The cumulative, mean and median IQs have always been low.

But academic leaders in eastern German in the 1890 included numerous people with IQs well over 160, leaders in the US in the 1960s and 1970s were often in the 150s.

Now our communications are dominated by people who use modest IQs only to bring uninterruptible chatterbox fluency to arguments that appeal to the lowest common denominator. The Know Nothings of the 1850s began as a secret society. Today's Republicans are in the thrall of the heirs of the John Birch Society, the KKK, and The Business Plot of the 1930s. Charles Koch is proud that his rats nest of dark money pools provides anonymity to the donors.