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Average Americans Think They’re Smarter Than the Average American
NationalJournal ^ | May 12, 2014 | Marina Koren

Posted on 05/14/2014 10:22:17 AM PDT by dsc

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Maybe I'm just below average, but it seems to me that this is *brilliant*.

What are the social, economic, and political consequences of convincing people who are dull-normal at best, and downright stupid a lot of the time, that they are just as smart as everyone else? And then urging them to vote?

How can a group of people prosper if the stupid are not willing to be led by the dull, the dull by the bright, or the bright by the brilliant? And why would they accept being led if they thought they themselves were as smart as the brilliant--or at least the bright.

It's farging brilliant! (<-- That is the only exclamation point I have used this year.) It's a virus, analagous to a computer virus, that will destroy a functioning society if successfully introduced into the cognosphere.

My mind is blown. Or maybe I'm just one of the stupid, drooling through life in thrall to delusions of adequacy.

1 posted on 05/14/2014 10:22:17 AM PDT by dsc
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To: dsc

Half the country is below average.................


2 posted on 05/14/2014 10:23:10 AM PDT by Red Badger (Soon there will be another American Civil War. Will make the first one seem like a Tea Party........)
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To: dsc

I just think I’m smarter than liberals but that’s not saying much.


3 posted on 05/14/2014 10:23:22 AM PDT by ilovesarah2012
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To: dsc

I’m average too.


4 posted on 05/14/2014 10:24:13 AM PDT by caver (Obama: Home of the Whopper)
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To: dsc

The popularity of Reality shows convinces me...


5 posted on 05/14/2014 10:24:40 AM PDT by AngelesCrestHighway
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To: dsc

An interesting problem in Bayesian (subjective) probability. When all is said and done, the average has to be average!


6 posted on 05/14/2014 10:24:52 AM PDT by Pearls Before Swine
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To: dsc
As Thomas Sowell says: Intelligence is not wisdom.
7 posted on 05/14/2014 10:26:16 AM PDT by ComputerGuy (HM2/USN M/3/3 Marines RVN '66-'67)
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To: All

Yes, yes, but what about the scheme of introducing this belief through the education system, in the effort to harm this country?


8 posted on 05/14/2014 10:27:50 AM PDT by dsc (Any attempt to move a government to the left is a crime against humanity.)
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To: dsc

Full Title:

Average Americans Think They’re Smarter Than the Average American, on Average


9 posted on 05/14/2014 10:28:19 AM PDT by samtheman
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To: Red Badger

Some animals are more average than others.


10 posted on 05/14/2014 10:28:45 AM PDT by MtnClimber (Just doing laps around the sun and shaking my head that progressives can believe what they do!)
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To: dsc

“... while those who make more than $100,000 are far more likely to say that Americans are unintelligent.”

That is the way people in that income bracket make a lot of their money. The guy buying a coke and a bag of chips for $5 is not so smart - but the guy who owns the store selling to him?


11 posted on 05/14/2014 10:28:47 AM PDT by proxy_user
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To: dsc
It's a virus ... that will destroy a functioning society

It seems to be working quite well in the USA.

12 posted on 05/14/2014 10:30:34 AM PDT by meadsjn
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To: dsc

Average *liberal* Think They’re Smarter Than the Average American see Obama voters.


13 posted on 05/14/2014 10:31:29 AM PDT by Vaduz
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To: dsc
I don't care how "smart" anyone is...just telling the truth is good enough for me. That pretty much sums up what I think of a person.

FMCDH(BITS)

14 posted on 05/14/2014 10:34:04 AM PDT by nothingnew (I fear for my Republic due to marxist influence in our government. Open eyes/see)
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To: dsc

Umm..., 55% is pretty close to 50%, so what’s the problem? And if the average is skewed by larger numbers at the lower extremes, then 55% might even be too low.

The author obviously belongs on the left side of the intelligence graph.


15 posted on 05/14/2014 10:34:08 AM PDT by VanShuyten ("a shadow...draped nobly in the folds of a gorgeous eloquence.")
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To: MtnClimber

There’s a reason people are on the Left side of the Bell curve.................


16 posted on 05/14/2014 10:34:35 AM PDT by Red Badger (Soon there will be another American Civil War. Will make the first one seem like a Tea Party........)
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To: ComputerGuy

Exactly. And neither are either of those knowledge. People conflate all of them. So what did those polled think “intelligence” is?


17 posted on 05/14/2014 10:35:16 AM PDT by the OlLine Rebel (Common sense is an uncommon virtue./Technological progress cannot be legislated.)
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To: Red Badger

Yes, and that half which is below average makes up the majority of the Democrat Party.

Of course, I think I am above the average in intelligence. It stands to reason. I majored in sciences at the University level; my IQ measured above average; and I am a conservative.

The last reason actually proves that I am above average in intelligence. It goes without any more evidence that the average Freeper IQ is in the upper half of the population.


18 posted on 05/14/2014 10:35:40 AM PDT by Gumdrop (~)
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To: dsc

Most people think everything they know is everything there is to know. I’ve had managers who had competent people working for them and assumed that because the work was being well done that anybody could do it. Those are people who do not know what they do not know. That’s a special level of ignorance. Others feel that because they’re extremely competent on one subject, oral surgery, for example, that they are equally competent at everything else, piloting a plane for example. (More doctors are killed flying a plane than any other profession.)


19 posted on 05/14/2014 10:35:54 AM PDT by Gen.Blather
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To: VanShuyten

Thanks. I’m glad I read all they way down before posting.

Based on this study, only 5% of Americans think they’re smarter than they are. That’s actually pretty good perception.


20 posted on 05/14/2014 10:36:06 AM PDT by Sherman Logan
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