Some Fine Words

The BBQ Pit
#1

Here are some fine words. Apply them to the person of your choice, silently, lest I rise up and smite thee:

According to Lewis M. Terman’s Intelligence Quotient (IQ) ranges:

Above 140 genius
120-140 very superior
110-120 superior
90-110 average
80-90 dull
70-80 borderline
50-70 moron
25-50 imbecile
below 25 idiot

Now, I cannot think of anyone to flame at the moment, and I’m in violation of the spirit of this forum, but I think anyone who cannot resist responding to this post falls into one of the bottom four categories. Tell me why you don’t.

This is a test.

#2

Please advise standards of the test, who devised them and who handles testing. I find myself suspicious of IQ tests… mostly because they place everyone in my family as very superior or better (based on the list provided and the numbers given when we were tested years ago - they may not be the same.) If you knew my brothers you would wonder…

“May the forces of evil become confused on the way to your house.” – George Carlin

#3

Maybe I’m just an idiot, aspiring to be an imbecile some day, but “very superior” doesn’t sound like good English to me. What’s wrong with calling that range “gifted”?

#4

Hmmmmmm… IQ. As in Intelligence Quotient. Stanford-Binet tests. Morons at Stanford University devising a system to prove “whites’” superiority, and stop “idiots” from immigrating to America.

Excuses created to “legitimize” selective sterilization.

Hmmmmm… Where are you Stephen Jay Gould? I need your help here!

If NOT resisting to respond to this post makes me “fall” into the bottom categories of IQ, I’ll be proud to be called a moron!

Please, Nickrz, don’t tell me you REALLY agree with the methods followed to calculate one’s IQ. Please tell me you’re just joking.

And if you’re not, please read “The Mismeasure of Man”.

Men will cease to commit atrocities only when they cease to believe absurdities.
-Voltaire

#5

Do you even realize how flawed those IQ tests are? I’ve recieved scores ranging from 98 to 160.

I don’t fall into the lower categories simply because I don’t. Your test has just been invalidated.

Unless, of course, your real test is whether or not I can resist temptation. In this case I would like to tell you why I chose not to. Such test are puerile, I am drunk, and i like to spout my opinions. Mark me down as an F. I’ll tell you the rest of the phrase later.

#6

The Mismeasure of Man is a great book. It’s central thesis IIRC is that human intelligence is not reducible to a number, and cannot be scaled like height can. It’s too multi-variant; it’s like assigning a “beauty” number to paintings.

IQ is a number, but it doesn’t represent anything. So why use it?

Nickrz said

Um, because my intelligence could never be rated on a linear scale. Brains are too complex for that.

Your Quadell

#7

I ascribe to the Bugs Bunny philosophy that people who do or say stupid things, regardless of intelligence, are “maroons.” In my world, there are maroons and the rest of us. Or, if I’m the maroon, maroons and the rest of you.