Friday's Urban Legends
From time to time on Friday morning I post some examples of urban myths/legends. Today I've copied a comment from an old thread on Race and Intelligence. Someone named E.A. posted this comment two days ago and I thought it might be fun to pick out all the factual and logical errors in his/her comment. (Hint: there are more than three.) Most of them are due to bigotry of some sort or another, coupled to an excessive dose of political correctness. (E.A. provided a link to the blog True Newspaper).
It's appropriate to examine these false ideas today since this is an historic week in the USA. American Democrats have just nominated their first black man for President and no doubt there will be much discussion about race over the next six months.
First,
Jewish people are the most intelligent. They win almost 40% of the Nobel Prize's and they have a small population of only 14 million. So by far they exceed the other races in intelligence. The other races having huge numbers and such small contributions.
Second,
IQ tests, test intellectual conformity, not creativity and originality. This would explain the Asian high IQ's. They as a people are the ultimate conformists.
In IQ tests there is typically only one answer to the problem. That problem being a social conformity to reason. But everyone knows that Genius's and all of the greatest developments in the world are not the product of conformity. Conformity never breeds creativity. We can see this in the lack of influence the Asian population has had on Science. China used to be called the "sick man" of Asia. Their population is massive and their contribution to innovation is almost nil. We can see this lack of originality in their adoptation of European philosophies, I.e. Communism.
Friedrich Nietzsche and other Philosophers have critized Asians. Nietsche used the words "Pallid osification" to describe Orientals.
Pallid: lacking sparkle or liveliness.
Osification: The process of becoming set and inflexible in behavior, attitudes, and actions. Inflexible conformity, rigid unthinking acceptance of social conventions.
The reality is Asian people have yet to understand that laws and rules are arbitrary. Europeans make the rules and Asian's follow them.
It also doesn't make sense that Asian's are considered smart because of the fact that they have destroyed their own countries. This is due to over-population and their basic lack of enviromental understanding.
It is also common scientific fact that women who have many children are ignorant, and those who have less children are more intelligent. This has already been proven in studies. So it seems strange to say that Asians are smart when the obviousness of their backwards countries, and medieval lifestyle makes them contrary to that premise.
Europeans have the most advanced civilizations and every other race has yet to meet these levels other than the Japanese. The Japanese only being good at copying other people's inventions and making them better. Other than that their original creativity is lacking as well. They took American cars and made them better. They took the German camera and made it better. And they took German steel and made it better. Otherwise the greatest advances still come from Europeans and Jews. Other than that the Orientals have yet to produce an Einstein or a Thomas Edison.
When it comes to Black people. It makes sense that they have low intellectual comformity, I.e. IQ tests. They are far too creative to be trapped in this unoriginal form of conditioning. You can tell their creative capacity in their athletics, music, dance, and the way they talk. They by far exceed the Asiatic races in these areas. Being better singers, musicians ect. Blacks far exceed Asians in emotive expression. In all of North America there is only one or two famous high-paid Asian actors.
Reality, Europeans rule the world and they have allowed others to exist only out of desire for economic bennifet. They, (Europeans) are also the physically strongest, winning the Strongest Man competitions again and again.
The greater the conformity, the weaker the race. Thus we see the races as they are today. The wild animal being bred out of man, and the physically impotent, conformist thriving.
Otherwise "Group psychology" is the most destructive thing in the world. All these stereotypes are false when it comes to the individual. Individualism is the most important thing for this time. All countries, Religions, groups need to dissolve for man to live in peace.
This isn't an urban legend - this is just plain ick. To be honest, Larry, I'm kind of upset that this sort of thing should be repeated even as an example of something wrong.
ReplyDeleteWhich is kind of the point, I suppose.
It's so wrong I can't see where to start. This person has opinions they're happy with, and sees no reason to test them against data.
ReplyDeleteWhat kind of garbage is this? It's just sad I say, really sad.
ReplyDeleteThat's terrible. Although they provided a definition for ossification, they spelled it wrong.
ReplyDeleteIt's.... it's that scene from Life Of Brian!
ReplyDelete"They (Asians) took American cars and made them better. They took the German camera and made it better. And they took German steel and made it better." ....
