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Are You Really that Smart If You Can’t Recognize B.S.?
American Thinker ^ | 20 Sep, 2022 | Alicia Colon

Posted on 09/20/2022 4:28:38 AM PDT by MtnClimber

How about the ability to recognize that the media and certain politicians on both side of the aisles are self-serving and unconcerned about your best interests unless it lines their own pockets?

My husband, who was a Marine during the Vietnam War, was always talking about the IQ levels of fellow soldiers, and he would express surprise at the low level of intelligence of some draftees.

We would then get into arguments on the validity of IQ testing, which I questioned did not take into consideration an individual’s environment. But considering the past decade as the utter complete dumbing down of our populace, maybe I should reconsider my dismissal of testing. What exactly does a person’s IQ mean?

Modern intelligence tests often focus on abilities such as mathematical skills, memory, spatial perception, and language abilities. The capacity to see relationships, solve problems, and remember information are important components of intelligence, so these are often the skills on which IQ tests focus.-(verywellmind.com)

Now what’s missing from this description? How about the ability to reason? How about the ability to figure out what is total nonsense and check out who’s spouting that nonsense? How about the ability to recognize that the media and certain politicians on both side of the aisles are self-serving and unconcerned about your best interests unless it lines their own pockets?

Having a degree from an ivy league university and several letters after your name doesn’t necessarily mean that you can reason well and not fall prey to indoctrination from the public academia system.

That’s why my husband and I scraped and saved to have all six of our kids attend parochial school and our kids are doing same with our grandchildren. Full disclosure--they are all super smart and conservative.

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Education; Society
KEYWORDS: communism; neoconned; neokoolaid; propaganda; theneokoolaid
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1 posted on 09/20/2022 4:28:38 AM PDT by MtnClimber
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To: MtnClimber

Politicians and the news media are experienced in the use of emotion to convince people to believe things that are absolutely not true.


2 posted on 09/20/2022 4:28:47 AM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of Colorado scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber

https://unherd.com/thepost/the-most-vaccine-hesitant-education-group-of-all-phds/


3 posted on 09/20/2022 4:32:52 AM PDT by 9YearLurker
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To: MtnClimber

People with strong cognitive ability may also have strong cognitive biases, unless they train themselves to avoid these pitfalls.

Cognitive biases are entry points for manipulators.


4 posted on 09/20/2022 4:35:01 AM PDT by oblomov
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To: MtnClimber

I recognize it as a bias on my part, but I think in today’s world, any intelligent person is going to be cynical.

You think the News isn’t manipulating you?
You think the government is trying to help you and not themselves?
You think your employer is looking out for you, and that you owe them your loyalty?

A cynical person will answer these questions a certain way. An intelligent person will answer them the same way, in my opinion.

I still run into people who trust that “others” care about them and are looking out for them in today’s world. What brainwashed fools they are.


5 posted on 09/20/2022 4:41:11 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (We are already in a revolutionary period, and the Rule of Law means nothing. )
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To: MtnClimber

“Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach. Those who can’t do either become politicians” applies here.


6 posted on 09/20/2022 4:45:02 AM PDT by Qwapisking ("IF the Second goes first the First goes second" LStar)
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To: MtnClimber

At least I’m smart enough to know that at least half of the stories on Babylon B are not really true. 🤣


7 posted on 09/20/2022 4:54:16 AM PDT by cuban leaf (My prediction: Harris is Spiro Agnew. We'll soon see who becomes Gerald Ford, and our next prez.)
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To: ClearCase_guy

I see most politicians as the equivalent of the guy running for president in the movie, red.

That’s why I say it’s easier to get elected than to get hired.


8 posted on 09/20/2022 4:55:15 AM PDT by cuban leaf (My prediction: Harris is Spiro Agnew. We'll soon see who becomes Gerald Ford, and our next prez.)
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To: ClearCase_guy

You use the word Cynical but I believe the thing we are looking for is also not IQ related but the ability to use Critical Thinking.

I’ve noticed over the past 15yrs at my place of employment, More and More classes being offered to teach Critical Thinking Skills to younger employees.

We seasoned Engineers joke about the Noobs saying they couldn’t think their way out of a wet paper bag. Critical thinking is a lost art in a large portion of people under 40.


9 posted on 09/20/2022 4:55:17 AM PDT by OHPatriot (Si vis pacem, para bellum)
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To: MtnClimber

Glenn Beck did a very detailed chalkboard presentation of how to break down any article before reading it, to spot misguiding words and phrases, used to hide the lack of facts the writer is working with.


