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The Most Dangerous Conservative
Townhall.com ^ | 24 January A.D. 2024 | John Stossel

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.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: bloggers; charlesmurray; fakeconservatives; fakenews; fakescience; murray; welfareplantation
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To: piytar

“Racists could not have planned a more effective assault on black America.”

True.

The left talks about “systemic racism” but don’t define it. As usual, Democrats blame America for the sins of Democrats. Here are some of the systems that make up systemic racism today:

Welfare and the destruction of poor (disproportionately Black) families.

Under-policing of Black neighborhoods.

Abysmal Government schools in Black neighborhoods.

Periodic incitement to riot (Black neighborhoods only).


41 posted on 01/25/2024 5:34:51 AM PST by ChessExpert (Required for informed consent: "We have a new, experimental vaccine.")
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To: dfwgator

Julian Bond is/was wrong about the IQ tests “culturally favoring” whites. That error by Bond is not the same, and is not what I was referring to about the differences in the quality and level of education provided before an IQ test is given.

As Thomas Sowell pointed out in one of his studies about education with black students before and after “integration”. He found that in the segregated schools in Washington D.C. in the 1950s black K-12 students were achievinng at or above the national average. But 20 years later, after integration, they were much below the national average. Their DNA hadn’t changed, but the education they received had changed.


42 posted on 01/25/2024 5:44:47 AM PST by Wuli
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To: dfwgator
“You have been invited over for cocktails by the officer of your trust fund. Cocktails begin at 4:30, but you must make an appearance at a 6:00 formal dinner at the Yacht Club. What do you do about dress?
A. Wear your blue-striped seersucker suit to cocktails and change into your tuxedo in the bathroom, apologizing to your host for the inconvenience.
B. Wear your tuxedo to cocktails, apologizing to your host for wearing a dinner jacket before 6:00 PM.
C. Walk to the subway at Columbus Circle and take the “A” Train uptown.”

If the yacht club in question is the Harlem Yacht Club, the correct answer is most likely C, depending on where the cocktail party was taking place.

43 posted on 01/25/2024 5:51:28 AM PST by Fiji Hill
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To: dpetty121263

[T]heir Masters traded in Klan sheets for 3 piece suits and pant suits and went to Washington DC...They still have Dogs aka the Media and run down anyone speaking out...


Well said!


44 posted on 01/25/2024 5:56:12 AM PST by Fester Chugabrew (In a world of parrots and lemmings, be a watchdog.)
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To: Wuli

We know it is genetics that is the most important (though admittedly not the only issue).

How do we know this?

Africa has the lowest IQ in the world.

When Africans are brought to countries with much higher IQs and better educational systems the IQ does go up a fair amount—but is still well below the world average.

A poor peasant in Laos with no formal education will have an IQ at least twenty points above a poor peasant in Africa.


45 posted on 01/25/2024 5:59:42 AM PST by cgbg ("Our democracy" = Their Kleptocracy)
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To: cgbg

That is what is called “book smarts”.


I did not think IQ has to do with aquired knowledge or “book smarts.” I’ll have to read up on it again, but my hunch is that has has more to do with one’s *ability* to process thought, with retention as a secondary factor, so an IQ test can be informative when administered at various age levels.


46 posted on 01/25/2024 6:05:11 AM PST by Fester Chugabrew (In a world of parrots and lemmings, be a watchdog.)
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To: cgbg

“Africa has the lowest IQ in the world.”

Africans on average get the worst K-12 education in the world. Of course they will, on average, score lower on IQ tests.


47 posted on 01/25/2024 6:17:10 AM PST by Wuli
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To: Wuli

Understood—but apples to apples comparisons are critical.

Laos peasants to African peasants.

That is apples to apples.

Laos peasants have much higher IQs than African peasants.


48 posted on 01/25/2024 6:23:17 AM PST by cgbg ("Our democracy" = Their Kleptocracy)
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To: cgbg

“Laos peasants have much higher IQs than African peasants.”\

No evidence of that.


49 posted on 01/25/2024 6:31:26 AM PST by Wuli
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To: Wuli

There is a lot of evidence comparing poor uneducated Asians to poor uneducated Africans.

It is your job to do the research—obviously hidden by censorship but it is there.


50 posted on 01/25/2024 6:34:11 AM PST by cgbg ("Our democracy" = Their Kleptocracy)
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To: dfwgator

I have to assume that their dialog was done in jest. It was SNL after all. Also, the examples are so over-the-top. So yes, it’s funny to read and probably funnier to watch. I’m surprised that Julian Bond participated. The skit makes fun of the anti-IQ position.

I’ve never taken a test that was presented as an “IQ test.” I have taken “aptitude” tests such as the PSAT, SAT, GRE, and the now-defunct Professional and Administrative Career Examination (PACE) for the Federal Government. None were racist.

I volunteered to take a subject matter exit exam. This tested your knowledge in a subject matter. In my case it was economics. In effect, it asks the challenging question - did you learn anything? It’s both a test of the student and the degree granting school. I thought the test was fair and good (not corrupted by Marxism). Again, it was not racist.


51 posted on 01/25/2024 6:34:14 AM PST by ChessExpert (Required for informed consent: "We have a new, experimental vaccine.")
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To: ChessExpert

Of course it was in jest.

Julian Bond, a few years before he passed, apologized for the skit.


52 posted on 01/25/2024 6:34:53 AM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: dfwgator

“Julian Bond, a few years before he passed, apologized for the skit.”

I wonder if his apology was due to the bullying that is political correctness, or if he had become brainwashed on the subject, or both.


53 posted on 01/25/2024 6:39:15 AM PST by ChessExpert (Required for informed consent: "We have a new, experimental vaccine.")
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To: hinckley buzzard

Agree some people never let facts get in the way of an agenda.


54 posted on 01/25/2024 8:15:52 AM PST by Vaduz
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To: cgbg

“There is a lot of evidence comparing poor uneducated Asians to poor uneducated Africans.” ..It is your job to do the research—obviously hidden by censorship but it is there.”

No. You can present that evidence if you want to make that argument.


55 posted on 01/25/2024 8:19:58 AM PST by Wuli
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