As I’ve noted, many of the beliefs exposed on this blog are data driven. In general, theory must conform to reality, not the other way around.
I also talk about blankslatism, the belief that everyone is a blank slate, with more-or-less equal potential to become whatever kind of person anyone wants to be, regardless of one’s birth. Blankslatism is a theory that does not conform to reality.
You may recall that I previously reported on the “learning loss” effect of lockdowns a year-and-a-half ago in “Intelligence, Education, and Covid: Part 2.” Here is another reminder of that shocking reality:
On October 24th, SF Unified published in its news communications to families, educators, and the community that
This is in fact good news that, on average, we outperformed districts across the state during the pandemic. However, it omitted an important level of detail: how our Black students fared. In fact, the new state data reveals that SFUSD did worse at educating our Black students during the pandemic, as compared with districts across the state.
Once we look beyond the aggregate data to Black student math scores: Black children in SFUSD were already way below the state average before the pandemic and school closures, but they dropped dramatically according to the new data, down 33% at SFUSD, versus 22% for the average Black student in California. Now, only 9% of Black SFUSD students are proficient in math, compared to 16% for the state.
Our middle school outcomes are event worse. Pre-pandemic and school closures, 12% of Black middle schoolers were proficient in math, compared to a state average of 18%. Now, that number has been cut in half, and only 6% of Black middle schoolers are proficient compared to a state average of 14%. In 7th grade, only 2% of Black SFUSD students are proficient in math.
…
In 2022, only 2% of San Fancisco’s black children were proficient at math. That’s 1 in 50. Accross all grades, less than 1 in 10 met proficient standards.
Blacks—as a race in America—have an average IQ around 85. At this level, a person is functionally illiterate. This is why, for example:
The literacy crisis in Philadelphia’s public schools produces adults who struggle to read. Philadelphia ranks at the bottom among large American cities in reading proficiency; according to recent federal data, roughly 22 percent of Philadelphians aged 16 and older lack the most basic literacy skills. 52% of Philadelphia’s adults are functionally illiterate, and 67% are low-literate, reading at a sixth- to eighth-grade level. Almost 40% of adult Philadelphians struggle to fill out a job application, to read doctors’ instructions on their medicines, and to help with their children’s homework.
NOTE: in order to avoid the accusation of bias, this is a leftist, blankslatist source that believes that poverty—not intelligence—is the primary cause of achievement gaps. In other words, even the leftists and blankslatists acknowledge these statistical claims, even if they disagree on why it is the way it is.
I’m not sure that readers here can truly understand and appreciate the magnitude of what it means for 2 out of 3 adults to have low literacy in a city the size of Philadelphia. Can you appreciate what life must be like for those for which following medication instructions is a significant difficulty?
The 80th percentile for black students (-1 SD) is an IQ of 98. This is partially why, in 2019, only 20% of black students met or exceeded the standard for math in the state of California. Similarly, the 50th percentile for white students is an IQ of 100, which is why it makes sense that 50% of all students in SF met or exceeded the standard for math. By implication, a student needed an IQ of around 100 in order to be proficient in math in a California school. IQ almost fully explains these results… unless you are a blankslatist.
Starting in 2020, the leftist government of California foolishly instituted masking and lockdown mandates—changes in the environment—causing students lose a year or two of education and sending the achievement plummeting. But, as I noted in my previous article, negative environmental changes most strongly effect those of lower IQs and have lesser impacts on those of higher IQs. The latter can recover relatively easily while the former cannot. The data above confirms this.
Furthermore, you can see how much of an environmental deficit living in a deeply progressive liberal stronghold—San Francisco—has on overall achievement (15.9% vs 9.1%) and proficiency losses due to the mandates (-22.5% vs -33.2%). While genetics are extremely important and environmental changes can have limited positive impact, bad public policy can still make things far worse, almost without limit. It’s much easier to mess up a child’s education than make it better, and California (through stupid mandates) and San Francisco (through bad policies) prove that.
The reason I bring this up is because San Francisco has failed to solve the problem. It can’t change the genetic reality and even if it could, it would still never acknowledge that its policies had failed. It must, instead, blame it on Inequity Hitler. Thus, it is going to triple-down on stupidity:
Here is detail on #SFUSD Grading for #Equity plan briefly discussed @ tonite’s #school board meeting. Coming to 14 high schools in August. Homework, attendance not counted toward academic grade. Scrutiny needed.
New SF public school plan would
– eliminate homework and weekly tests from counting toward semester grade
– allow students to take the final exam multiple times
– convert all B grades into As, and all Fs into Cs
It’s hard to see the difference between this policy and what you’d get if a bunch of 10yos locked the teachers in a closet and rewrote the rules.
Instead of (1) acknowledging the biological reality and (2) fixing the environment deficiencies that it caused, San Francisco is going to further reduce standards in order to force failing students to graduate.
This removal of standards is the logical endpoint of blankslatism. The blankslatist “equity” ideology requires that standards be lowered to the lowest common denominator. The opposite of merit-based evaluation, this process cannot stop until illiteracy is the expected norm. We’re almost there.
