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Absolutely.

Got cornered by one guy who was rather like Sheldon Cooper on Big Bang Theory. Spent an hour trying to convince me that the world should turn itself over to be run by Mensa members.

Out of curiousity, I queried him about what he would do if in charge. Turns out he was pretty much a Marxist. (Which didn’t speak well of his intelligence, of course.)

I pointed out that my goals and methods for running the world were diametrically opposed to his, so how could Mensa ever be put in charge?

I’ve always thought there are three aspects of intelligence.

There’s IQ or g, as the psychometricians call it, which is merely potential intelligence. Some guy running around the mountain jungles in New Guinea today may have the highest g in the history of humanity, but it isn’t going to do him or anybody else a lot of good.

Then there’s knowledge, acquired by education and experience. The higher a person’s g, the more he can potentially benefit from education and the more knowledge he has the potential to acquire. The greater his intelligence and knowledge, the more potential he has to impact the world around him. That impact can be for either good or evil, of course. Highly intelligent people can do more damage as well as greater good.

And then there’s wisdom. That’s generally acquired by knowledge seasoned by contemplation. I have never seen any particular indication that (above a certain base level of g that is necessary) there is any specific correlation between g and wisdom.

In fact, highly intelligent people seem to be unusually prone to believing things nobody else would fall for, especially when they are highly abstract theories that “explain everything.” This explains, I suspect, the immense attraction of Marxism for intellectuals for a century.

Some belief systems require a highly intelligent person to be stupid enough to fall for them.

Pretty much nailed it.

In fact, highly intelligent people seem to be unusually prone to believing things nobody else would fall for, especially when they are highly abstract theories that “explain everything.” This explains, I suspect, the immense attraction of Marxism for intellectuals for a century.

I rank high in IQ tests and I didn't fall for Marxism, or any other conspiracy theory like that.

It would not be wise to fall for these things, what with the invasion of the Reptilian alien race that put fluoride in the water to control our brain waves so that the Illuminati would conquer the Council For Foreign Relations, so that Cthulu would be awakened and stage another series of fake moon landings.

Oh, by the way, John F. Kennedy was shot by 21 Mafia gunmen.

Got cornered by one guy who was rather like Sheldon Cooper on Big Bang Theory. Spent an hour trying to convince me that the world should turn itself over to be run by Mensa members. Out of curiousity, I queried him about what he would do if in charge. Turns out he was pretty much a Marxist. (Which didn’t speak well of his intelligence, of course.)

It has been my experience that Mensa members are disproportionately high-IQ-but-somewhat-disfunctional people.

Smart and capable people have lots of opportunities to interact with other smart people. They have their work peers and colleagues, they hang out with other smart people. They don't need Mensa to have opportunities to meet smart people.

In fact, highly intelligent people seem to be unusually prone to believing things nobody else would fall for, especially when they are highly abstract theories that “explain everything.” This explains, I suspect, the immense attraction of Marxism for intellectuals for a century.

Highly educated people have a bias toward their in-group, which generates the highly abstract theories. Highly educated people skew to higher IQ in general, but in general the higher the education, the more narrow the specialization. Intelligence outside one's area of specialization is not a given, not at all in my exposure.