Apparently, the average IQ of the people living in Haiti is 67.
Where does that number come from? Well, it’s a guess. A British psychologist named Richard Lynn wrote the book The Global Bell Curve, in which he used several different tests to guess the IQ of Haiti. So what is it, actually? This site says it’s around 82. But that site also says the average IQ of Nepal is 42, which means that country just shouldn’t function.
If you actually take a step back and think about this for a second (which “high-IQ” people should be able to do), it makes sense.
Haiti is embroiled in poverty. I’m not here to argue why or how. It is impoverished. As of 2022, 21% of the population lives below the global poverty line. According to some sources, 88% of children are enrolled in primary education, but that number plummets to 20% with regard to secondary education. Given the 2010 earthquake that destroyed much of its infrastructure and the recent instability with a cannibalistic warlord, it’s obvious education has taken a back seat.
This extends to Africa as well. Instability, famine, poverty, and being drafted into child armies by local warlords do not make an “intelligent” populace. Of course, they wouldn’t compare to the rest of the developed world, where children have the privilege of going to school instead of working in a cobalt mine.
Let’s also ignore the fact that real IQ tests. Not the ones you get online cost money and can take hours. I’m sure impoverished Haitians, immigrants, Hell even regular Americans aren't willing to drop $500 and four hours to take a test showing how much of a smarty-pants they are.
What’s my IQ? I’m pretty sure my IQ doubles my shoe size. I’m not a smart man. It really doesn’t matter that much to me. I’ve made it this far, and things seem to be going pretty well.
But people seem to be REALLY obsessed with these scores.
You know who I’m talking about. The people who are obsessed with high IQ this and high IQ that. They build brands and identities based on how high their IQ score is and how important IQ is.
I’m starting to get the feeling that these people were just handed the answers. Someone with an actually high IQ talked about the answers, someone with a low IQ picked that up and ran with it. They can’t apply it. They can’t work with it. They just know the right answer, so you get shit like this.
He tries—he really does, to play it off like she’s the moron. The audience does too, but he asks the SAME question again, hoping for “the correct response.” Now, I am no smarty, me barely speak English, but I know enough to retool the question to, “How would you feel if you Had eaten breakfast?” I’m also smart enough to know not to post that clip, keep it buried in the original video.
It's in a similar vein with the “rights should be reserved for the intelligent crowd.” Yeah, it sucks to see some dumbass in public and think, “That idiot can also vote.” But such a policy would lead to democratic landslides for DECADES. Democrats tend to be smarter than Republicans, according to these studies. Immigrant populations like Nigerians, Indians, Chinese, and so on also tend to have a higher IQ and be higher earners. Given the GOP’s rhetoric as of late, we all know how immigrant populations are voting.
Some people on the right may be some "elite" human with "capital," whatever the fuck that means. They may be super smart, but if those studies are anything to be believed, that intellect hasn't trickled down.
Why don’t I care? Here’s a better question, why should I? You paid for a test that says you’re smart and special, what else do you want, A fucking cookie? I’m sure most people with actually high-IQs are out working on a job or hobbies, not screeching out women and minorities on social media.
Unless these people don’t have high IQs, unless they’re just pretending, running around with the answers to the test, and being fed talking points by people slightly smarter, playing at the smart people’s table while in reality being mouth-breathers better suited to a special ed room.
We all know why these people are making these claims. Not to be a dirty shitlib, but we all know the -ism underneath all this. Newsflash, I've met some stupid white people before. Can't walk and chew gum at the same time. Hardly literate, a miracle they're still alive and getting through each day, stupid. I grew up with them, I lived with them. There are whole communities of these stupid white people running their lives, their families, and their communities into the dirt for free with no help from migrants whatsoever.
I can't care. I refuse to give a shit about a test score or how smart some people on the other side of the continent are.
Till next week.
IQ is a crock of shit and you're right to not care about it at all. It's a manager's approach to categorizing people since their default reaction to real people is to get dizzy.
The deal with IQ is: it matters in the margins. Too low and you can't successfully follow step by step instructions; to get any work out of you, someone else has to have the job of telling you each step, one at a time, every single time. If it's not high enough, a handful of very difficult intellectual acrobatics are out of your reach.
For everyone else, the 95% somewhere in the middle, it shouldn't matter much in a functioning society. There will be something useful and dignified for you to do.
We don't have a functioning society. The downstream effect of our technocratic system is that the only jobs with decent pay and social status are those that require academic credentials. Those are perceived to require exceptional intellect.
They do not, because supply of credentials has expanded to meet the very high demand, because everyone wants dignified work with decent pay. Our academics straddle the center of the bell curve now instead of the top third, but incorrectly think they are smarter than everyone else.
Being smart is everything, so everyone pretends to be smart. People screech about their IQ whenever they want unearned respect, and wave their credentials around when they have nothing else to show for their supposed abilities.
Shitholes like Haiti have a different problem. Their local bell curve straddles the “can't follow basic instructions” line. They have more people who need to be told what to do than they have people to manage them. Everyone with any sense wants to leave rather than stay in the mess and figure out how to make it work. The easier this is for them the worse the problem gets.
And when they do escape, to places like ours, their now completely unremarkable ability to earn our credentials is taken as proof that they're above average and therefore useful to us.