The ultimate irony is that the only systemic inequity against black students comes from the enlightened high-IQ white progressive leftists who have trouble accepting reality. All this coddling is just making life worse for these students and, frankly, for everyone else who has to deal with the aftermath of this stupidity.
The fact that anyone, of any ethnicity, who can choose differently still sends their kids to public schools amazes me. I have told many young moms: “You’d literally have to TRY to do worse than the public schools to do worse than the public schools.”
I was a fairly relaxed homeschool mom. High octane? I was not. I was big on the basics (the 3 R’s), and the things I was really bad at, we paid others to instruct. This included all math above Algebra 1, chemistry, physics, and musical instruments. We also used a hybrid school to bolster all their upper school instruction and to have someone knowledgeable lead us through many of the Great Books. All of these were in-person, and not online. Yes, it costs more, but we believe in human instruction, and have no doubt that it has made a huge difference.
Our 19 year old earned Florida’s Bright Future Scholarship upon graduating based on her ACT and SAT scores. Our youngest is taking her first tests this summer, but on practice tests, she is also tracking to receive full tuition coverage. We’re not idiots, so she is staying at home, in the state, so that she can study her desired interest without debt. And yes, I shared this info because my kids are black. All but one of the five earned tuition coverage and scholarship money through their test scores.
Am I positing blankslatism? No. While I have some issues with the oft repeated assertions of blacks being extraordinarily dumb, I am also not blind to the reality that there is something to the fact that black students perform so dismally, even when adjusting for socio-economic advantage. Just like women and men are different in fundamental ways, I believe that groups of people are different in fundamental ways (and I don’t think the group differences are relegated solely to racial differences).
What I am wondering from you is this. Aside from doing what my husband and I did, and divesting from the government K-12 education system as a whole, and investing in Christian/home/classical education, what is your proposed solution to this problem? You mention it at regular intervals, but I have yet to hear anyone offer a solution that is going to 1) not ask parents to embrace their children as inferior human beings, while 2) also insuring that they receive the best education they are capable of acquiring.
Well said, Elspeth. Our oldest son married a homeschooled girl (she also attended college while living at home). She did extremely well.
They plan on homeschooling their children if/when they are blessed with them.
(btw, this was a kid who had always thought homeschooled kids were “backward” socially until he actually spent time with one…then it was “she’s the smartest girl I’ve ever met!” It has been over 2 years now and they are going strong. Mr (former) broody is always happy now, knock on wood)
Elspeth,
Oh, boy. Here we go. Are you ready for politically incorrect response?
Keep in mind that I’m not writing to solve the problems of society. I’m not advocating political activism (but, in fact, the opposite). Nor do I think that Christians are to fight evil in the secular world.
I have an audience of educated persons who, in general, have above-average intelligence. With that in mind, most of the problems with schools don’t apply to readers here. The unserious tongue-and-cheek solution “just have smart kids” applies.
Very smart kids easily adapt to challenging circumstances. They need almost no management and can thrive regardless of how good or bad their teachers and schools are. I’ve seen this in the statistics that I have cited, and I’ve seen it anecdotally in my own family.
In general, home schooling has very little impact on academic achievement. Smart parents are much more likely to homeschool their (already smart) kids, which is why private schooling and homeschooling has significantly better results. If you control public and private schooling for student IQ, the benefit of homeschooling on achievement more-or-less vanishes.
For this reason, most of my kids attend public school and are doing fine (or better) academically in line with their IQs. (Does this surprise you?) There are many legitimate reasons to send a kid to private school or to homeschool them, but general academic achievement generally isn’t one of them.
If you could not homeschool your kids, statistics suggest that you would have moved them to a public school district where they could thrive. Because you are smart.
Do you really want a solution? Really?
The political solution to falling IQ is some sort of nationwide eugenics policy. If America want smarter kids, it has to facilitate high fertility among smart parents and suppress fertility among low-IQ parents. Alternatively, since violent crime is intimately connected to low-IQ and is Pareto Distributed…
…mandatory executions or castrations for repeat criminals would help dramatically, as less than 5% of crimes resulting in prison time are due to first offenses. In fact, there are more people with 30+ prior arrests sent to prison each year than there are people with no prior arrests! Enslaving criminals—which is allowed under the U.S. Constitution—might be a “more humane” solution (if hard work could actually served to rehabilitate).
But, you don’t need me to tell you that these policies are never going to happen. Blankslatists can’t even agree that differences even exist at all! Thus, there is no practical, realistic solution, and I’m not offering one.
All I’m doing is ensuring that my readers (1) know that the problem exists and don’t deny it and lie to themselves because the truth is unpalatable; and (2) understand the ramifications on culture and society, even if they can do nothing about it.
First, intelligence differences are not a matter of superiority and inferiority. This belief that biological dissimilarity would carry moral weight (“if it were true”) is a core blankslatist doctrine.
People have a need to accept that people are different, that they are not equal, and that equitable outcomes are not possible. They have to accept that some people can do jobs and tasks that other people cannot, that they are better suited to those tasks. And they have to acknowledge that some people are misplaced in their current roles.
Why? Because it’s the truth.
