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https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stefan_Molyneux https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stefan_Molyneux

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
Causality1 6y ago
Wow that guy's an idiot. He actually claims the Iraq War was a failure because Iraqis have IQs in the 80s and are therefore incapable of accepting democracy. Racism aside, if you've done even a bit of reading on IQ you know it's been rising for decades if not longer. His Jeffersonian Democracy was built by people with an IQ that would be in the 80s today.
- burkaman 6y ago
  Can you point to some of that reading? Pedantically, that goes against the definition of IQ, where 100 is always average so it can't really increase over time, but your general point about people getting smarter doesn't intuitively make sense to me. Obviously we have more knowledge and resources to build on today, but I've never seen any reason to believe modern humans are smarter from birth than humans born 300 years ago.
  - user982 6y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - oakschris 6y ago
    See the Flynn Effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect IQ by definition averages to 100, but if you compare present populations to past populations without the normalization there's a significant difference.
  - greenshackle2 6y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect I'm no expert but my impression is that it's a widely accepted finding in psychology. The average IQ is 100 by definition and constantly adjusted, yes, but you can keep track of which way it's being adjusted. My fairly uneducated guess would be improved nutrition and reduced disease burden are big factors.
  - chrchang523 6y ago
    Several responders have brought up the Flynn Effect. It's relevant. As a sign of how far the Western ruling class has gone down the rabbit hole, though, note that Flynn's own take on the broader context is now beyond the pale: https://quillette.com/2019/09/24/my-book-defending-free-speech-has-been-banned/ https://quillette.com/2019/09/24/my-book-defending-free-spee... .
- zozbot234 6y ago
  You see these I.Q. numbers posted around the Internet all the time, but few will mention that they are also highly suspect, to the point of being just about worthless.
  - viraptor 6y ago
    Here's a relevant thread about some popular papers that made the low numbers known https://twitter.com/spiantado/status/1275783954411347968 https://twitter.com/spiantado/status/1275783954411347968
- sintaxi 6y ago
  Aren't there academic studies that concluded an average IQ of 92 is the threshold for democracy to be adopted by a population? If Im not mistaken these studies came from a University in either Denmark or Norway.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

Wow that guy's an idiot. He actually claims the Iraq War was a failure because Iraqis have IQs in the 80s and are therefore incapable of accepting democracy. Racism aside, if you've done even a bit of reading on IQ you know it's been rising for decades if not longer. His Jeffersonian Democracy was built by people with an IQ that would be in the 80s today.

burkaman 6y ago
Can you point to some of that reading? Pedantically, that goes against the definition of IQ, where 100 is always average so it can't really increase over time, but your general point about people getting smarter doesn't intuitively make sense to me. Obviously we have more knowledge and resources to build on today, but I've never seen any reason to believe modern humans are smarter from birth than humans born 300 years ago.
- user982 6y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- oakschris 6y ago
  See the Flynn Effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect IQ by definition averages to 100, but if you compare present populations to past populations without the normalization there's a significant difference.
- greenshackle2 6y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect I'm no expert but my impression is that it's a widely accepted finding in psychology. The average IQ is 100 by definition and constantly adjusted, yes, but you can keep track of which way it's being adjusted. My fairly uneducated guess would be improved nutrition and reduced disease burden are big factors.
- chrchang523 6y ago
  Several responders have brought up the Flynn Effect. It's relevant. As a sign of how far the Western ruling class has gone down the rabbit hole, though, note that Flynn's own take on the broader context is now beyond the pale: https://quillette.com/2019/09/24/my-book-defending-free-speech-has-been-banned/ https://quillette.com/2019/09/24/my-book-defending-free-spee... .
zozbot234 6y ago
You see these I.Q. numbers posted around the Internet all the time, but few will mention that they are also highly suspect, to the point of being just about worthless.
- viraptor 6y ago
  Here's a relevant thread about some popular papers that made the low numbers known https://twitter.com/spiantado/status/1275783954411347968 https://twitter.com/spiantado/status/1275783954411347968
sintaxi 6y ago
Aren't there academic studies that concluded an average IQ of 92 is the threshold for democracy to be adopted by a population? If Im not mistaken these studies came from a University in either Denmark or Norway.