Yes I notice this and it is very annoying. People are just plain boring any more and they try to make everything into a stupid joke or take it as an insult to start a fight. Mulling something over seems impossible for them. They just want to act like they know it all on the spur of the moment, so what is the point of even trying to have a discourse with them to learn something new? Most people will be stuck in the same ideologies no matter how much they talk about and debate them, like they never change their minds.

I don't know if this is chemical poisoning, early alzheimers or if it is just laziness of thinking. People seem to rely more on their base instincts rather than higher thought processes, espeically those involving moral questions. That is why most people are spiritually retarded. They can't get past their own first impressions, even when it comes to the things God.

Colleges even seem to dumb you down instead of encouraging questioning and developing new ideas and methods. They think that the Socratic style of teaching means to never teach but to drop hints to get people to give the answer that they expect. That is really more like brain washing than stimulating learning however. I don't really think that is what Socrates had in mind when he said to teach by asking questions. The questions really need to come from within the students themselves and not just be rhetorical devices.

Losing control over one's own higher thought processes leads to insanity. If you don't use it you lose it. If you are able to think, keep it up, or you will just be herded to you demise with the rest of the dumb beasts.