Hi! Disability scholar here. IQ is a deeply racist and classist metric weaponized by eugenicists and used to claim the innate superiority of the white ruling class. Stop listening to ppl who crow about IQ. Intelligence means nothing without compassion, humbleness, and owning one’s mistakes. - ThreadSky

megpillow.bsky.social • 1 day ago

Hi! Disability scholar here. IQ is a deeply racist and classist metric weaponized by eugenicists and used to claim the innate superiority of the white ruling class.

Stop listening to ppl who crow about IQ. Intelligence means nothing without compassion, humbleness, and owning one’s mistakes.

Comments

stlkirk.bsky.social•22 hours ago

Nate Silver is dumb.

hiyer.bsky.social•1 day ago

We all remember McNamara’s Morons from Vietnam. Now our commander in chief speaks English at roughly a third grade level, that’s an iq of 73 in an adult, which is 4F from military service, because he’s in the lowest 12% of the iq band of the general population, what can we further expect from this?

hiveindicator.bsky.social•22 hours ago

I gathered you didn't understand the racist and classiest part, since you think it means something to have a stranger assess it at 73

eryq.bsky.social•1 day ago

Speaking as someone who was measured as having a high IQ from a MENSA exam 40 years ago: IQ tests are nonsense. I'm actually kind of dumb.

Intelligence is strongly contextual. Scoring good at IQ tests means that you're good at certain tasks, but those tasks may not translate well to real life.

kate-skiba.bsky.social•20 hours ago

I also have an extremely high IQ but promise you I failed calculus twice.

kittensceilidh.bsky.social•22 hours ago

This. I was labeled "gifted" as a kid, was way ahead of my peers in all subjects, praised and given special treatment by all my teachers...turned me into a depressed anxiety ridden mess that never achieved anything in life while my peers are living full successful lives.

eryq.bsky.social•22 hours ago

I feel this. I never really lived up to my supposed full potential. My in-laws are wildly successful and some are famous in their fields, which has made things difficult too.

megpillow.bsky.social•22 hours ago

This is for both of you: please know that plenty of horrible ppl have “lived up to their potential.” You will have lived a very good life if you try your best to be kind and helpful to others and find what brings you joy. Those are things Trump and Musk will never be able to accomplish.

megpillow.bsky.social•22 hours ago

And I know I’m only one person. But I believe this with my whole heart.

kittensceilidh.bsky.social•22 hours ago

Been hard to find anything that brings me joy when I've lived my whole life believing that I shouldn't try anything unless I can do it perfectly the first time without mistakes. Never found a career path, been poor the whole time, that was my point

megpillow.bsky.social•21 hours ago

That is such a valid feeling. It took me so very long to feel like I was valuable as an imperfect person and worth more than my productivity, and I’m still not always good at it. Sending solidarity and care your way.

kandicritter.bsky.social•20 hours ago

turns out a 140 IQ is totally useless if one's brain has no dopamine to do anything with it and a combination of chronic health conditions is slowly sapping away basic things like reading comprehension and spelling.

mennonitemom.bsky.social•1 day ago

My Mom Alert System is flashing a little bit to tell you that you're certainly NOT "actually kind of dumb". My kids were both tested as being gifted, though, and they both kind of scoff at the idea too. My son does volunteer mental health advocacy and my daughter is a teacher in South Korea.

eryq.bsky.social•1 day ago

I have lacked social intelligence most of my life, and I jump to conclusions too readily when I notice patterns. Those severely undercut my allegedly high IQ.

I say this with a great deal of self-love: I am a bear of very little brain who never quite grew up, and that's okay.

mennonitemom.bsky.social•1 day ago

I'm all of those things as well ❤️‍🩹, and I love the Pooh reference ❤️.

ornwen.bsky.social•22 hours ago

Anyone looking for a good intro to how inadequate and misused IQ is, you can start with Stephen Jay Gould’s Mismeasure of Man. I believe Gould added a chapter in a future edition to specifically refute the bullshit in The Bell Curve.

elmiramarx.bsky.social•17 hours ago

I recently said this that intelligence is humility and that humility is Knowing that you don't know everything and that you need to learn about things that you don't like to know if you are right.

megpillow.bsky.social•17 hours ago

I love this explanation. Agree completely.

jonkelvey.bsky.social•23 hours ago

I keyed in on the "high-agency people" line too. To the extent that IQ is a useful metric atll, it does not cleanly correlate with agency! Lot's of very smart people struggle with attention or drive deficits, and lots of supposedly less smart people are highly driven and focused.

jburkespraker.bsky.social•1 day ago

What’s so weird is he seems to equate high IQ with being dangerous in his reply. I wonder if it’s his love of numbers that makes him susceptible to this fallacy.