Second, it’s clear that while a good education is of somewhat limited positive value, a bad education can have a massive negative value. Given political ideologies of both parties (including Blankslatism), the only solution to bad education is the one that people have been doing for decades now: flight.
This is pejoratively called “white flight,” but everyone who is smart enough does it, including blacks. This is why, for example, Baltimore has multiple schools that graduates nobody who is proficient in math and reading. While the average IQ of blacks in America is 85, it is higher outside of the inner city and lower inside the inner city because the smart blacks left.
Since your government will do nothing about the problem (indeed, illegal immigration is making the problem worse), you can only vote with your feet.
Peace,
DR
First, intelligence differences are not a matter of superiority and inferiority. This belief that biological dissimilarity would carry moral weight (“if it were true”) is a core blankslatist doctrine.
I agree with you that intelligence does not confer innate superiority or inferiority. Some of the worst people ruling our society are moral degenerates decorated with degrees. They are the equivalent of the Bible’s “white washed tombs”. Just as bad as the overtly immoral, but hiding behind money and credentials. No small number are Dunning Kruger personified, making the situation even worse than it appears to the naked eye.
However, this is the real world. And in the real world (one where cognitive ability is directly correlated to material success and material success is equated with human value and worth), being labeled unintelligent, slow, or a half-wit is tantamount to being called useless or worse.
In a time when a strong man could make a good living with his strength, or a man who could hunt, or build things, or some other physically useful skill could make a good living, this wouldn’t be as controversial. But in a world where SAT scores and IQ score are the be-all, end-all, you’ll never get people to get on board with a plan that addresses these issues realistically.
So I suppose it’s a good thing you’re not actually invested in soling the problem, LOL
Ah. One more thing.
I have to be honest and say that a Christian positing that eugenics as a solution to this problem is disturbing to say the least.
I feel fairly confident asserting that when the creation mandate to be fruitful and multiply wasn’t limited to the most intelligent and most fair skinned. Psalm 127 (AFTER the fall) seems to indicate that a full quiver is a blessing with no stipulations for the unintelligent to not reproduce.
I’m going to graciously assume you are anti-abortion, and likely anti-artificial birth control, although the latter is open for debate among many Christians.
Actually, even MLK received the Margaret Sanger Award during his lifetime, so I suppose this idea of suppressing reproduction among the undesirables isn’t limited to superior whites.
Are stupid whites subject to this plan as well?
You asked what the solution was. That’s the most obvious solution. I never said it was a palatable, God-honoring one, or that I wanted it to happen. As you correctly note, it isn’t a problem I am trying to solve, nor am I advocating that readers here try to solve it.
Keep in mind that if the State practiced forced eugenics on parents, my own daughter would have been euthanized. I have skin in this game as both a Christian and a parent.
I’ll write more later when I have time.
Elspeth,
Another commenter on another forum had this to say:
I think this is a fair assessment, though I wouldn’t use language potentially loaded with moral connotations (i.e. “better” and “worse”).
To be clear, I’m positing these things—saying the quiet part out loud—because if someone wanted to actually solve this problem, they’d probably have to become a monster to do it.
If anything, I’m not merely passive, but I want people to not try to fix it, but rather to accept things as they are without lying to themselves about it.
Now, let’s talk about what the Bible says. You are correct that some of the worst people are those to whom God has given great things. You are also correct the material valuations are not God’s valuations.
This leads to this:
The Bible makes no apologies for—or denials of—people being different and having different lots in life. There are good people and there are bad people. There are people who are called to do certain things and people who are not. There are masters and there are slaves. The Bible is not a call to blankslatist equality, especially not among non-Christians. Real equality requires Christ.
The problem the Bible has with these differences is with the sins of pride and jealousy. The Bible condemns prideful men who lord it over others. It also condemns those who are jealous for what other men have.
What you describe is a combination of pride and jealousy. Those who have it look down on those who don’t, while those who don’t have it are discontent with the lot that God has given them.
Scripture judges people on who they are based on what they are given. Each person is expected to do what they know is right and to not do what they know is wrong.
If we lived in this kind of Christian environment, it wouldn’t be shocking to talk about these differences.
So I suppose it’s a good thing you’re not actually invested in soling the problem, LOL
It’s a world of pride and jealousy. This isn’t a problem that can be solved by breeding, it can only be realistically solved through faith in Christ. In Christ, we don’t see worth as measured by things like physical attractiveness, athletic ability, musical talent, political charisma, educational attainment, or intelligence.
God judges what is in the heart: what you think and feel, what is in your mind.
I completely agree.
That said, I’d like to know your opinion on what our obligation (if anything) should be to Africa? It’s well known that “white saviors” come in, do various charity works, and then these works are dismantled by the indigenous populations after the workers leave. While good-intentioned, these acts have a very low return on investment. What is the Christian role with respect to these (often non-Christian) Africans?
I am anti-baby murder, and so I’m against chemical birth control because it is an abortifacient.
You would think so. It would be stupid to implement a race-based eugenics policy. If the goal is to increase average IQ, this really isn’t a race-based issue. The only reason people make it about race is because IQ is has a race-based multi-modal distribution (which leads to “disparate impact” if you try to target the problem directly). People commonly confuse spectrums and black-and-white modes.
