"These days the heritability of intelligence is not in doubt: Bright adults are more likely to have bright kids."
" Monozygotic twins raised apart are more similar in IQ (74%) than dizygotic (fraternal) twins raised together (60%) and much more than parent-children pairs (42%); half-siblings (31%); adoptive siblings (29%-34%); virtual twins, or similarly aged but unrelated children raised together (28%); adoptive parent-child pairs (19%) and cousins (15%). Nothing but genes can explain this hierarchy."
The Wall Street Journal makes a politically correct nod to the 'standard narrative' by saying poor people's IQ is only 40% heritable, instead of 74%, but if you read closely this is a really lame excuse. How many poor people are literally starving in America? How many are locked in closets all day every day, or addicted to crack at birth? Yes, in those cases, genetics can't do much, but they're a tiny portion of the total population of stupid people. Most stupid people are obese, not starving, and the only problem is their genes, everything else has been provided for them free and clear by the US taxpayer. The fact is IQ is 80% heritable for everyone except a negligible fraction of extreme cases, where child abuse reigns supreme. And the Wall Street Journal, the most respected name in news, was willing to say it loud and clear.
This is a wonderful step in the right direction. Now all we need is for the Wall Street Journal to admit A) IQ tests are a valid measurement of intelligence, B) IQ varies by race, and finally C) the failure of blacks to succeed in America, or elsewhere in the world, is entirely due to their low IQ scores, and no one else's fault but their own. Then the world would shift on its axis, and any number of possibilities would open up, from genetic engineering to the repeal of affirmative action to anti-crime measures to reducing the number of years people spend in school. Once we knew the central truth about mankind, that IQ is the most important factor in modern life, we could revise our law code to reflect that fact and make the world a better place for everyone overnight. Since the Wall Street Journal is willing to report the truth about twin studies, why not just tell the rest of the story so we can get this revolution started already?
3 comments:
"But as Drs. Bouchard and Segal have been at pains to point out from the start, this high heritability of intelligence mainly applies to nonpoor families. Raise a child hungry or diseased and environment does indeed affect IQ. Eric Turkheimer and others at the University of Virginia have shown that in the most disadvantaged families, heritability of IQ falls and the influence attributed to the shared family environment rises to 60%.
In other words, hygienic, well-fed life enables people to maximize their genetic potential so that the only variation left is innate. Intelligence becomes significantly more heritable when environmental hurdles to a child's development have been dismantled."
You seemed to have missed that part of the article
actually you can be nutritionally underfed and be obese, In fact most obese people are underfed. Overweight accounts for body fat not Nutrition ,eating Mc Donnald's and KFC all day is not equivalent to eating a healthy balanced energy dense m 4-5 course meal a day
I didn't miss that part, I addressed it with:
"How many poor people are literally starving in America? How many are locked in closets all day every day, or addicted to crack at birth? Yes, in those cases, genetics can't do much, but they're a tiny portion of the total population of stupid people."
Despite the claims of health freaks, it hasn't been shown there is any need to eat healthily in order to be intelligent. The best eating healthily can do is give you a longer lifespan and, go figure, have an overall cleaner bill of health during said lifespan. If you have any statistics backing up your claim that you need yoghurt and organic tofu to be smart, I'd love to see them. Everything I've read indicates that if you just have enough to reach a healthy weight, you have enough to develop your brain.
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