Interesting thoughts here. Basically, you need a certain level of IQ to assimilate propaganda. Low IQ don’t understand or don’t care. By the same token, you need a certain level of IQ to reason your way out of the propaganda. I would at that it often takes more than IQ. It takes courage. One needs to be impervious to the fear of “being on the outside.” L.P. Koch on Substack
It's like people who self describe themselves as "intellectuals". Which seems insanely anti-intellectual. That's for other people to say about you, not for you to say about yourself.
I can’t help but thinking that the gist of the article is being missed. We fairly live off of consensus-based narratives wherein the contra-narrative are routinely dismissed as low IQ. Typically, vanguards and heresy hunters are fairly intelligent people.
My experience is that some of the dumbest people are people who think they are smart and "do their own research" (which means they watched some videos online an algorithm delivered them) ... we'll call it the Aaron Rodgers effect. Its a problem for society that any dumbass with a college degree in fitness science or something thinks they are Galileo when they've really fallen down a rabbit hole of stupidity. If 'low IQ' laborers are impervious to "propaganda" as asserted above then that probably means those are the people that should be leading society - they cant be fooled. So, lets build our Marxist workers state.
IDK about "low IQ" but definitely "Crazy". I'm not trying to be cute here. There is a difference. You can be extremely high IQ and still be off the reservation. In fact, having a higher IQ might lead one to be more prone to overthinking things, which will lead you down a similar rabbit hole.
You can’t shake free of conflating propagandized with low IQ. Do you really think a topflight NFL QB is a dumbass ?
One skill anyone can acquire in school (and probably without it) is learning how to confidently talk about things you have done only cursory reading about. You learn a little jargon and use it liberally, and you sound like an expert. Throw in a conspiracy angle like "they dont want you to know about this" and it becomes especially tantalizing to people who are naturally curious and/or defiant.
I think he's an expert at reading a defense or identifying a blitz package, but almost anything else, yes, he is a dumbass. Doctors and Engineers know a lot about pretty specific things, but being a doctor/engineer doesn't make you an expert at history because you read a non-fiction paperback you got at the airport. I've heard doctors and engineers say some truly dumb shit. True "renaissance men" are a rare thing in the age of specialization and expertise. Most advanced schooling is very niche and self-contained, so you neglect building up an intellect, you are just a well-compensated tradesman.
It’s the “halo effect”. Just because someone is good or an expert in one area does not make them an expert in everything. Classic example is Steve Jobs who thought he could heal his cancer holistically.
By the time it mattered (grad school), I was always terrified of being found out so I did the reading. The advanced trick for grad students is being afraid to be confident about anything, so using a lot of words and evasive language to say nothing. I.e. dont overcommit to a position, so you have an escape hatch if called out. But you have to pay more for school to learn those tricks.
Or Musk, who thinks that plastic drones can take out F-35s that have a 600 mile range and top speed exceeding Mach 1.5.
Since I inveigh on the subject quite a lot, I know more about the tenets virology than doctors do. A doctor may know more about the vaccine schedule than I do. Wait, even that’s not true. I can google the vaccine schedule and can match his level of knowledge on that topic. In any case, I’m more knowledgable than doctors on certain subjects that are foundational to their practice. I’m just not a doctor while knowing more than he does.