The only “eugenics” policy that I can think of that isn’t blatantly anti-biblical is the execution (or, alternatively, castration and enslavement) of criminals (e.g. a 3-strikes policy). Perhaps there are others, but this is the only one I’m aware of that a Christian could legitimately support without running afoul of Christian ethics.
From the Christian perspective, incarceration as punishment is an abomination. I know slavery is a naughty word, but the Bible demands forgiveness, restitution, or death for crimes, not imprisonment. Working off your debt is highly biblical and humane, while being locked up is not.
In other news, another commenter on another forum wrote something that isn’t true…
I’m guessing E won’t be commenting there much more….
…
[W]hat Derek wrote borders on hate crime, but he went there. Holy ****.
…as this is a horrible summary of what I wrote (not least of all because I don’t think we actually should do any of these things), but I also would completely understand if people didn’t want to read or comment here. The subject matter is quite inflammatory. A number of people have been cancelled for saying as much. It’s a hate crime just to admit that biological differences exist and are not simply social constructs.
This is the perfect example of a blankslatist NPC. To violate blankslatism is to blaspheme the secular religion. It’s not merely a hate crime, it’s a crime against the State religion. You wonder why I talk about blankslatism so often, and this is why. Daring even to merely talk about it is grounds for having your life destroyed.
Also, for public-schooled readers who were not properly homeschooled:
Peace,
DR
A few years back in San Jose……an African American mom was told her daughter was “very gifted” and the mom…..poor, single……working two jobs said at the time “I dont think so…..she’s a little behind and struggles with all her homework, even when I am helping her at night or in the morning.”
The district SJUSD told her she was gifted and some state test she scored in the top 10% of the school district for her grade. The mom found out she had a teachers aid sit with her the entire time. She could take as long as she wanted to complete and she wasnt timed like regular students. Why? “because she is so gifted, she requires unconvential means to learn and apply”
The mom was still shaking her head “This isnt correct. She’s my baby, and I know her. She’s not gifted or a high achiever”
She was ignored.
A year later, in sixth grade….she still couldnt read well, her math was at a first grade level.
Mom went to the school board / PTA and pleaded that her daughter isnt a genius and she isnt gifted, she need help.
Deaf ears. Smiles and nods. Nothing changed.
So even when a parent is saying “Ummm….I dont know about this” and the parent herself isnt in the upper percentiles…makes you wonder what agenda is really being pushed.
Without giving away personal information, a child I am closely familiar with took a proctored standardized test intended to see if they qualified for special needs programming. The teacher allowed a peer to assist. Unsurprisingly, the score failed to show a learning disability, showing average to low-average results (i.e. scores between 70 and 100).
Some time later a formal IQ test proctored by an actual psychiatrist (outside of school) showed moderate intellectual disability. For reference, that’s well below the 70 threshold:
The school refused to do anything about it. It eventually sued the parents—took them to “Due Process”—for being too annoying.
I’m a bit confused. I went to a very rural elementary school (total students k-6 about 35) and the high school was maybe 70 students 7th thru 12th grade.
It was built in the 1930’s (a WPA project). the one wing was elementary and the other was the high school interjoined with a cafetorium (cafeteria / auditorium) and the gym was on the second floor above it. It was old, needed work. A little run down. No elevators! Three floors! Must say it was an attractive building….wrought iron, decorative rails on the stairs….stuff like that
The teachers were decent I guess. We had music and art. Home Ec and “shop” in jr high.
Every student could read. I remember our reading groups in elementary school. We all had turns to read aloud. There was a “resource room” for students that were a little behind or needed extra help (I had to go in 4th and 5th grade for math)
There was a shocker when I was in 8th grade. A teacher was “having sex” with a student. She was sixteen. He was 27 (a math teacher…..real Alpha guy. He also was the ski team coach)
That combined with other issues…including the academics at the high school….my parents pulled me out and sent me down to Albany to finish up high school at a private academy.
Uniforms. lights out. regimented. All boys. I hated it.
I will say this……the uniforms DID eliminate class and pecking order in the school. Being an all boys school DID help my academics and grades (no distractions) and some of the teachers were actually really good at what they did.
But I also came from a home where my parents and I talked over dinner at a table. My parents DID check my homework as a kid. If I got in trouble in elementary school….my parents would discipline me “I dont care who started it” speeches.
I once was with a group of boys in elementary school who were throwing rocks at a window of the school building. I wasnt throwing rocks. But I was ther. The school divided up the cost the cost of the window and charged all the families of the boys involved to fix it.
I recall, that was one of the few times I remember being spanked by my dad.
If there is no accountability in the home….in the end, school wont do much for you
This is one of the hardest Blankslatist viewpoints to “deprogram.”
Intelligence largely determines your academic outcomes. Private schools don’t work well because they are better schools, they work well because the students that make them up have higher intelligence (and the parents of those kids have higher intelligence).
You are probably not aware of the all-black schools that have been attempted. Even with the best teachers, the newest expensive schools and equipment, and elite student selection criteria, these still failed to compete with run-of-the-mill mostly white public schools.
