By Process of Elimination
As Seen At TPC.
No, this has nothing to do with last Saturday’s Georgia-Alabama game. I gave my advice in that regard, last fall; though perhaps I should have added the word “taller” in the description under point two. It matters little as it appears that my points were not heeded. No, this column is titled as it is because I wrestled with too many subjects, settling on none. In my defense, I’ve been a little busy with some other things lately and the prospects for this particular work were slightly speculative, even depressing. So! I decided to go with something safe and sound: education.
Rather, this is about IQ, which in turn, is extremely determinative of educational achievement.
Well, shit, this is really a review of a book review, but bear with me.
Coming on October 29, 2020: In the Know: Debunking 35 Myths about Human Intelligence by Dr. Russell T. Warne.
Read, if you will, James Thompson’s review preview at Unz.
Warne is, like my old man was, an educational psychologist. His new book focuses on dispelling popular (and popularly deceptive) myths about psychometrics. That field was my father’s focus from around 1971 until 1989, with most of his major work published during the Seventies, before, I imagine, Warne was born. Some of Dad’s papers are still cited, with The Effect of Violating the Assumption of Equal Item Means in Estimating the Livingston Coefficient (1978) referenced this year (ThaiJo, Thailand, January 2020). Here’s hoping that In the Know enjoys similar longevity along with deeper penetration into the psycho-industrial complex and the surrounding culture. God knows we need it.
As Dutton and Woodley demonstrated in At Our Wits’ End (2018), general intelligence in Western nations is collapsing. IQ being one of the three primary components of a stable, even recognizable society, this is just a wee bit important. Yet, in defiance of measured statistical reality, the usual suspects continue to parrot nonsense such as “g doesn’t exist,” or “it’s environmental, socio-economic,” or “IQ is a social construct.” Enough. It would be more accurate to say that society is an IQ construct.
Warne’s attempt to correct the falsehoods is admirable. However, and I’m sure he’s aware, those misstatements are largely intentional. In fact, they are part and parcel with the overall scheme to destroy Western Civilization via mass deception, mass coercion, and mass demographic upheaval. One such lie is well addressed by a quick summary in Thompson’s article:
[Myth] 4 Intelligence Is a Western Concept that Does Not Apply to Non-Western Cultures
…
If intelligence really varies in character between different cultures, then it should be very difficult to extract the “Western” general factor, yet in 31 countries, and using a wide variety of tests, 94 of the 97 (96.9%) samples produced g either immediately or after a second factor analysis. Moreover, the g factor is about as strong in the non-Western samples as it is in typical Western samples. Most countries find “Western” intelligence tests very useful, once they have been translated and some language and specific knowledge items altered or removed. To cap it all, dogs, rats, mice, donkey and primates show g factors. It looks like an evolutionary adaptation.
This cultural apologist claptrap is akin to saying that gravity doesn’t apply in Africa because of Newton. As Warne correctly notes, IQ testing and the understanding of the testing process and the precision of the test results rank as the most mathematically-certain facet of psychology and, in fact, all of the social sciences. But, again, at the higher, motivated levels, the truth doesn’t matter. They know, they’re just pushing the devil’s agenda anyway.
They’re throwing out the tests – just like I did. When your father studied IQ statistics for a living and regularly reviewed, normed, or re-normed IQ tests, who do you think was usually the first test subject? This also goes for your father’s faculty colleagues and graduate students. Yeah. Having completed MORE THAN A FEW Wechsler and Stanford-Binet batteries, I know something about them. Having lived decades among the various-leveled denizens of the bell curve, I can attest to the inherent accuracy in the assessments; in the wild, I can sense it and almost see it.
I had a small collection of various versions of the tests. I had them. During the … great restructuring, they became casualties like so many tools, books, furniture articles, and other weighty items. I feel poorly about it all, but I have an excuse. The globo educrats and warped SJWs, as part of the complete destruction of systemic education in the fading US, threw out (or, are throwing out) the testing process, without excuse or good cause. They know what they’re doing and I know why. We all do. If you’re out to wreck something like a university, but your useful hordes cannot on their own gain admission, then the first step is to replace reliable metrics with those more touchy and feely. Cue Carlin: “Pretty soon all you’ll need to get into college is a pencil.” That’s a battle for another book, or rather, that’s a battle for unschooling, homeschooling, and general autodidacticism.
At any rate, consider buying this book next week and reading it. Then, you can use the presented rebuttals, casually, with those who innocently share the misunderstandings. Every little helps. The ultimate fallback of the defenders of ignorance is always baseless name-calling. Be ready for that – rhetoric with rhetoric, when or where necessary.
And, the necessary when and where for next week, especially for the TPC crowd, will be some fall holiday-themed fiction! Just so you’re in the know: it’ll be spooky fun.
