Could Lower Intelligence Be No Accident?

I know for you ancient astronaut theorists, advanced et's are responsible for human's inexplicable leap in intelligence, way above the other animals, and after the dinosaurs. It could be that. And some say, they are now responsible for our dip in intelligence scores (I heard that once on the History Channel, in case you are wondering). That could be true too. But I was wondering if it is from a more "closer" source.

The US allows all kinds of things, like food additives and building materials, thru its approval process, that the EU (among others) has banned. Could some food additive be responsible for our dip in intelligence?

I know I went to school in the 70s and 80s, when the educational system had been greatly simplified. And frankly, I went to school with a lot of dumb people, who in another day and age, would have been expelled for that reason.

(I guess my next question would be whether or not the dip in IQ is only an American phenomenon. Because if it is, what I offer could be the reason why.)

But here is where it really gets frightening. Most Americans like me, assume the USA is responsible for things, it never tells us. Secret medical experiments, for example. (One doctor I go to thinks it could even be going to to this day.) There may indeed be a kind of "shadow government" in place in the US. My question: Could this additive I propose, that is making some of us (though interestingly, not all of us) dumber, be no accident?

Dumb people after all are easier to control. They have less ambition--esp. political ambition. Think about it.

Food for thought. I await your responses.

:daisy:

 

It "could be the case", OR it could also be the unintentional side effect of our not having to think as much as we did prior to the Industrial revolution,
Fat, lazy, passive consumers, spoon fed day in and day out, not having to think for themselves, just Bobbleheading along with the rest of the Herd till the next big Game is on TV.
"Why think, thats all done for us now", "Isn't that why my PHONE is so smart? To save me the burden?"

Just find an 8th grade textbook from 1904 and compare it to the sorts of lessons they get now, nearly all the elements which encouraged serious critical thinking and applied Logic have been swept away in favor of dumbing down lessons so the average students can get better grades and "fee better about themselves for getting A's like the smart kids" (Thanks Chicago Public Schools!! Yep, they started that shit here pretty much.)

And of course there are all sorts of Endocrine disrupting Industrial Pollutants in everything.

Like Forrest Gump said, "I think maybe it's both"

I've certainly herd less likely theories proposed and taken seriously by others before,

http://bigthink.com/think-tank/we-may-be-getting-dumber-much-faster-than-we-think

 

No Child left Behind Act of 2001. No...it is not an accident.

 

The No Child left Behind act was a horrible idea, ironically, it's the smart kids who get behind left behind, or more rather their opportunity to excel past the other kids is more limited. I think it also has a lot to do with the school system in the area one lives, which can greatly depend on the demographics of that area.

I don't think necessarily that humans are at risk for losing intellectual capability. I certainly for one am anything but deficient in IQ points, if IQ is in fact a good indicator of intelligence. I was in the gifted program at school, at least before it became too uncool to be seen as smart and got made fun of by the "cool" kids. I think the bigger problem is the image portrayed by popular culture of the "ideal person". Rather than setting the bar low enough for even the least intelligent of society to meet, the bar should be raised IMHO. What I know to be true, is that it *is* cool to be smart, really cool infact in my opinion. I'm not sure why our culture seems to desire a different ideal image (especially kids in their teens); i mean, isn't advanced intelligence what seperates us from our primate cousins, and pretty much every other creature on this planet?

I've always studied many things on my own time, so was always prepared when they came up in school so never actually did have to study very much for school to be an absolute breeze since I was always 10 steps ahead (or more) of the curriculum. Even now, in computer science, this is relatively easy; because I had not come in clueless, i can focus more on filling the gaps in my knowedge rather than struggling to get up to speed on the more mundane things. One thing that I don't consider myself strong in is Calculus and advanced mathematics; even so however I'm probably better off in maths than 80-90 percent of the public. The capability to learn, and with what ease is much more important than absolute knowlege. Anyone should be able to regurgitate facts in school and pass, but so can a tape recorder record your voice without understanding the content of your speech.

 

^^^^ exactly

 

Yes, exactly exactly and common core.

OP of course there is a shadow government. It's Central Banking. Central Banking ~ the Rothschilds ~ took control of Europe in the early 1800's if not before. England became the dominant power in the world and controlled America as a colony, until our founding fathers broke away whilst espousing the importance of not letting the Central Bank get its grip on our throats again.

