06-20-2016, 05:50 PM
(06-20-2016, 03:17 PM)TnT Wrote:(06-20-2016, 02:42 PM)pbrower2a Wrote:(06-20-2016, 02:15 PM)Tn Wrote:T Wrote:It strikes me that if one creates a graphical frequency distribution of intelligence, based on any criteria that you might come up with, pretty close to 50% of our population is going to be below average.
It's safe to assume that the electorate skews slightly above average in intelligence. The feeble-minded are likely to find getting to the polls, let alone voting, a difficult activity.
Quote:That suggests to me that this group is vulnerable to well-designed simplistic argument that appeals to them.
On the other side, there are people who see or hear the same argument and are aghast.
Quote:But you don't have to be smart to be very, very destructive. And you don't have to be smart to vote.
On the other side -- while Trump is gaining the white ignoramus vote, he is losing even more of the more-educated part of the white vote.
Quote:Doesn't it seem obvious then, that some kind of societal provision needs to be made so that a potentially massive movement does not arise that wants to make things better for itself, but instead simply blows everything up?
It's called the Bill of Rights.
If the Bill of Rights was sufficient, we wouldn't have the mess that we are in with rampant inequality, a system that favors mostly the white, well-to-do, crumbling infrastructure in the face of un- and under-employment, more people in prison than any other modern nation ...
The Bill of Rights gives no economic rights except the right to not have property seized without due compensation.
Without doubt, right-wing policies practically ensure that people will get the shaft if they are not in the economic elite. More people in prison? Just look at educational inequality and gross underinvestment in the lives of the poor. Without any question our economic order now operates largely to enrich and pamper the economic elites at the expense of everyone else.
If you want to see what a plutocracy is and you are in the USA, then just look about you.
Quote:These things DIRECTLY impact the folks that are below average. Note also, that I DID NOT imply that they are "feeble minded." Just mathematically below average. Look, if the frequency distribution is anywhere near Gaussian, the below average population is about 50%.[/quote]
The feeble-minded (IQs under 80, 75, or 70, depending on the cut-off) are entirely in the below-average groups in intelligence and form a significant part of those below average in intelligence. People above the cut-off but under 100 (the average) in IQ are still below average in intelligence. Whether they vote or do not vote at a significantly-lesser rate than people just above the average is not so obvious.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.