do to the body; by a never-ending stream of ants, spiders, and tree roaches all pumped up on Dow chemicals crawling around on my property; by a media conglomerate designed to ram its hooks into the deepest, most vulnerable parts of the mind from even before the moment of birth, to drag us through a decaying hellscape of self-destructive, environment-unfriendly, foresight-robbed consumerism throughout our lives; by experts of every field disgusting enough to peddle misinformation, or even worse, spin the truth for the sake of job security; by the short-sighted, power-hungry imbeciles that actually try to pass themselves off as genuine ubermenschen (of which there have been distressingly few these last decades), who don't know the difference between catching the bull by the horns and actually steering the thing; and finally, I am dumbed and robbed of my full potential by the broken, stubborn generations before me that have walked this valley of death I render above, and not come out whole - this being the vast majority of the populace.
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Teenage wasteland is more than a song - it's the phenomenon by which all that is good and healthy and positive in children is robbed of us by fire and chemicals and hate and wicked, knowing hands.

Sitting among people that were complacent and content being as they were had temporarily dulled my edge. I recognize that I can not keep company very long with people who are not continually striving to better themselves.

Nope. I even know how to spell "dumbed."

Never let that happen!

Would not call it dumbed down exactly just a friend helping me improve.

yes, by the education system. it's dumbed down for the kids who end up failing every class anyway.