The same problem occurs with school districts that try to solve underachievement by increasing spending on students (including supplemental welfare programs).
The inherent abilities of the children largely determine whether a school is good or bad. Everything (including behaviors) is a result of—caused by—the children, not the other way around.
We’ve gone through decades and decades of attempts to engineer schools for better outcomes, and these attempts have failed time and again because none of these attempts involve replacing the underperforming students with more capable ones.
Better schools require more capable students.
Now there are some changes to academic programming that can be effective. The changes made in public schools in Mississippi in recent years have been one such example, resulting in dramatic improvement in student performance compared to other states (like California). Not everything is inherent. But it is extremely challenging, politically, to get politicians to admit why things are not working and to come up with realistic solutions. Most of the solutions actually tried involve blankslatist principles that presume that you can fix inherent abilities with environmental changes. It is utterly foolish.
For the record, what Mississippi has been doing (since 2013) is forcing kids to demonstrate the ability to read before they are allowed to graduate the 3rd grade. This is, in reality, just a function of inherent ability. The only environmental change is to stop trying to teach kids to learn from reading who are not actually able to read. Black 4th graders in Mississippi do so much better than their peers in other states because Mississippi requires them to know how to read.
Does this seem obvious to you? Well it isn’t to the majority of the United States (who consider such policies to have “disparate outcomes,” that is, to be racist).
Mississippi also uses the previously discredited “phonics” approach to learning language, which may play a legitimate environmental role. These days “whole-world reading” is the norm. Whole-word reading tends to work well for children with above-average intelligence, while phonics tends to work well for children with below-average intelligence, but differentiated instruction is considered “racist” by the elites.
You can probably see a trend here. Whatever helps black children is considered racist because it feels like segregation. Brave red states, like Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, and Florida, don’t care. Cowardly states like California and Oregon do. The latter are the ones reducing standards and crippling the kids they supposedly like. To wit:
That is kind of mindblowing if you only read the New York Times, but if you read me, it all makes a certain amount of crazy sense.
My elementary school used phonics to teach reading extensively. At the 4th or 5th grade level they had excellerated readings groups for those who were good readers and the like. This was measured by the SRA battery and workbox. Very common in schools from the 1950’s thru the mid 1980’s.
I was “at grade reading level” throughout my years. I scored better than average on the SATs in the Verbal…not because I was “bright” and “gifted” but as my junior year English teacher said “look, you always have your nose in a book. Your reading may be at grade level and but you excel AT reading at your level. Its a skill you use, so you perhaps score higher than average there”
Also, maybe a few good “guesses” on the test worked in my favor. Like all metrics that measure stuff like this (SATs / GREs) you are scored by the CORRECT answer. So sometimes a guess is better than leaving it blank.
Another human flaw with these tests, but no test is perfect……despite the worship of the Meyers Briggs in the ‘sphere (a lousy test and dated metric for an America that hasnt existed since the end of the 1980’s)
As for “all black school”. Here in California, Compton just unveiled a brand new high school. Top to bottom everything. New. Buildings, equipment. Facilities. Computers. Everything. What they didnt change is:
The teachers, the incompetent Union and of course a whole new level of bureaucratic management has been added to “maintain excellence” for this school. The sad part is, it has already been tagged.
I will disagree on a point…..I do believe a child with average intelligence can make an impact, can be useful, can have a decent life. A child can do well. Not every kid is going to be a lawyer, a scientist, work for NASA, or be a doctor. I agree with Els….there is a movement of sorts in the Christian ‘sphere that only “the intelligent (or the beautiful) should be allowed to partake in life…..and everyone else just has to “love God” and “dont worry, in heaven we wil be all equal” (sucks to be you now though)
And its implied frequently. Another reason to stay away from many forums.
I will disagree on a point…..I do believe a child with average intelligence can make an impact, can be useful, can have a decent life. A child can do well. Not every kid is going to be a lawyer, a scientist, work for NASA, or be a doctor. I agree with Els….there is a movement of sorts in the Christian ‘sphere that only “the intelligent (or the beautiful) should be allowed to partake in life…..and everyone else just has to “love God” and “dont worry, in heaven we wil be all equal” (sucks to be you now though)
I agree, Jason, and I think Derek seems to have a blind spot here as it relates to how a “realistic approach” to these issues would play out.
One of the reasons his exploration of these ideas doesn’t offend me is because I am fully aware (unlike the vast majority of black people), that there are and have always been a significant plurality of black elitists who agree that suppressing the reproduction of undesirables is a valid path to raising the standard among black people. I mentioned MLK earlier. He was a huge proponent of Margaret Sanger’s attempts to suppress reproduction in the ghettos. Even as far back as 1940, Sanger’s list of black elites who were on board with the plan was a veritable who’s who among American black leadership: Preachers, doctors, lawyers, scientists, educators, activists.
https://onepeterfive.com/martin-luther-king-planned-parenthood/
These were the best of the best black minds in America, and they almost unanimously agreed that poor, uneducated, ghetto blacks needed to have few or no children. Note that MLK himself had four with his own wife. He might’ve had more if he were not killed. Of course, as a smart, eloquent, educated man, he was not among the blacks who should not be allowed to reproduce. In theory, SAM and I would also be applauded for our large family under such a system.
