Some attempts at dumbing down don’t go far enough for our columnist. He has an idea
If one looks for the reasons for human stupidity, one comes across all the genetic, mimetic and social conditions as well as the interests of a few who want to derive an advantage for themselves from the fact of the ignorance of their fellow human beings.
They have developed tactics throughout history to work progressively with the stupidity of the majority. This includes dumbing down and fooling around. These two tactics can be found again and again in public.
The field of dumbing down is reliably taken over by the educational media such as the “Bild” newspaper, private television and social networks.
For example, I would place the renaming of large arenas in the area of selling for fools. Cities have been selling the right to name their arenas for about 30 years. This leads to the strangest naming monsters:
The Philips Hall in Düsseldorf became the “Mitsubishi Electric Hall”. MSV Duisburg suddenly played in the “Schauinsland-Reisen-Arena”. In Halle, the local stadium first became the “Erdgas Sportpark” and then the “Leuna Chemie Stadion”. The fans of Eintracht Frankfurt, who had been making pilgrimages to Frankfurt’s Waldstadion for decades, suddenly ran into the “Commerzbank Arena”. And the former Leipzig Central Stadium then traded as the “Red Bull Arena”.
It was particularly bad for Greuther Fürth with the “Playmobil Stadium” and especially SC Wiener Neustadt, because they were suddenly playing in the “Teddy Bear and Plush Stadium”. Since we have sold football and sports clubs such as Bayer Leverkusen, Opel Rüsselsheim and Gummi Mayer Landau for a long time, I don’t understand why entire city names are not sold at the same time.
Airbus Hamburg, Continental Hanover or Berlin by Sony would be a chic and appropriate further development of this trend. I would even provide my own name if someone wanted to buy me. I could well imagine Rocko “Tschibo” Schamoni, for example.