So I guess having two absentee moderators is pretty much worthless. I'm taking nominations to add another couple to the list. I apologize for all but abandoning LJ.
The bottom 80% or so are indeed interchangeable and disposable. If you're one of them, it would explain why you're completely unaware of how the top quintile lives.
The value is in non-stupid people seeing them torn down. Analogous to swing voters, there's a large class of "swing morons" who are in constant danger of falling under the sway of irredeemably stupid people, but who can be saved by seeing their ideas ripped to shreds.
If there were someone in this community who was smarter than you (if such a person could exist at all), what do you suppose that super-smart person would think about the way you're going on and on about your own superiority?
Anyway, I wouldn't underestimate the power of self-selection here. Everyone participating in this community has self-selected for being engaged - or even entertained - by verbal reasoning and is more proficient in written language than the average person. Most of us are also highly practiced in debating issues of a political nature, an exercise which further attracts a certain set of proficiencies. Finally, we're LJ hold-outs, so we can be kind of obsessive.
I admit I find it a bit puzzling that you should be so adamant and direct about your putative superiority, when addressing a group of people you take to be inferior. I assume you already understand that doing so can't possibly be an effective rhetorical strategy for convincing others, whether stupid or otherwise. If your purpose is to be abusive - well, surely you can see how that's working out; people are less offended, chastised, or hurt by your flagrancy than amused. And you've said that you think it extremely unlikely that anyone in this community could be smarter than you are, so it's not as though you're appealing to them or trying to amuse them, whoever they might be.
So what's the point of it? You keep saying you're so extraordinarily intelligent, but the very statement undermines its apparent truth.
So you're not interested in communicating with irredeemably stupid people, but you are interested in communicating with these so-called "swing morons?" And I take it, by your statements here, you don't think there are even any "swing morons" here?
How many of these "swing morons" do you suppose there to be, relative to the "irredeemably stupid?" What differentiates them from one another? What benefit is actually gained by tearing down "stupid ideas" for "swing morons"? Do they "swing" to a smarter idea? Or do they remain just as susceptible to stupid ideas?
The bottom 80% or so are indeed interchangeable and disposable.
So are the top 20%. Do you know what you and I and the rest of humanity are? We're bio-robots, with inefficient organically grown-over-time programming. In the future, we will be able to correct that.
If you're one of them, it would explain why you're completely unaware of how the top quintile lives.
*shrugs* If it please you to think of me as such. You automatically dismiss those you deem inferior as such anyway, regardless of the actual correctness of your assessment.
Please calculate the slopes of a bell curve and explain how the right tail's slope is decreasing at a rate at all comparable to what you've described, super genius
Wow. You really don't have the first clue what an IQ score is.
The bell curve is the distribution of scores. The performance level associated with those scores is not a bell curve; it's a power law curve. There's barely any difference in actual knowledge between a score of 70 and a score of 115, but there's a gigantic difference between a scores of 145 and a score of 150.
These articles actually misrepresent the implications of the research. The bell curve is real; it just doesn't represent what most people think it does, as you have so amply demonstrated.
no subject
Date: 2014-09-09 11:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-09-09 11:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-09-09 11:53 pm (UTC)Anyway, I wouldn't underestimate the power of self-selection here. Everyone participating in this community has self-selected for being engaged - or even entertained - by verbal reasoning and is more proficient in written language than the average person. Most of us are also highly practiced in debating issues of a political nature, an exercise which further attracts a certain set of proficiencies. Finally, we're LJ hold-outs, so we can be kind of obsessive.
I admit I find it a bit puzzling that you should be so adamant and direct about your putative superiority, when addressing a group of people you take to be inferior. I assume you already understand that doing so can't possibly be an effective rhetorical strategy for convincing others, whether stupid or otherwise. If your purpose is to be abusive - well, surely you can see how that's working out; people are less offended, chastised, or hurt by your flagrancy than amused. And you've said that you think it extremely unlikely that anyone in this community could be smarter than you are, so it's not as though you're appealing to them or trying to amuse them, whoever they might be.
So what's the point of it? You keep saying you're so extraordinarily intelligent, but the very statement undermines its apparent truth.
no subject
Date: 2014-09-10 12:00 am (UTC)How many of these "swing morons" do you suppose there to be, relative to the "irredeemably stupid?" What differentiates them from one another? What benefit is actually gained by tearing down "stupid ideas" for "swing morons"? Do they "swing" to a smarter idea? Or do they remain just as susceptible to stupid ideas?
no subject
Date: 2014-09-10 12:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-09-10 04:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-09-10 07:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-09-10 03:30 pm (UTC)So are the top 20%. Do you know what you and I and the rest of humanity are? We're bio-robots, with inefficient organically grown-over-time programming. In the future, we will be able to correct that.
If you're one of them, it would explain why you're completely unaware of how the top quintile lives.
*shrugs* If it please you to think of me as such. You automatically dismiss those you deem inferior as such anyway, regardless of the actual correctness of your assessment.
no subject
Date: 2014-09-10 05:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-09-10 05:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-09-10 06:23 pm (UTC)The bell curve is the distribution of scores. The performance level associated with those scores is not a bell curve; it's a power law curve. There's barely any difference in actual knowledge between a score of 70 and a score of 115, but there's a gigantic difference between a scores of 145 and a score of 150.
no subject
Date: 2014-09-10 09:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-09-10 11:15 pm (UTC)http://www.forbes.com/sites/joshbersin/2014/02/19/the-myth-of-the-bell-curve-look-for-the-hyper-performers/
These articles actually misrepresent the implications of the research. The bell curve is real; it just doesn't represent what most people think it does, as you have so amply demonstrated.
no subject
Date: 2014-09-10 11:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-09-16 01:22 pm (UTC)...now, don't let the power go to your... errr... skull...
no subject
Date: 2014-09-16 01:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-09-16 04:28 pm (UTC)