The problem of curse, is that it assumes that what you have said is untrue. it assumes that less intelligent people cannot do well, and that to the extent that they don’t, it’s inherent rather than cultural. Note, I am not referencing academic achievement, but basic morals and proper standards of behavior. These IQ theories necessarily pour over into the idea that intelligence and morality are linked, and THIS is problem I have with them.
Elspeth,
It’s a dangerous topic. It’s extremely easy to be catastrophically misunderstood or for emotions to override reason. Your previous comments led me to believe that I wouldn’t offend you, which is why I took the risk of discussing it at all.
This includes abortionist Kermit Gosnell, the most prolific serial killer in United States history. He believed he was doing the Lord’s work. It was horrific.
I’m not completely clear what you think my blind spot is. I guess that proves your point.
You’ve brought this up before. You asked me what I thought about people with extremely low IQ or other mental illnesses. Are these kinds of people actually morally culpable for their behavior? I don’t recall what I said, but I don’t really have a strong answer for you.
All I can say is that I don’t inherently link intelligence and morality. I’ve never believed that only the beautiful, the intelligent, and the physically perfect are important. I’ve spent my life living as if every soul matters, and that’s what I believe. I don’t know if every reader will believe that (because I can abstractly “play Devil’s Advocate”), but it is true nonetheless.
I don’t know why God has allowed such stark differences in abilities. But I can’t deny that these differences are real. I do know that to whom much is given, much is required. This would seem to imply that to those who are given less, less is expected. The Bible seems to suggest that in heaven all will not be equal. I’ve often said that the lowest among us is our leader, not necessarily the one who spews the most words.
Also, in case you missed my new comment above, see here.
Peace,
DR
I don’t think Christian nations (or Christian orgs/churches/ministries) have a responsibility to shoulder the burden of feeding, clothing, or developing the economies of those who have rejected the gospel. The practice of practical Biblical principles, if you will, will create the flourishing they desire. I do believe we have a responsibility to take the gospel to those people, even under pain of death. However, that is NOT the same thing as raising their material standard of living or installing democratic style governments.
Those of us in wealthy nations have been conditioned to view our material standard living as both an entitlement and a source of guilt when compared to under developed countries. That is faulty logic, and I don’t believe the Bible teaches that it is our job to create material equality. In fact, almost every instance of charity in the New Testament is given in the context of Christian brothers and sisters supplying one another’s needs. The lone exception I can think of -off the top of my head- is the Good Samaritan, and note that he was serving a neighbor who was literally along the path where he walked! This was highly instructive.
Which brings me back to your question about Africa. It is a complex issue because many missionary organizations use material relief as a method of entry, particularly in places where Islam has an entrenched, or even simply a strong presence. I don’t have a problem with that, but as a nation which has abandoned our own Christian heritage, I certainly do not believe America is obligated to support the relief of poor countries.
More than that, with shekels come shackles, and under Biden (and probably Obama as well) America has leaned on African nations which have rejected homosexuality, for example, to embrace it, under threat of withdrawal of funding. It’s one example, but this is kind of mischief is one reason why it is not good.
But in general, I think charity should be handled through private entities. Besides, If you take my money at gunpoint and send it over there, is it even charity?
Well said! This is a great answer.
I guess I cannot pur an exact finger on it, or explain it in a way that makes Derek ( or you Els) comprehend or understand what I am trying to convey.
I dont have the intelligence to do this obviously (IQ 92, the lower end of “average IQ”)
When you have a degree, have a good provision and lost of children…..well, culturally in Christian circles you “have receieved God’s favor / you are blessed with a large family”
Whereas if you are poor, or getting by or not as “intelligent” its ,”you breed like rabbits and you need to take responsibility!”
In the movie “Caddy Shack” Ted Knights character (miss that guy, great actor) he mentions to the Caddy who is looking for a scholarship “well, the world needs ditch diggers too!”
And funny as it was….and patronizing. The world DOES need its ditch diggers. Every man isnt going to be a surgeon, an amazing musician, or academic, or engineer, or orator……people with lower intellect in these posts and other other ones seem to come off as:
“they are inferior / somehow deserved this / it was their own fault by being born / deserve to live in misery, or be poor and must spend their lives envying smart people”
Part of the reason I dont belong to “Toastmasters” and other groups or clubs is because I am always talked down to like a child because I dont comprehend what many people are talking about…or I cant grasp it as easily.
I just dont think anyone born with an average IQ deserves to be made stertile, or shunned, or forced by words, The Bible or others “well, sucks to be you. Accpet my amazing intellect and be happy. In heaven we will all be equal. Just stay out of our way”
When I was at IBM, we didnt care if our manager was off for a week. We did care when the Custodian Union went on strike in San Jose in the late 1990’s and the bathrooms, common areas, hallways, offices, and dining rooms were not cleaned and got messy real quick.
I smirked to myself. Not that these workers deserved a high wage (they didnt) but all these “brilliant” people I worked with who put their noses up most folks couldnt empty their own trash. Couldnt get the vaccume from the closet down the hallway and clean their own office.