10 posted on 09/20/2022 4:58:30 AM PDT by Dixie Yooper (Ephesians 6:11)
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To: MtnClimber

Having a degree from an ivy league school and lots of letters after your name means you e reached the highest level of indoctrination.


11 posted on 09/20/2022 5:00:40 AM PDT by maddog55 (The only thing systemic in America is the left's hatred of it!)
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Comment #12 Removed by Moderator

To: MtnClimber
Having a degree from an ivy league university and several letters after your name doesn’t necessarily mean that you
can reason well and not fall prey to indoctrination from the public academia system.

Alicia may well be overlooking the other element in these highly educated, upper IQ intelligentsia,...shear, unmitigated evil.

These denizens of the Liberal Hive fully embrace their positions as lords and masters of the smelly, Walmart folk.

13 posted on 09/20/2022 5:09:03 AM PDT by Thommas (The snout of the camel is already under the tent.)
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To: oblomov

It boils down to understanding your own limitatations and weaknesses, or at least keeping in mind that you may have them when evaluating something.

The concept is introspection.

Conservatives possess at least a modicum of introspection, the possibility we could be mistaken or wrong on a given subject.

We have to engage in introspection on a daily basis-large swaths of society today TELL us that we are wrong, bombard us with information telling us we are wrong, and castigating us for being wrong. Conservatives do the right thing by re-evaluating our positions and views to ensure we aren’t going down the wrong road. It doesn’t mean we aren’t ever wrong, it just means we keep in mind we could be. Granted, there are things I don’t have to constantly re-evaluate such as my support for the tenets of the Constitution or the conviction that collective ideologies are destructive and blood stained.

Leftists completely and totally lack introspection.

For Leftists, Dogma rules. Collectivism rules. That drives everything for them. It is not important to be right about an issue, it is important to be in harmony with whatever group they identify with, and everything else is secondary.


14 posted on 09/20/2022 5:18:38 AM PDT by rlmorel (Nolnah's Razor: Never attribute to incompetence that which is adequately explained by malice.)
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To: MtnClimber
Are You Really that Smart If You Can’t Recognize B.S.?

Old Jedi mind trick that blinds the weak minded. Repeat after me:

Kill republicans.
President Biden and his family are not corrupt.
President Biden is a brilliant man.
The democrat party is your friend.
There is no inflation.
There is not an invasion on the Southern border.
When you vote, vote democrat.

15 posted on 09/20/2022 5:35:36 AM PDT by JesusIsLord
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To: MtnClimber

A guide I’ve used all my life is to see who can understand an analogy.

For example if you claim a woman has a right to an abortion because she, and only she has control over her own body but oppose legal prostitution and can’t see the connection, you might not be very bright.


16 posted on 09/20/2022 5:38:04 AM PDT by muir_redwoods (Freedom isn't free, liberty isn't liberal and you'll never find anything Right on the Left)
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To: MtnClimber

No, I’m not that smart. It’s all about feelings to me.... if I want to know the truth the MSM will tell me and if I need to know what is BS, the MSM will also tell me.... 😜😜😜😜😜


17 posted on 09/20/2022 5:56:45 AM PDT by Lockbox (politicians, they all seemed like game show hosts to me.... Sting)
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To: Thommas
"Alicia may well be overlooking the other element in these highly educated, upper IQ intelligentsia,...shear, unmitigated evil...These denizens of the Liberal Hive fully embrace their positions as lords and masters of the smelly, Walmart folk."

Pride was the first sin (Lucifer's) and I would make the case that all sin is rooted in pride; when we sin, or act outside of God's will, we do so with a presupposition that we know better than God and/or we are somehow exempted from His law and judgement.

Elites take it a step beyond, presuming not only to know what is best for themselves, but what is best for everybody else, whom they see as inferior, and they leave nothing but misery in their wake. C.S. Lewis summed it up nicely when he wrote:

“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be "cured" against one's will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.”

18 posted on 09/20/2022 6:00:32 AM PDT by Joe 6-pack
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To: MtnClimber

Higher IQ people voted much more strongly for Biden than lower IQ people - and higher IQ people much more strongly support keeping the war going in Ukraine, then lower IQ people.

...thereby proving the limitations of IQ scores.


19 posted on 09/20/2022 6:08:55 AM PDT by BobL (I eat at McDonald's, I just don't tell anyone.)
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To: cuban leaf

They may not all be true at the time of publication. However, it seems only a matter of timing before most are essentially factual.


20 posted on 09/20/2022 6:15:25 AM PDT by sjmjax
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