At this point, it’s undeniable: humanity is far too stupid for the internet it built. Not adorable, harmless stupid. I mean historically, civilization-level stupid. Future historians will look back at this era and ask, bewildered, “So they invented tools that could detect lies instantly… and still believed AI videos of Oprah crying over discount codes?” That’s where we are.

And it’s not just one platform dragging society down. Facebook used to be the main stage for digital foolishness, but now Instagram, TikTok, X, YouTube, Threads, Snapchat — all of them — are overflowing with AI-generated nonsense. Every day brings a fresh wave of fake photos, fabricated news, glitchy deepfakes, and Frankensteined celebrity images that would’ve been obvious parodies ten years ago. But now? People treat them like eyewitness testimony.

On Facebook, users spread AI images of celebrities with extra fingers and inspirational quotes written in Comic Sans as if they came from the Library of Congress. Instagram is flooded with AI fashion girls whose bodies look like a Photoshop tutorial gone wrong, and yet thousands of commenters insist they’re “body goals.” TikTok has become the unofficial headquarters for deepfake voices telling people to quit their jobs, cure anxiety with raw garlic, and distrust anyone who recommends sunscreen. X — formerly Twitter but now functioning as a conspiracy laundromat — pushes out entire fictional news cycles before breakfast. YouTube hosts long-winded conspiracy sermons delivered by people who aren’t qualified to operate a blender, yet claim to have inside information on the global elite. Even Threads and Snapchat, the calmer cousins, are slowly being swallowed by AI chaos.

But the real issue isn’t the technology. It’s us. We are too arrogant, too uninformed, and too eager to believe anything that confirms our personal worldview. People don’t fact-check anymore; they vibe-check. They measure the truth of a post by how it makes them feel, or whether it supports the argument they’re already committed to. If it stirs outrage, shock, or righteous indignation, it gets reposted. If someone they went to school with shares it, that’s apparently as credible as a peer-reviewed study. And if a stranger with a blue check mark posts it? Instant scripture.

The funniest — and scariest — part is that deepfakes don’t even need to be convincing. A video can have a face that flickers like a bad Zoom filter, an eye doing its own thing, a mouth that moves like a sock puppet, and people will still declare, “This seems real to me.” You can show someone a photo of Beyoncé with three elbows and they’ll say, “Wow, didn’t see this in the mainstream media.” No, darling, because the mainstream media is flawed — but not stupid.

For a while, the fake content was harmless, even cute. AI babies with cartoon eyes, AI puppies that looked like Pixar characters, AI food nobody wanted to eat. Now the stakes have escalated into something darker: political deepfakes that sway voters, fabricated crimes designed to spark racial tension, fake activist statements meant to fracture entire movements, and AI “doctors” giving medical advice so dangerous it should come with a body count. People are making real decisions — political, financial, emotional, and medical — based on content created by a neural network that also thinks humans regularly have seven fingers per hand.

What makes it worse is that people want to believe the lies. Fake news gives them something to fear. Fake videos give them someone to blame. Fake statements give them something to preach. And fake outrage gives them the validation they don’t get anywhere else. Truth is boring. Lies are entertaining. And in a world where attention is currency, entertainment wins every time.

We are not spiraling because artificial intelligence is too advanced. We are spiraling because natural intelligence is in rapid decline. The average social media user will watch a pixelated AI clip of “Michelle Obama robbing a convenience store” and respond, completely sincerely, “This country is going downhill.” The problem is not the country. The problem is their inability to recognize a fake video that looks like it was rendered on a toaster.

Unless something changes — and soon — the future won’t be shaped by the smartest minds, the strongest institutions, or the most credible voices. It will be shaped by whoever can generate the most believable lie in under thirty seconds.

AI isn’t the threat. Our stupidity is.