But other than that what have the Asians ever... well obviously robots, that goes without saying. What? Okay, I'll grant phones with cameras in them, but other than cheap reliable cars, cameras, steel, cool mobile phones, semiconductors, computer displays, transoceanic optic fibre cables, high efficiency marine diesel engines.... (very long list TBC)..... and 500 ton castings for nuclear reactor vessels, WHAT HAS ASIA DONE FOR US??? That's right! NUTHIN'!
"Individualism is the most important thing for this time. All countries, Religions, groups need to dissolve for man to live in peace."
Aaaaaaaymen, brother! That's right! No groupthink to hold you back, clog your individuality, or get in the way when some other, y'know group decide they'd like to gang up and push you around, enslave/kill/rob you....
I seriously hope the original author is 15 and on a path leading to the education he/she really, really needs.
Jews are indeed the smartest people. We have the brains and most of the financial power, and we will always find a way to manipulate world circumstances to favor our objectives. Despite all apparent odds, we coerced the US into attacking Iraq and are at this moment poised do the same thing to Iran. You gentiles are not a coherent group like we are, and cannot stop us. Might in whatever form it takes, is right. It's just evolution - accept it.
ReplyDeleteThe anonymous poster has been reading anti-Jewish propaganda. He sure is not a Jew.
ReplyDeleteCourse it could also be a Jonathan Swift type proposal ... but somehow, I doubt it.
Just another example of the "ick" out there in the world of the web.
Okay, I see the gigantic, record-setting pile of bigotry here. I'm kind of confused about where the political correctness is, though? I can't imagine this being linked to correctness of any kind.
ReplyDeleteI love the way this bunch of stereotypes ends with the affirmation that stereotypes are crap!
ReplyDeleteThe guy almost gets it when he downplays the signification of IQ tests. Unfortunately, the problem doesn't have much to do with creativity vs. conformity.
Huh?
ReplyDeleteJust some time ago Larry was defending Jim "black people are dumb" Watson and whining that some kind of PC conspiracy was stopping research.In Larry's words
"What is this standard dogma? Francis Collins puts it well when he says, "Genetic factors for intelligence show no difference from one part of the world to another." This is something that nobody can question without being called a racist"
Sure, Larry would be the (somewhat ageing) revolutionary, if it were not the case that these topics have been extensively explored scientifically, and continue to be explored. Which is why we can say that in more than a century of research, not a single compelling case for this has been found.
Of course if Larry instead of only thinking about genes in ole darwinian fashion just cared to take two peeks at the field of developmental psychology, he might understand why this quest is more like the search for atlantis (while whining about the "anti-atlantis" dogma)
But Larry is no friend of development. Like the adaptationists he despises, Larry probably thinks that evolution can be understood without understanding development (that is, without actually understanding anything about the relation to genotype and phenotype by simply assuming the fallacy that genotype=phenotype)
Sanders says,
ReplyDeleteHuh?
Just some time ago Larry was defending Jim "black people are dumb" Watson and whining that some kind of PC conspiracy was stopping research.In Larry's words
"What is this standard dogma? Francis Collins puts it well when he says, "Genetic factors for intelligence show no difference from one part of the world to another." This is something that nobody can question without being called a racist"
Sure, Larry would be the (somewhat ageing) revolutionary, if it were not the case that these topics have been extensively explored scientifically, and continue to be explored. Which is why we can say that in more than a century of research, not a single compelling case for this has been found.
Sandwalk readers will be familiar with Sanders and his inability to follow a train of logic. In this case he is mixing up several different topics.
One of them is whether there is a genetic component to intelligence. That discussion has nothing to do with race [Is There a Genetic Component to "Intelligence"?]. In my opinion, the case is airtight. Genes (alleles) contribute to intelligence. It's why smart people tend to have smart children.
Sometimes the discussion was about race and intelligence [Race and Intelligence] [Evolution in the Ashkenazi Jewish Population].
The other issue was whether Watson deserved to be called a bigot and hounded out of his job at Cold Spring Harbor [The Watson Affair]. I think he was treated harshly by the politically correct crowd who are way too eager to pounce on Caucasians who display even a trace of racial prejudice. (Not to excuse the fact that Watson is too politically incorrect for his own good.)
