Does anyone have experience with Mensa?

[THespos]

I’ve been a member for a couple years and I haven’t made it to any events yet. In my experience, the local calendar of events arrives at my home a bit too late to get the events on my calendar. (e.g. - Come join us this weekend for a meet and greet!)

There is a geocaching SIG that I signed up for, though, and it’s got its own e-mail list and whatnot.

I agree that the official publications can be soapboxes. I stopped reading the letters section a while back after seeing some letters venture into cuckoo territory.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about having a massive backyard kegger and inviting all the Long Island and NYC Mensans, just to see what would happen. Tell me that wouldn’t be a trip…

[Alan_Smithee]

@hajario

I hadn’t heard of the hug buttons but some Googling revealed some creepy stuff.

Here is a quote from a Time Magazine article from 1993.

Barbara, a public-speaking instructor and professional psychic, does not dissemble about her reasons for joining a group that says it “encourages research into the nature, characteristics, and uses of intelligence.” “Not being gorgeous or anything, I’m no man magnet,” she says. “I joined Mensa to meet men.” Happily, there are hundreds right here who aren’t exactly woman magnets but who are very uninhibited about expressing their feelings. Indeed, I LOVE TO GIVE AND GET BACK RUBS and I NEED A HUG buttons are popular among Mensa males, and some of them are even more direct. “If you want to approach someone you don’t know,” advises an aerospace-industry worker, "you can just say, ‘I want a hug.’ "

Here is a quote from the Milwaukee Sentinal from last year.

People at this moment are registering. They receive lanyards and white name badges and stickers to put on their name badges that have a code: Blue means the wearer is single; green means the wearer likes to be hugged; yellow means hugging is OK but ask first; and red means don’t hug, don’t even ask to hug, because if you want to know the truth, I don’t want a hug.

Ok, that’s pretty creepy.

Unless, you know, it “works.” In which case–no, those buttons are still pretty creepy.

[Yorikke]

@Licentious Ectomorph

The final thing that turned me off was that Mensa has clubs for such interests as Wicca, psychics, homeopathy, and a slew of other subjects that a bunch of supposed geniuses had no business believing in.

Wicca is a religion. As silly as it is to me, I’d have to separate it from homeopathy amd psychics. Either that, or lump all religions in with them, which is fine with me

Joe

[Licentious_Ectomorph]

@wheresgeorge04

Wicca is a religion. As silly as it is to me, I’d have to separate it from homeopathy amd psychics. Either that, or lump all religions in with them, which is fine with me

Joe

Me too. All religions belong in the same trash bin as psychics, etc. I was also going to mention that Mensa has clubs for Christians, but that’s generally considered mainstream, so I didn’t. I don’t get how people who are supposed to be good at critical thinking can shut down their brains when it comes to religion. It must be a conscious choice (i.e., willfull ignorance) and I can’t respect that.

[Cat_Whisperer]

@pinkfreud

<snip>It puzzles me that there is so much hostility and snarkiness toward Mensa on the SDMB. In my experience, Mensans are very much like Dopers. I’ve never been to any Dopefests, but from what I’ve read, they sound virtually identical to Mensa Regional Gatherings.

You know how two people who are very similar often can’t get along? Like that, I figure.

tbdi, I got the Plains and Peaks thing, but I don’t think I’m smart enough for Mensa, either. I’m just bright, I’m not brilliant. Oh well.

[Sofaspud]

@Alan Smithee

So who here is a member of Mensa? What is it like? Is it worth it? Do you get anything out of it besides getting to hang out with other people of less than average dumbth?

Mensans are a bunch of stupid doo-doo heads!

Okay, now that I have that out of my system… I was involved with Mensa for a short while about a decade ago - I passed the test (yay me?) and was sponsored by a friend who was also in the club. I met a lot of really wierd people, a few more not-so-wierd (and fairly nice!) people, and quite a few people who may have passed the test but, in my opinion, were just as dumb, rude, and obnoxious as Joe Average.

In short, it was a lot like any other club that considers itself exclusive. You’ll probably meet a mix a little like what I described. If it helps any, they didn’t pressure me to keep my membership beyond a few friendly ribbings, and they threw a “Don’t Let The Egress Hit You On Your Way Out” party for me when I left, which was fun. In reality, it’s a group of people just like any other; some were cool, some weren’t. It was a lot like hanging around the Dope, actually.

Oh, and I met my longest-running stable group of RPG’ers through Mensa, if that matters any. We developed our own system, played many campaigns with it, and argued endlessly through the night about the probabilities of thrown dice and how they could better reflect real-world events. Doh.

[pinkfreud]

@Sofaspud

Mensans are a bunch of stupid doo-doo heads!

Humph. I am a Mensan. I consider myself to be a rather intelligent doo-doo head, and in behalf of doo-doo heads everywhere, I fart in your general direction.