chadloder.bsky.social•1 day ago

How can he even say that when IQ is a recently developed test, scientific validity aside

tmoney2007.bsky.social•1 day ago

Vibes?

megpillow.bsky.social•1 day ago

Because his sense of his own knowledge is severely overrated

lauraeh.bsky.social•1 day ago

Nate Silver became famous for statistical analysis. He was also an econ major at my college. Maybe he should have taken a few classes in another department.

feralrobots.bsky.social•22 hours ago

Also I missed the part where Nate explained why anyone should care about his opinion of what makes someone a competent historian.

emilylorange.bsky.social•1 day ago

please stop listening to nate silver at all honestly, he was right once 15 years ago and never again since

vhszach.bsky.social•1 day ago

I thought that we had debunked IQ as a useful metric decades ago.. in my head anybody using IQ numbers earnestly is most likely either an incel, a racist, or both.

megpillow.bsky.social•1 day ago

Oh, I’m with you! But somehow, it keeps popping up with these guys, just like the r-word!

pluplubasch.bsky.social•22 hours ago

Another fantastic book on the subject. https://global.oup.com/academic/product/inventing-the-feeble-mind-9780199396184

ringoyote.bsky.social•1 day ago

IQ isn't a true measure of intelligence.

Stephen Hawking historicallly had a slightly higher than average IQ but his actual brain would far exceed many

kozufox.bsky.social•1 day ago

Honestly I think it has less to do with IQ failing to measure how smart he was, and more to do with exceptional intelligence not being needed to have a few really great ideas to begin with. Like, of all the things that go into a eureka moment like that, "natural" intelligence is the least important.

kozufox.bsky.social•1 day ago

It's like that quote about not caring about the uniqueness of Einstein's brain so much as all the field laborers with brains like his who will never make revolutionary discoveries in physics because they're too busy struggling to keep themselves and their families alive.

blackjerseygirl.bsky.social•22 hours ago

Thank you!!!!!!!!

megpillow.bsky.social•22 hours ago

You’re welcome! Thank you for reading!

ozmodiar.bsky.social•1 day ago

I think I got dumber just listening to those two guys talk to each other. 😂

ozmodiar.bsky.social•1 day ago

Also as someone noted yesterday, Seth Abramson is not actually a biographer of Elon Musk

sethabramson.bsky.social•23 hours ago

Cool cool cool

sethabramson.bsky.social•23 hours ago

Cool cool cool

sethabramson.bsky.social•23 hours ago

Cool cool cool

megpillow.bsky.social•1 day ago

I cannot say this firmly enough: PLEASE learn disability history. The tools Trump & Musk are using to classify entire groups of ppl as unfit have been used by power-hungry eugenicists and white supremacists for YEARS to steal voting & reproductive power from marginalized groups.

megpillow.bsky.social•1 day ago

A good read here that touches on the importance of knowing both Buck v. Bell and Atkins v. Virginia and that reminds us that Alfred Binet did not want his scale used to peg ppl to immutable intelligence, but eugenicist Henry Goddard wanted exactly that:

https://via.library.depaul.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1270&context=law-review

why-should-i.bsky.social•2 hours ago

📌

megpillow.bsky.social•1 day ago

There are tons of books on disability history you can read! Just a few to get you started:

https://www.beacon.org/A-Disability-History-of-the-United-States-P1018.aspx

megpillow.bsky.social•1 day ago

https://www.beacon.org/Enabling-Acts-P1208.aspx

megpillow.bsky.social•1 day ago

https://www.harvard.com/book/9781324066132

megpillow.bsky.social•22 hours ago

And if you read this thread, please donate to this amazing fundraiser:

https://bsky.app/profile/sfdirewolf.bsky.social/post/3linuvpao5c2y

lazruscombatulese.bsky.social•17 hours ago

I have a high IQ, but I can be real stupid. Admitting that is something humans do. Musk ain't human.

arestelle.bsky.social•16 hours ago

ugh, those two. bloviating white dudes who assume they are automatically preeminent experts on anything they decide to have an opinion about

snailbunnydesigns.bsky.social•6 hours ago

I’ve wondered about this a lot. Given a test as a child it placed my iq at around 130. It means absolutely nothing though. I’m an artist that struggles and most other jobs have been lost because of anxiety and neurodivergence. My iq means jack squat.

the-big-quiet.bsky.social•1 day ago

I have this silly idea that human history is actually shaped by the steadfastness of workaday communities who through necessity find ways to survive the assholes driving so-called "major" events.

megpillow.bsky.social•23 hours ago

Accurate

thesporkmaster.bsky.social•17 hours ago

Iq only tells us that you know how to navigate the social construct like a good little sheep.

megpillow.bsky.social•17 hours ago

Bingo

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