The third issue was whether race is a biological concept or just social prejudice [Is Race a Biological Concept?]. The answer is that race is a real biological concept and pretending otherwise is just letting one's social prejudices get in the way of real science.
Pfffft.
ReplyDeleteI only want to know if you still stand by that small quote of yours I showed there, whihc is nothign but pure silliness.
"It's why smart people tend to have smart children"
Wow, Larry. you ARE and idiot.
We'll pardon Larry for now, after all, he only follows in an old tradition of silliness that very easily plagues the scientists, specially so the gene-happy, uppity well-faring proffesor.
ReplyDeleteFor those who want to have a look at the alleged "airtight" case (which of course is just an embarassing demonstration of academic ignorance) , maybe just wikipedia is enough, under Inheritance of intelligence, specially from "family environment" onwards...
Larry: there is an old saying from the peninsula "a closed mouth eats no flies".
LOL. This is so messed up it's funny. How old is the person that wrote this? 13? Seriously. First of all, although in not all cases, asians are smart and you cannot deny that. What's wrong with answering a test question correctly? What makes this mean they are not creative? I mean about the whole Japanese copying other county's ideas(I am not even going to go through what they have created themselves), what do you think the Roman's did? Honestly, would you rather have the first invention of something or the new improved version? Anyway,this person thinks white people are absolutely amazing; he/she needs to do some research, they screwed everyone over to get to the top. Also, if this person thinks he/she is so great, he/she should stop discriminating and go win a noble piece prize.
ReplyDeleteI don't mean to be racist toward anyone, just trying to prove a point to whoever wrote that trash.
In all of North America there is only one or two famous high-paid Asian actors.
ReplyDeleteYeah, but Jackie Chan kicks all their sonsofbitch asses.
I believe there are general differeces in racial intelligence. It follows the rules of the genetic code. Take 50 smart people and 50 dumb people (all given similar educations) seperate the two groups and get them to breed. Youll get offspring with intelligences more like there parents. Its stupid to suggest otherwise. There was enough time to create intelligence differences between groups/races. Im white- not asian or a jew so i admit i am not descended from the most intelligent people races. It should be noted that asians and jews probably do worse than blacks and whites on certain types of intelligence. Diversity- perhaps the collective intelligence is better than any single races intelligence.
ReplyDeleteHa HA HAAAA. "Europeans are physically the strongest, winning strongman competitions again and again." NO, Europeans win strongman competitions because they are usually the only ones that care to participate in the contests. No one else really does, honestly. Just because someone does not compete in some idiot contest does not mean that they are not strong. Good God, this is racial arrogance at its worst.
ReplyDeleteThis is all very true. If asians never were, whites would have still made it to the moon and invented many things from great minds like nikola tesla. There never was an asian tesla or einstein. Whites are taught to not be proud of being white like its bad to be proud of white accomplishments while asians blacks and hispanics are taught and its excepted to be proud. To these whites having a fit in here go to an all black area and see how they treat you in general or how about go to an all asian area and see how they treat you.
ReplyDeleteIf there were no whites asians would still be living in pre technical industrial times like they did 200 years ago and beyond. Even today many asian countries with huge populations still produce very little science & technology break throughs. Imagine if germany or britian had populations as large as india or china. The amount of society contributions would be great. Hah probably have already terraformed mars.
ReplyDeleteYou guys are idiots.
ReplyDeleteChina's ancient inventions brought us to where we are today. Where would we be without the basic inventions like paper, compasses, gunpowder etc? You cannot make grand advanced inventions without the basic ones first.
i.e. all the great inventions started from the basic ones, which allowed them to be invented. Duh, if you couldn't work that out then you must be really dumb.
I've met a lot of stupid and some smart asians, they are neither dumb or intelligent. But I lol'd at some of the comments here that rush to be the white knight of the scene.
ReplyDelete"They (Asians) took American cars and made them better. They took the German camera and made it better. And they took German steel and made it better."
HAHAHAHAHA!
I hope you're trolling.
Italian and German cars beat them by a long shot.
American cars are a little behind, since they are not exactly very concentrated in that field, but have been coming up fast, especially Ford.