“those no good / dirty / uneducated losers have to clean up after me” was kindof the attitude.
I dont like it. Society cant run on Red Pill theory and the intellectual clas, nor can a community run on when all the men are doctors or math teachers….
I guess I cannot put an exact finger on it, or explain it in a way that makes Derek ( or you Els) comprehend or understand what I am trying to convey.
If you don’t think I understand what you’re trying to convey, Jason, let me make it obvious that I do *get it*:
My father raised a wife and 5 kids (8 kids, actually) by hanging off the back of a garbage truck for 29 years, all while running a side hustle cleaning office buildings 2 nights a week, and a 3rd hustle doing landscaping for a few houses in a wealthy neighborhood in an adjacent town.
We lived in a modest 4br/2 bath house, cooled by window ACs, had two cars, and a frequently full fridge.
My dad was a devout Christian man of high integrity throughout the entirety of MY lifetime. He had some wayward ways as a young man, but he was 40 when I was born and lived to 85 doing good to the less fortunate, and sharing the gospel whenever he could, beginning with his own children as well as in his church.
All he had was a high school diploma, but he was very diligent with his earnings from his “menial” jobs. He enjoyed a relaxed few years of retirement which he spent almost entirely in service to others.
I get it. To this day, SAM and I tip our garbage men regularly at the holidays because we have never forgotten where I came from.
Lastmod,
I found your explanation to be quite clear and insightful. I completely agree with what Elspeth said, so I won’t attempt to repeat what she said.
“they are inferior / somehow deserved this / it was their own fault by being born / deserve to live in misery, or be poor and must spend their lives envying smart people”
The fault here is blankslatism.
If everyone is coddled (“you are amazing and can do anything you want”) and told all their life how amazing they are, when reality is finally confronted and they predictably fail, it will be interpreted it as inferiority or fault.
We should not be telling people who are well-suited to be ditch diggers that they will not be their real self if they don’t get a Masters degree. We should not tell them that being a ditch digger is degrading.
We have to stop lying to people. It just comes off as patronizing.
Peace,
DR
Clip from Caddyshack (1979)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oLk41pnpqM
Thank you Els for your reply.
My dad was smarter than he let on. He had a lot of common sense (“horse sense” he called it). He had a killer work ethic. And even when he became a respected Foreman in heavy construction he never forgot. It was pouring rain and the concrete arrived for a large job….he was out there in the rain, knee deep in the concrete with the crew.
Most Foreman of contractors I deal with in my career now for work. They drive an expensive truck. Show up on the job. Look important and leave.
My father , cigarette always in his mouth…thick Polish accent, his hardhat with a the Polish and American flags crossed together……pouring over blueprints. Worked the crew hard, but gave praise and meant it when things were done right. He drove his beat up 1970’s Dodge that he bought new when I was a child to all worksites….getting snickers from younger “cool” Foreman (“overeducated and entitled” he called them).
He could talk to people. He couldnt discuss theory and socio-political philosophy. He hated Communists, hated Nazis and though younger carpenters “didnt know sh*t today, hand them a Union Card when they cant even shovel greavel. Thats where a Journeyman needs to start for a their first year!” Foul mouth on the job….never cussed at home at my mom (she wouldnt have put up with that language from him mind you)
Miss him more than ever now actually.
And to finish….
If my father was today, in 2025. A young guy right out of high school. He probably would have never married. My mother was the first girlfriend he ever had, and he was 27 when he met her. My dad didnt go to the gym. Didnt have a STEM degree. Didnt have women “following him home just wanting to get to know him”
And he grew up in times when it was supposed “very easy” to get married and date. (1950’s)
He was tall in his prime 6’4″ and like me……was awkward.
He would be deemed a “loser” by the Manosphere because he didnt have the 273 things required to be a Real Man. He served in the military and hated all four years of it. He didnt have “test drives” nor “spinning plates” and he didnt “die” because he didnt have sex as a teenager
He also actually LIKED his wife. She was the one who listened to him. The one he confided with. The one “who understood me”. Because the Sphere today want a thing to have sex with and a robot / doormat that just waits from instructions from her husband.
ALso, my father being Polish…saw as a boy the evilness of the Nazis, and the deplorable Communists in Poland. He hated anyone professed Eugenics. He himself had a son with Downs Syndrome and he mortgagesdhis own home twice to save him and keep him alive. This was before healthcare plans covered this population
I’m a former homeschooler who used the classical method (my kids are grown), and I’ve been curious for awhile about the neglect within HBD discussions of the role moral formation plays. It seems to me this is what LastMod is highlighting. Character formation, not IQ, seems more related to what we’ve lost. I mention classical education because character formation is the focus of classical Christian education.
The ability to choose the good is missing, and I don’t think it’s necessarily related to IQ. I think we all know low-IQ folks who are genuinely good; there are several in my church family who love God and strive to do well. It’s both nature and nurture, but almost everyone is capable of some education. It just is a human trait — humans grow and learn, but we now believe that desire, not goodness, determines what we should do.
Erin,
I think it is clear that the relationship between IQ and morality is not so simple. It is absolutely the case that low-IQ people can be “good” and high-IQ people can be “bad,” and it’s not obvious at all that high IQ people are any less sinful than low IQ people. Jesus came to save everyone he could.
