Is discussing iq differences between nations taboo?

Post Reply New Topic

Races aren't smarter or less smart. People are smarter or less smart.

Every group of humans chosen at random has a range of talents in its constituent people.

By the way the only race that makes sense in the human race. We all have a 99.999 similarity in genome. The remaining fraction of difference (very small) produce mostly superficial differences.

ruveyn

Way to delete and ignore my point regarding intelligence NOT being hereditary.

That's a misleading statement, ruveyn. For example, we are something like 96% the same as chimps using that reasoning, but obviously there are vast differences between us and chimps. The following explains in more detail:

http://www.goodrumj.com/Edwards.pdf

What gives you that idea? The consensus is that at least in part, it is. Most human characteristics are.

[quote="John_Browning"]I think intelligence has more to do with race than what nation you are from. Some races are smarter, some races perform better at physical tasks. I'm not saying that one race doesn't have any smart people, one race doesn't have any dumb people, or that one race doesn't have any athletic people, I'm talking about averages. It's just politically incorrect now to talk about it in acadmic circles. Nobody would want to hear about it even if you had extremely conclusive test results to back up your theory.[/quote

Races are not smarter or less smart. People are smarter or less smart. Race is a contrived definition of a groups of people and has very little relation to biological reality. To be sure the light-skin and dark-skin adaptations to climate happened, but melanin concentration does not determine or correlate to how well one thinks.

ruveyn

Most behavioral characteristics are learned, not inherited.

Even if that were true, it doesn't invalidate my statement. Anyway, behaviour is controlled by parts of our brain that have developed through evolution. We feel the need to copulate with a nice looking female, for example, because our ancestors who felt and acted on that same urge got to pass on their genes. Obviously the exact way in which we get to reproduce is controlled by our culture, and what we learn from it.

Styles in female beauty change radically over a period of a decade or two. It is not at all genetic.

True enough.

Edit: I misread what you wrote! I thought it read "it is not all genetic". So, I have to say I disagree with you.

once again that presupposes racial difference - race is an ideological construct not a genetic one. There have been plenty people attempting to push it 'scientifically' since the C18/19th. Why is it important to you to establish that some races are dumber than others? I say it's because you're a racist. And my indoctrination wasn't a passive process thank you sir, I actively sought out a set of ideas which would teach me something useful.

Race is a loose term for categorisation that can be made using various criteria. For example, there are still parts of the world where populations are relatively isolated. It would be perfectly reasonable to view a group of people from, say, an indigenous S American tribe as a separate category to those from an indigenous S African tribe -- a separate race in layman's terms. Those groups would have not interbred for 10,000 years plus. Each group could be easily defined using an array of physiological and genetic characteristics. So, clearly if you can categorise people like that, I've no need to presuppose anything.


And why is it so important for you to prevent people doing so? I suggest it's because your world view is based on what feels good or right, rather than on rational analysis. You might like people to be all the same, but they aren't. If there are racial differences in IQ, wouldn't it be useful to know so that we could build a fairer society?

A fairer society in which the intelligent Aryans have greater control in politics, science and education than the inferior races?

No.

As ruveyn has said repeatedly, the concept of race is outdated at best and, more than likely, unscientific. Yes, there are physical differences between people of African descent and people who have Northern european ancestry. However, coming to the conclusion that white people are more intelligent than Africans based on the results of IQ tests is misguided. IQ tests only measure certain types of intelligence, and are irrelevant for people from many cultures. This is aside from the fact that the differences in the average IQ score for people from different 'races' are marginal and not statistically significant. It also does not follow that having a slightly lower than average IQ means that the person is cognitively deficient, or less intelligent than a standard person.

Another point I'd like to mention is that the field of Linguistics provides evidence against the superiority of certain races/people groups. As linguists discovered and described the native languages of Africa, the Americas, Australia and in fact the whole world, they found that none of these tribal languages were in any way less complex than say, Latin, Greek, English or German. If one 'race' of people was somehow mentally deficient, you'd assume that their language would be simpler than the languages spoken in the 'Aryan Superiority belt of Europe.' This is not so. People from any country are capable of very complex thought, and their languages reflect that fact.

^^ i second the above

why?





that's why

An interesting thing to note is that any natural language can express any thought that can be expressed in any other natural language. Some languages may require circumlocution, but it can be managed. There are only, and have been only a handful of societies in which counting did not evolve in the context of the society. If the infant children of any of these societies were brought up where counting exists, they too would learn to count.

Here is the bottom line: The human race (all of us) are the smartest baddest primates on the planet. We are the smartest animals in The Monkey House.

ruveyn

Of course we are, being the ones who define "smartness". It would have been pretty dumb to define it in a way that would have bonobo's win the smart contest.

Smartness is pretty subjective anyway. People who can think logically find that smart, people who can learn by heart well find that smart, people who are good at math think people who rule at math are smart, musicians find musicians smart etc. We all agree smartness is a human competence though. Being able to smell great isn't smartness... if it would be, dogs would be a lot smarter than us.. and who would want that? Competences achieved by sibling are usually seen as amazingly, hugely, incredibly smart.. by their parents I mean of course

There has never been one description of the word intellignce because of that.

So how come numerous studies have shown Ashkenazi Jews having an average IQ of 110 to 115? That is very significant. If you want proof, a few minutes with Google will give you ample. And as for the second part, if you have an IQ below the average it does mean you are less intelligent than average, as IQ is a measure of intelligence.