"Shall we make the usual bet?"
Posted on 01/24/2024 7:49:57 PM PST by lightman
The New York Times put Charles Murray on the cover of its Sunday Magazine, calling him "The Most Dangerous Conservative."
That was after he co-wrote the book, "The Bell Curve," which argued that different ethnic groups have, on average, different IQs. As Murray puts it in my video this week, "Blacks on average have a lower IQ than whites. However, whites are not at the top. East Asians, on average, have a higher IQ than whites. Ashkenazi Jews have higher IQs."
Other researchers agree.
An article in ScienceDirect journal puts it this way, "East Asians and their descendants average an IQ of about 106, Europeans and their descendants about 100, and Africans and their descendants about 85."
But many people don't believe it. Many don't even want such topics discussed.
Last time Murray tried speaking to college students, a mob shouted him down.
"They're angry at you because you're perpetuating racism," I tell Murray.
"These kids," he replies, "never read a word of anything I'd ever written."
That's probably true. It's more likely that they just read slander against him from smear sites like the Southern Poverty Law Center.
They call Murray a "white nationalist" and claim he says, "White men ... are intellectually, psychologically and morally superior."
"I've never said anything remotely like that!" says Murray.
"Do you believe that Blacks are intellectually inferior?" I ask.
"If you give mental tests to a representative sample of whites and a representative sample of blacks," he says, "there will be about a one standard deviation difference. To then translate that into people being inferior and superior is idiotic."
He goes on to say that there are other differences between racial groups.
"I don't think there's been a white winner of the 100-yard dash in the Olympics for a zillion years."
Actually, 20 years. A white woman won 20 years ago; a white man hasn't won for 40 years.
It's probably because some Black people have more fast-twitch muscles fibers, says Murray.
I don't see why saying that is controversial. It's just obvious that there are differences between groups.
But Murray has been canceled.
It's too bad.
Everything should be talked about. People who don't agree with Charles Murray should debate him, not shun him.
He is good at revealing unpopular truths.
He once had a job working for the government, evaluating social programs. He discovered that the "War on Poverty" was not lifting people out of poverty. In fact, programs like welfare perpetuated poverty.
He wrote a book about that titled "Losing Ground."
It soon became a bestseller, and influenced presidents from both parties. Welfare "reformers" Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton cited Murray's work. Clinton said, "Murray has done the country a service."
Then Murray wrote "In Pursuit of Happiness and Good Government" -- a book that changed my thinking.
He describes his time as a Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand. He watched Thai government "experts" create what they said would be a "model community." They gave the village a fishpond, a rice cooperative, a health clinic. But this aid diminished community activities.
"They weren't as happy as they used to be," says Murray. "I saw what government looks like from Bangkok and how it looks to the villager. It's the same in the United States."
The United States has spent $25 trillion (so far) on our War on Poverty. But the poverty rate has stayed about the same. Instead of eliminating poverty, the War created a new "underclass" -- fatherless kids who give birth to other fatherless kids -- generations of families who become dependent on government handouts.
Yet the programs keep growing.
"Aren't you upset?" I ask Murray.
"I'm deeply depressed," he says. "We have watched, in our own lifetime, our hopes and dreams turned to smoldering ruins."
Then he smiles and says, "The good news is that old people are habitually too pessimistic."
Charles Murray, an emeritus scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, has interesting ideas. They deserve to be heard, not shouted down.
I will do a second video, covering more of his work, in a few weeks.
Most expensive cotton ever.
We could've had bases on Mars by now.
Murray’s Bell Curve has about 900 Pages. About 100 or maybe more, are about IQ differences in ethnic groups.Nobody ever talks about the rest, which is more important stuff by far.
That was what, 30 or 40 years ago?
Love him. I was introduced to him early in early adulthood by reading “Losing Ground” and “Gaining Ground” which covered the War on Poverty and then gains made during the Reagan administration.
In “The Bell Curve” he had a co-author who passed shortly after publication, leaving Murray to take all the heat by himself. Poor guy. Fortunately, he was and is up to the task of defending his work.
The Democrat elites are just following in the footsteps of their ancestors: keeping people on their plantations.
The Bell Curve is a well-reasoned analysis of real-world IQ testing. It reads like an academic paper, with solid references to the sources of information. There is nothing controversial about it, other than many don’t like the facts that are discussed. Yet they are facts.
As Thomas Sowell says, is there any reason to think that two groups will have exactly equal scores on any measure?
Science no longer exists. The establishment desires are supported by decrees which they call science.
Sounds like “reparations” have already been VASTLY overpaid.
SPOT ON!
I’ve read it too and I doubt that his detractors have read it at all.
I met a guy, (fiance of a member of my extended family) who proudly announced at dinner that he'd received an award for reducing his child welfare office's overhead from 90% to 85%.
The "welfare constituency" the Democrats are playing to is the workers, not the "clients".
Anyone that's been to East Asia knows that isn't true at all. Back when America controlled its borders, the government kept many of the stupid Asians out.
...unless it leads to an inconvenient truth.
The only curve that matters is the Moral Curve
fatherless kids who give birth to other fatherless kids -- generations of families who become dependent on government handouts
When does Jimmy the Greek get his apology?
"Shall we make the usual bet?"
The Japanese are smart. They’re nutty, but they’re smart.
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