“The central bank is an institution of the most deadly hostility existing against the Principles and form of our Constitution. I am an Enemy to all banks discounting bills or notes for anything but Coin. If the American People allow private banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the People of all their Property until their Children will wake up homeless on the continent their Fathers conquered. ”
-Thomas Jefferson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g47NGtODeVM

 

Nothing to see here. Move along and




BUY MORE. BUY MORE NOW.

 

JFK's administration was called Camelot. He started to whittle away at the central bankers' power on behalf of the people. When he issued Executive Order 11110, and challenged Israel's right to maintain nuclear weapons at Dimona, he was eliminated. Similarily Lincoln issued Greenbacks in order to pay down the enormous debt accrued during the Civil War, and was shortly thereafter shot in the head.

JFK was the last president to try any shit with the shadow government and part of me wonders whether incoming presidents are reminded of that incident as an incentive to play ball. Maybe they just know instinctively.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAJT77FSvxs

 

I believe it's called the 'Kennedy solution. One does not put oneself in the way of the unlimited transference of wealth and power by the Machine.

I fear for Bernie Sanders.

 

On the IQ point, there seems to be some indications that fluoride in the water has a detrimental effect on intelligence.

Mercury tooth fillings, and vaccines may play some role as well. Although Thimerosal has supposedly been recently removed.

I'm honestly more worried about trends in dysgenics. It's a steadfast fact of life that highschool dropouts tend to have a lot more kids than brilliant inventors and entrepreneurs. People with short attention spans and a lack of future planning propensity will cum inside more often. There's much less capacity for delayed gratification, it's all about that instant gratification.

 

Indeed, if he happened upon a tidal wave of public support and actually had a chance to win. Same goes for Ron Paul.

Nigel Farage was Britain's voice against the totalitarian encroachment of the EU. He was injured in a place crash a while back, and after the recent election where

UKIP won 12.6% of the vote and got 0.15% of the seats
SNP won 4.7% of the vote and got 8.6% of the seats.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_general_election,_2015

he resigned from the party.

 

"Anyone should be able to regurgitate facts in school and pass, but so can a tape recorder record your voice without understanding the content of your speech."

same argument I have given to computers understanding anything on any deep emotional level.

 

@ JimBee68 : Quickly browsing this subject, I see conflicting information on the issue and the article I found supporting your assertions of lowered intelligence is regarding people from UK, Denmark, and Australia. The same article even suggests that people from the US IQs were on a steady rise during the 20th century.



FritzDaKatz2's article discusses these measures mentioned but there seems to be controversy over the findings, as apparently they only rely on a measure of reaction times. Here is a view which suggests the opposite, called the Flynn effect, which is also briefly mentioned in Fritz's article.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect


What I can gather from this is that intelligence tests are not going to be comprehensive. To point to a correlation between additives in food and drop in IQ by one measure of reaction times, leaves you on shaky foundations in your arguments when another study suggests reasoning and analytical capabilities are on the rise. Do we just as quickly suggest there is a correlation between food additives and enhanced analytical capabilities?


Another weakness of IQ tests is that they often have inherent cultural bias in them, where certain minorities or testing groups may be at a particular disadvantage when taking such tests. Something fascinating I've heard in regards to some people with autism, is that some autistic people score in the borderline 'mentally retarded' group on IQ tests, however there are others which approach genius levels on IQ tests.

I recommend being discerning regarding any blanket statements being made regarding IQ.

 

Can you admit that if IQ mattered a whole fucking lot, and certain cultures just plain had a lower IQ, it would be extremely politically incorrect to admit that these cultures were essentially inferior?

 

I cannot really imagine an even test made for say people living amongst a technologically reliant culture in a large city, with those living in hut villages in some remote jungle. Obviously this is an extreme example, but I think it exemplfies how varied human cultures are and the obstacles one faces when trying to make an objective test on IQ.

There are some issues, race being most prominent among them which are difficult to discuss in our politically correct society, particularly if you are perceived among the 'majority' and talking about 'minorities.' I skimmed through some of that other thread you were discussing race and IQ, you definitely got some heat for that and perhaps a few unfair accusations of being rascist. I didn't agree with alot of what you said necessarily, but I did find some of your articles and statistics interesting and at least supported your arguments enough for an open discussion.

Perhaps long periods of isolation or other specific variables may reinforce certain behaviors/ways of thought which may be 'alien' to outsiders but I don't ascribe to any Nietzchean-type übermensch ideas of like superior people.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uE6Z1nBqLwo

 

Like attracts like.

 

SAT test scores may be a better indication of intellectual ability than IQ scores.