What are the social, economic, and political consequences of convincing people who are dull-normal at best, and downright stupid a lot of the time, that they are just as smart as everyone else? And then urging them to vote?
How can a group of people prosper if the stupid are not willing to be led by the dull, the dull by the bright, or the bright by the brilliant? And why would they accept being led if they thought they themselves were as smart as the brilliant--or at least the bright.
It's farging brilliant! (<-- That is the only exclamation point I have used this year.) It's a virus, analagous to a computer virus, that will destroy a functioning society if successfully introduced into the cognosphere.
My mind is blown. Or maybe I'm just one of the stupid, drooling through life in thrall to delusions of adequacy.
Half the country is below average.................
I just think I’m smarter than liberals but that’s not saying much.
I’m average too.
The popularity of Reality shows convinces me...
An interesting problem in Bayesian (subjective) probability. When all is said and done, the average has to be average!
Full Title:
Average Americans Think They’re Smarter Than the Average American, on Average
“... while those who make more than $100,000 are far more likely to say that Americans are unintelligent.”
That is the way people in that income bracket make a lot of their money. The guy buying a coke and a bag of chips for $5 is not so smart - but the guy who owns the store selling to him?
It seems to be working quite well in the USA.
Average *liberal* Think They’re Smarter Than the Average American see Obama voters.
FMCDH(BITS)
Umm..., 55% is pretty close to 50%, so what’s the problem? And if the average is skewed by larger numbers at the lower extremes, then 55% might even be too low.
The author obviously belongs on the left side of the intelligence graph.
Most people think everything they know is everything there is to know. I’ve had managers who had competent people working for them and assumed that because the work was being well done that anybody could do it. Those are people who do not know what they do not know. That’s a special level of ignorance. Others feel that because they’re extremely competent on one subject, oral surgery, for example, that they are equally competent at everything else, piloting a plane for example. (More doctors are killed flying a plane than any other profession.)
Flatly untrue. If I'm smarter than everybody else, I'm the smartest person in the country.
That wasn't the question at all.
Marina Koren is apparently one of the 5% who over-estimates her intelligence.
In most measurable statistics, the distribution shows a preponderance at or near the average. The image of a bell-shaped curve is invoked. The highest point in the curve is where the average is, and thus most people are at or near the average. As you go towards smarter or stupider, you get fewer and fewer represented. Thus, the number of really, really smart people is very small, and luckily the number of really, really stupid people is also quite small.
Since most people are grouped around the middle of the bell-shaped curve, it is understandable that many of them might mistakenly believe they are closer to the smart end than the stupid end. It doesn’t take much to be just a little above average, and being a statistical measure, most people have not had their stupidity quantified. They don’t have tests for stupidity. They used to give IQ tests, but people who scored well made the others feel bad, who then beat up on the high scorers. I was one of those who got beaten up on.
Obviously, from the vocabulary utilized in this post, and the cogent analysis of the subject at hand, it can be inferred that, indeed, I actually AM smarter than average.
I have to disagree with your premises if you read the summary.
“people who are dull-normal at best, and downright stupid a lot of the time, that they are just as smart as everyone else?”
Apparently many who are not so IQ and the groups often thought of/treated as less IQ actually do think themselves lower. So maybe your ideas don’t quite gel here.
Smarter is another one of those words that has so many definitions that it is practically meaningless.
The term “smarter” is subjective. Does it mean IQ? Does it mean superior knowledge is one clearly defined area, or perhaps a dollop of knowledge in many areas? Perhaps it means street smarts.
The woman with the free Obama phone and Obama bennies who called the radio show in Texas thinks that all but the wealthiest working stiffs aren’t as smart as she is.
Unless you define “smart”, people are going to be inclined to favor their own strengths in their self-asessments. The results of the survey may not be off.
What is scary and appalling is that average libtards not only have only average intelligence, but also lack basic knowledge. Yet, they are able to form pressure groups that are able to convince corrupt politicians to do irrational things that end up destroying the country.
Just because you’re educated doesn’t mean you’re smart. It just means you’re educated.
Told this to a snot nosed fighter pilot one time when he was quite dismissive of his ground crew...it took him a while to figure it out.
To me, one can be either or both...depends on the person how they want to go through life.