“Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of Man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded… are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised… and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority… is driven out of society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.
This is known as ‘bad luck’.”
— Robert Heinlein, 1973
24 January 2019
My step-father insisted that I remain stupid in his presence. “Don’t get smart with me, boy!” He once swore to me that “if it’s the last thing I do I’m going to slap that smart mouth right off your face!” Fifty years later he’s out of the picture, and I’m still a mouthy prick. He tried. He really tried, but I could never measure up. But really, this was supposed to be about the Jews, and why we all hate them.
“Jews are too smart. Cain’t trust them smart people. Them smart people is up to no good. Alla time trine ta shove their safety, efficiency, hygiene, leisure, and abundance down our throats. Somethin’s gotta be done!” Bigots have been on to us for centuries. History and literature are replete with references to “the inscrutable Oriental” and “cunning Japs” and “sneaky, crafty, conniving Jews.” All of these (except perhaps for “sneaky” which may just mean “light of tread” or “careful of step”) are simply ways of saying, “They’re smarter than us!”
Why are little negro girls beaten up by their classmates? The excuses betray a theme. “Da bitch ax for it,” and “She cray, she think she better’n us,” and, of course, that most egregious offense of all, “’Cause she ac’ white!”
What does that mean, to “ac’ white”? It appears to refer mainly to those children who speak clearly, dress neatly, attend to their studies, and are generally deferential (if not respectful) to their instructors. It’s a pity more “white” children (and alleged adults) don’t “ac’ white.” Know whum sane?
It’s almost like an unconscious admission that (on average) “white” people are smarter than “black” people, and “Jews” are smarter than “white” people by about a standard deviation each. The classmates’ reaction is a visceral reflexive defense against anyone acting out of place or above his station. As if scholastic achievement were a betrayal of one’s “people” or “kind.“
Don’t blame me for these data. (Or Charles Murray or James Watson.) It was the US military that conducted these psychometric examinations upon thousands of applicants over several generations. (I was one of those applicants, and I apologize for skewing the average.) Their point of view was not Jim Crow, nor Louis Farrakhan, nor Kumbaya. The military’s main mission is murder and mayhem. Unless directed to by a bleeding-heart Congress, they care very little for your delicate little feelings or your ardent racial pride.
Norm MacDonald says that David Letterman is the smartest comic he knows. I know OF Letterman, and of other comics, but I don’t know any personally, so I’ll take Norm’s word for it. I like Letterman, and I think he’s funny, but he doesn’t come across to me as extra smart. In fact, his dumb-guy schtick, and his apparent dumb-guy ethos, are a big part of his act. “Nobody likes a smart comic,” says MacDonald, and I disagree. I LOVE smart comics, and many have been successful (George Carlin, Dennis Miller, Mort Sahl, Lenny Bruce, Dave Smith, Margaret Smith) but none of them can summon the size of the audience that Letterman, Jim Carrey, Carrot Top, or Gallagher might. (Perhaps Norm meant ALMOST nobody. If so, he should say so.)
The Bush family is not stupid. They are evil, wicked, shallow, vain, and cruel, but they are not stupid. Dubya ( “lahk his Daddeh” ) is a Yale graduate, and yet he pronounces nuclear “nuke ya lurr.” His base eats it up. His major competitors, HALGOR 9000 and John Kerry, are both widely perceived to be of rarified intellect (they are not) and of an elite and effete class (they are.) Dubya was elected twice. He’s jus’ a good ol’ boy. And while he is a talented painter, he doesn’t seem to know how to hold a hammer. I believe he’s a clever guy who found a winning formula for success.
My father once told me that he was an Adlai Stevenson man two cycles in a row. “He had every thinking man’s vote,” he said. “Unfortunately it takes a majority.”
update 200828 — Defending the Curve
Working at the QuikkStopp-by-the-Interstate™ provided an opportunity to test Murray’s bell curve, cited above. One of my duties every shift was to mop the floor, and as an aid to protect our bottom line from lawsuits we were provided with “Caution, Wet Floor” signs. I had no way of knowing when or whether customers would come in, so I would mop in stages, blocking off the wet sections with the signs. Doing so, I would often carve out a dry path from the door to the till. Some customers would take the trouble to step over or around the signs and tread across the wet section to get to the till that was closed, while most would take the easier path to the till that was open. I believe that this is an objective test of stupidity, albeit with a limited sample, so errors could be substantial.
Who’s dumber, on average? Chance should show the proportions of stupid behavior as more or less equal to demographic representation. Is it really true that “whaht people’re smarter’n them nigras?” In Greater Cincinnatistan, the population breaks down approximately as follows: Pink People 75%, Brown People 20%, and Clearly Asian People 5%. Over the course of a couple of years, I kept track of who took the extra effort to go to the wrong till. That was my working definition of “stupid,” and this is what I saw, a total of 93 pinhead transgressors, as follows:
Pink Male: 48, Pink Female: 9, Total Pink People: 57/93 = 61.3%
Brown Male: 21, Brown Female: 9, Total Brown People: 30/93 = 32.3%
Asian Male: 6, Asian Female: 0, Total Asian People: 6/93 = 6.5%
Based on larger, more comprehensive studies, I should have expected fewer Asians to unnecessarily tread on the wet floor, but again, mine is a very small sample, so anomalies are naturally exaggerated.
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