"China's ancient inventions brought us to where we are today. Where would we be without the basic inventions like paper, compasses, gunpowder etc? You cannot make grand advanced inventions without the basic ones first."
You really think nobody else would've invented them?
Not that amazing, at all.
This is all pointless. European culture is preeminent and has won. Take a look at the world, the chinese,japanese even the Africans. All wearing suits with ties speaking English as a second language.
ReplyDeleteEuropean culture is victorious. Our list of achievements is so long it must be embarassing for other races. Nevermind. We should be PROUD of our achievements and the other races should be a little bit thankful we came along.
Oh, by the way. If whites ever fell from the top, the whole world would come down with us, so any of you wanting the white man to perish will be shooting yourselves in the foot.
^
ReplyDelete. Arrogance, and racial supremacy is something that Westerners have also brought with them in their conquering of lands, technology. Now that China is the new future, there is a new change and with an outdated attitude like that, will mean you will definately fall and noone will catch you. Secretly, you knew it would happen, that's why white supremacy was invented in the first place to create idea of false superiority. But that control is being broken and there's nothing you can do to stop it.
To the last person who posted :
ReplyDeleteChina is also very racist and has a Chinese supremacy attitude.
It isn't just a Western thing by a long shot.
Anti-Asian propaganda and stereotypes and non-sense...
ReplyDeleteJust jealous that China is rising as well as the East. Western propaganda and bias...
=)
WOW! After reading this article, this is by far the most idiotic, ignorant and eurocentric thing I've ever read. Europeans had the most advanced civilizations? Not by a long shot. China was by far the world's foremost and advanced civilization in the world from 1AD-1820AD. It was the world's most dominant and affluent civilization for thousands of years, ahead of Europe and the Middle East. Prior to the 20th century, Many of the inventions that you would credit to Europeans, the Chinese invented long ago. Far from being on the periphery of civilization, the Chinese invented civilization, and they usually did it first and were ahead of Europe and the Middle East by centuries. They INVENTED Paper, Gunpowder, Printing (which led the way to Gutenberg's Printing Press), the Compass. These are just a few of the innumerable original inventions and innovations of ancient China. Francis Bacon made a remark that the three greatest inventions that dominated world history: Printing (which transformed literature), Gunpowder (which transformed warfare), and the Compass (which transformed navigation). If it wasn't for the Chinese, Europeans would still be fighting with swords while adhering to their medieval knighthood, lol. Did you hear what Marco Polo say about China when he went there? Check that out too. Also, on what Friedriche Nieztsche said about the Orientals, he was wrong of course, and remember he died insane in the end. This entire article is ridiculously biased to an unprecedented level, and completely ignorant and bigoted that defies logic. Please learn real history, as Europeans did not even have the most advanced civilizations, in fact they were less civilized and way behind China for centuries and centuries until the 1800s. Looks like things are changing again in the 21st century. This article is so pathetic and completely devoid of facts, it's almost sickening and quite satirical.
ReplyDeleteJust a correction to those bringing "Hispanics" into the fray to fill the gaps in their pet agendas... "Hispanics" are NOT a race. They are as mixed a lot as "Americans." Using "Hispanic" as a genetic race is as stupid and incorrect as using "Americans" as a genetic race. Many Hispanics are White, quite a few are Native Amerindian, a very small few are Black (mostly Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Hondurans and Dominicans)and quite a few are mixed of the first two - Mestizos.
ReplyDeleteNow, it is really Mestizos that people mean when they refer to "Hispanic" or "Mexican" as a race. So, the question is really if Mestizos are stupid or smart. Well, Native Amerindians are from Northeast Asia, and got to America through the most inhospitable Ice Age conditions possible. Not only did they survive, they took over a whole continent with extremely diverse climates and ecosystems, and proceeded to develop complex civilizations with enormous scientific, mathematical, astronomical, biological, social and political achievements and discoveries. If anybody says these people are stupid, he has to be stupid himself. So, can he say that Mestizos are "dumb"? Only if he says Whites are dumb because Mestizos' stupidity cannot be due to their Asian (Amerindian) component. As we know, Whites are NOT dumb, so, sorry kids, "Hispanics" or "Mexicans" (i.e. Mestizos) are NOT dumb either.