Better Future

Stefan doesn't believe in mental illness, so does that make all of these people guilty and responsible for their actions? Should they all be transferred to prison?

Are you saying that your ancestors were brought over to America from Africa and you suffer from vitiligo? How can your racial identity be anything other than your race? That is understandable as the melanin gives his skin a darker tone. Shouldn't he identify as brown though? How can someone with dark skin identify as white? That is like a brunette identifying as blonde.

In our current culture the topic of race is brought up very often. We hear it in day to day life, we see it in the news, we see it in surveys. Much was made of the fact that the American president is "black". Leaving the concept behind would be just that. It would be put into the dustbin of history along with others like slavery and patriarchy.

What is your race? Is it an important part of your identity? Is it time to leave this concept behind?

Unfortunately the posting of my response was delayed, my statement, "you may decide for yourself then" was in response to J-William who claimed that it is a rare bully who claims to be a bully. I was meaning that it is up to him to decide whether I am or not. "My beef was that you didn't actually provide any reasoning by which I could independently arrive at your conclusion" Thanks Kevin, point taken. Although I didn't actually intend to lay out the logic of my position in my first post. The intention was to provoke because I have trollish urges. "Treating people like they are fragile little ceramic dolls is insulting" Yes, you have a very reasonable mind. Unfortunately the vast majority of people do not respond very well at all to cold harsh logic. I do tend to treat most people as fragile dolls as they respond better to kindness as opposed to harsh logic. "Are you insinuating that there is racism inherent in the recording of our IQs since gender and ethnicity is also requested?" No, I only said that the concept of race is inherently racist. I'm not suggesting that the creator of the survey is racist in any way. Most people include race in surveys, perpetuating an irrational and destructive concept. How much melanin does a person need in their skin in order to be black? I found it humorous that a man with an IQ of 146 also happens to self identify as Jewish. A very smart but tribal minded religious person perhaps? Why no Hispanic category? How are the bio-sex and gender categories useful? Curiosity? This all seems very divisive to me and not in a rational way.

I could have posted a huge block of text outlining in detail why I consider this topic to be a huge waste of time and energy. I could have explained why I think people who do IQ tests and share the result non-anonymously (even when there is an anonymous option) are demonstrating vanity. I probably should have as this is turning out to be very inefficient. Point taken. I also accept the possibility that no one here was demonstrating vanity. I don't think vanity is a "bad" thing. It is a natural thing and is generally unhelpful in improving the wellbeing of the species. I wasn't making a medical diagnoses of every poster here, I was exaggerating on purpose to provoke further thought and to hopefully make a point. It appears that I have failed dismally. Therefore I will explain myself more fully in the future. I agree Kevin, insulting people really isn't a very good way to get a point across. If I run at someone with a sword they will likely raise a shield. I suppose it is more a reflection of my own personality that I feel the need to provoke in the way I do. I think Pepin makes a vital point, IQ does not indicate virtue. You can discount the black woman with an IQ of 70 on Mopad, that was my idea of a joke. Personally I believe that race is a divisive and destructive concept, it is inherently racist. I also believe IQ to be useless data in most cases. Your responses have been educational. Thank you.

You may decide for yourself then.

"Imagine we are on a fitness forum and the thread "how much do you bench comes up". "If you went to a conference for magicians and said publicly "I believe that people who get into magic are all narcissistic". These are flawed analogies. This is not an intelligence testing forum. A fitness forum deals with fitness topics, this forum deals with a very wide range of topics. Most people in a fitness forum would bench press and know how much they can do, is the same true for IQ in this forum? People at a magician conference are there for a very specific purpose. A lot can be known about an individual by observing which threads they choose to post on and the thoughts they express in a forum such as this. I wasn't confused as to why I was downvoted, I either offended a few people or they did not understand my intention. I requested an explanation because I am a very curious person and I thought the responses would be interesting. So far the downvoters have not come forward with reasonable explanations. "The idea is to get people to defend themselves against the claim that they are narcissistic". Indeed. That's what I do, I prod to provoke further thought. Kevin has admitted that maybe, just maybe it was vain of him to post his IQ. I am impressed by his introspection, honesty and sharp logic. "Just making a statement and calling it an argument or a theory is also a good strategy because you don't have to do any work and rather you just let people's insecurities do the work". My statement wasn't the theory, I have a theory and I made a statement. I'm not afraid of work but I am a man of few words and maximum efficiency. I am not a bully but I really do like to encourage introspection. Why are we collecting IQ stats again? What will we do with that information? How does it increase wellbeing in the world? Have you ever seen someone come forward and reveal their IQ to be less than 100?

There is generally an elaborate message behind my terse statements. Yes I suppose you could call them passive aggressive, I would call them prods to provoke further thought, I'm not the typical troll. You have attempted to understand my message and you have succeeded. I am probably also at fault for expecting people to read more into my cryptic statements.

Why the downvote? I truly believe that people who do IQ tests and then choose to share that information with others are quite narcissistic. Even more so when the result is over the average as the responses here are. Maybe someone will be willing to come forward with a result of 95, that would be evidence against my theory.

Now I know who the narcissists are.

You have officially switched sides. Robert Mugabe celebrates his 91st birthday with hate-filled speech in which he threatens to take land from white farmers. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2973802/Robert-Mugabe-celebrates-91st-birthday-hate-filled-speech-threatens-land-white-farmers.html

I only had one birthday. Apparently my friends are born again every time the earth orbits the sun.

Why would a person choose to become a violent criminal? Seems like a strange choice to me.

Can't wait till my birthday, it's gonna be so great...

The celebration of anything seems ritualistic and weird to me. Christmas, Birthdays, Easter, New Year. I see every day as a gift personally. "Today is a very special day, the rest are just boring normal days..."

If she likes you she will agree with everything you say.

You are here with us, please know that you aren't alone. Are you willing to explain a little more? Why are you isolated? Maybe I can help.

All humans welcome! How could anyone not be welcome here?

Can't blame them for thinking that, this is what the universe seems to be without further investigation. The Earth does seem to be flat and the sun does seem to move around us.

Yes, a dome looks like a circle from above. The people look like grasshoppers from above and heaven (the sky) is spread out like a tent.

Love mind.in.a.box. "I want to find the strength I need, to truly follow my own lead. I want to find my destiny, and know my own identity"

I'm in Napier. Sounds like you need new friends. If you are on Facebook I suggest you follow David Seymour, his followers are your people. I use this site for precious metal investing https://www.bullionvault.com/.

Yes, Neil Degrasse Tyson advocates theft. I wouldn't call him evil because of that. He is a very good physicist and speaker but a very bad economist and moral philosopher. Most statists are not even good physicists. If Neil Degrasse Tyson is evil then all of our ancestors were evil for not supporting marriage equality. It just comes down to ignorance. Ignorance has caused great harm throughout history. Personally I think "evil" is an outdated concept.