Low IQ in the Information Age

Hat tip Uncola

Guest post by the Zman

Watching the cable news channels Thursday night as they covered the attack on the Dallas police by the George Soros funded Black Live Matter, I was fascinated by some of the “man on the street” segments. The blacks they interviewed were not angry ghetto rats ready to break out with chants of “kill the pigs!” Instead, they were articulate, middle-class blacks more concerned with posting their selfie on Faceberg than the shootings. They went to the riot because it was the cool thing to do and all of a sudden it was really cool so they captured the moment with a selfie.

That’s the thing you can’t help but notice about this black anger spasm is that it is almost exclusively among middle-class blacks. In fact, it is among the blacks who are the greatest beneficiaries of the Civil Rights movement. The angry black guy today is most likely to be a mulatto at an Ivy League college, or in a government position, by the magic of affirmative action. Barack Obama, instead of being thankful for having not been born in Africa, walks around with a chip on his shoulder about race. He and the Mulatto Mafia that surrounds him are largely responsible for BLM.

This is not just a black thing. One of the distinguishing features of “homegrown” Muslim terrorism is that it is usually perpetrated by second and even third generation Muslims. The parents came here, got jobs and were grateful to be able to give their kids a better life. Those kids, on the other hand, are filled with resentment at their “fellow citizens.” They embrace radical Islam because they are filled with hate toward the society into which they were born. Islam does not make them crazy. They went bonkers on their own and found radical Islam to be a convenient vehicle.

One possible explanation may be IQ. Being the smartest guy in the black family means you are about as smart as the average white guy. Similarly, being the smartest guy in the immigrant Afghan household puts you somewhere around the IQ of a tow truck operator or office clerk. Being the smartest guy in the Chinese family means you teach computer engineering at the local university. Being the smartest guy in a Jewish family means you win a Nobel Prize in physics. This is a deliberate exaggeration, but the gaps are well defined and documented.

These Black Lives Matter types grew up in middle-class homes and did well in school. Because they scored at the top-10% of their race, they were eagerly recruited by the better colleges, where they suddenly found themselves struggling to keep up with their fellow students. The Chinese kid sitting next to them in chemistry is a full standard deviation smarter and can breeze through his course work, while Yolanda needs endless hours of tutoring just to clear the freshmen requirements. That results in a lot of resentment and high dropout rates among affirmative action beneficiaries.

People like Michelle Obama and Loretta Lynch have found themselves struggling to compete with their coevals their entire adult lives, which is why they have a chip on their shoulder. Their credentials are meaningless and at some level, they know it and they know everyone else knows it. Instead of being grateful for the opportunities, they are resentful of the daily reminders that they are where they are because someone decided to put them there as a trophy. High achieving blacks often feel like pets, because they often are the pets of sanctimonious white liberals.

Muslims have a similar dilemma. Their parents come here happy to have indoor toilets. They left squalor and violence to live in relative comfort. They may harbor their own resentments, but their life in the West has largely met their expectations. The kids, on the other hand, come in with the same expectations as the Italians, Irish, Asians, etc., but they are not equipped with the same cognitive toolkit. The average IQ in Iraq is just under 90, which places them in the “uphill battle” portion of the bell curve. They are looking at a top of being a security guard or warehouse worker.

This is not just a problem for blacks and Muslims, of course. There are plenty of stupid Italians and Irish. Townies in Boston are finding it increasingly difficult to maintain their social standing because the world no longer rewards a work ethic. America, like most of the West, is a technological society and raw IQ is a required ingredient for success. There’s also the social component. Increasingly, you need a narrow set of social skills to succeed and these are cultivated in private schools and upper middle-class neighborhoods.

President Obama is a good example. He is top-5% for his race in IQ, maybe even top-2%, but that was only good enough to get him through the affirmative action door of elite colleges. His upbringing gave him the exotic, international charm that is highly valued among our national elites. No matter what you think of his politics, Obama is a very charming guy in a way that is appealing to the sort of people running Western governments and institutions. Needless to say, most blacks and immigrants lack the social skills and they have no way to attain them.