Let’s start by talking about an HBD view:
From Pew (2023-2034):
Church attendance is associated higher educational attainment, but so is disbelief in God, and low importance placed on religion.
It’s the community participation (in general) that is EHC coded. Actual religious belief/feeling is low-HC coded.
High EHC [Educational Human Capital] is going to church pretending to be religious along with the other non-believers, while true believers sit at home watching TV.
Jason often talks about how Church is a social club (for the elite or intelligent). The data backs him up. Church is where non-believers go for reasons that often have very little to do with theology or God. This is known as nominalism, and it has been impacting the church since the days of Constantine when the State married the Church. The church is highly influenced by people who are not especially devout nor knowledgable nor full of faith, and it’s been that way for centuries.
The moral education of Christianity is flawed, but it has been flawed for a long time. It’s not a new phenemonon.
It matters who the teachers are. We’ve been dancing around that issue, but here in America everyone is treated as if their opinions should be validated. But not everyone’s ideas are equally good. Some are quite bad. How can we discuss “character formation” and “Christian education” if we can’t objectively agree on what that means? Whose opinions should we follow and whose should we reject?
Furthermore, the vast majority of people can’t be corrected, either because they are unable or unwilling. I can deductively prove someone wrong, and they’ll still cling to their view, either because they are too stupid to understand what I’m saying or because they are too dishonest to put truth first. Fallacious reasoning—if people even reason at all—is incredibly common.
Most people derive their views by whatever the crowd says is right or wrong. They are NPCs. There is a deep-seated desire in humanity for authoritarianism: people surrendering their own agency by becoming blind followers. The recent discussion of the popularity of Cathodoxy illustrates this. Many people want to be told what to believe, they don’t want to be responsible for knowing right or wrong.
At the same time, many people don’t want anyone to tell them what to do. They want to call the shots and they demand that others conform to their own beliefs.
How do you suggest that people choose between competing options if not through the use of intelligence? Then, who can we trust to figure out moral formation for themselves and who do we force it upon for their own good?
Peace,
DR
One reason we moved 1500 miles was to get away from crime, disfunction, etc. Specifically, we wanted to be in an area where lower income people could buy a cheap house and live in a Leave it to Beaver neighborhood.
I poured over crime statistics and picked a Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) with one of the
lowest violent crime rates in the country. In doing so, we also ended up in a county that is less than one percent black and about two or three percent hispanic. About one eighth of the population in southeast Asian. Based on watching the local news, they don’t commit much serious crime. I actually find them less “trashy” than the local, working class whites.
Within a month or two of moving here there was a bank robbery which almost never happens here. It was a black man in his 60s. Then there were two young black men (and a white accomplice) who beat an old man to death. Then there was a black couple about a mile away who were breaking into cars in our neighborhood and had a huge stash of our neighbors’ property at their house. When the cops arrested them , the female kept saying they were going to r@pe the arresting officer’s wife and children (saw the bodycam footage).
From observation, it seems that the colonization of our area by ghetto black males is largely driven by lower-class white women inviting them here for romantic relationships that often end in a baby or two and then the relationship ends. I worked closely with a ghetto male for several months and it was interesting. I’ve never seen a human being talk about themselves and brag so much and there was open resentment towards whites and a high degree of race conciousness on his part. A quarter of his day was spent strutting around the factory like a rooster, throwing fits, literally throwing sledgehammers, crowbars, etc., coaching me on how my people “are lazy.”
As a Catholic Christian I struggle with how to understand all this. I’ve entirely given up on reading HDB and despair-p0rn-white-Gotterdammerung websites like VDARE and View From the Right. I don’t have animus towards black people and when I see an intact black family up here I usually assume they are decent people since intact black families are so rare and are outliers (in a good way).
As far as race, crime and Christianity , my way of coping I suppose is to tell myself that crime, even violent crime, aren’t the only or even the worse sins. They have more practical negative effects on others so I seek to avoid situations where that sort of sin abounds but aside from murder, crime doesn’t involve the sins that cry to heaven for vengeance.
At this point, my attitude has evolved from VDARE to “my tribe is traditional Catholic Christians of all races.” I experience a much more peaceful and joyful existence now.
As a person who tries to be a Catholic Christian, it’s hard for me to deal with this.
My economic situation was similar to Elspeth’s. My father did pool maintenance for a very ritzy real estate development (think Jupiter Island level rich), had a side hustle cleaning doctor’s offices (back when they all had small private practices) and a third hustle cleaning the swimming pools of individual rich people (who were often quite nice and gave him Christmas bonuses, let me go fishing off their docks, etc.). We had a modest but comfortable existence (two bedroom houses where we always managed to make a third bedroom – in the garage, Florida room, etc.) thanks to dad (mom never worked). Like most kids (and wives IMO) we didn’t appreciate what he did for us.
Off topic. Our church away from home is the United Methodist Church in Jupiter, Florida. We lived less than a mile away for a while, my wife and daughter there for almost half a year.
This is, quite unexpectedly, a very Florida-friendly blog.