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Since Stefan seems to have become an "unreachable", which is to say unreachable unless you have a large youtube audience, or have a special Hollywood agent that can get in contact with him, I figure I will leave my question for Stefan here. It took several months to get "verified" even to reach this website and I have tried twitter, youtube, calling the FDR skype address during it's hours, and emailing Mike, his assistant, with what I consider important information. I will say I am in no way special, except that I suffered this specific collection of diseases for more than a decade that I think they may account for many of the ills effecting Whites and other groups of people, including symptoms similar to: fibromyalgia, depression, low testosterone, estrogen dominance, severe headaches, disk degeneration, memory problems, mood swings, sensitivity to light and sound, and other things seemingly unrelated conditions like dental problems. Clearly, I am not saying every time you have a headache it is Lyme Disease and associated diseases related, I point towards more "chronic" cases for what I am talking about, chronic is now used medically to mean having a long history and never ending. Another way of saying that is chronic diseases never go away without the correct treatment. Here is my email to Mike, ******** Hi Mike, I would like to be scheduled in advance and make an argument before all wise Stefan, I am ordering a new headset to avoid interference and for its new mic, to get my audio quality up. Hopefully the wait list is at least a week long (which it probably is) to give the head set time to arrive via the mail. I am charles5555nc on Skype. My Argument: From your videos it is clear you care about Western European people and their survival. (My links below have references attached usually at the bottom of the web page, short descriptions of a link is usually written AFTER the link). I think the lowering IQ, lowered birth rates, increased Healthcare costs, shortened vocabulary, rising rates of neurological disorders, and increased social spending re disability can be significantly but not solely attributed to slow growing, chronic infections like Lyme Disease and diseases known to be regularly transmitted along with Lyme. (mycloplasma, bartonella, Ehrlichia, Rocky Mountain Spotted fever. HHV6, epstein barr, coxsackie B virus, c. pneumonae, others) I was bitten by a tick in 2005 and my life slowly started spiraling out of control. The tick bite combined with some steroidal anti inflammatories- which temporarily shuts off the immune system, lead to rapid infection growth. Over six months I developed brain fog, joint pain, muscle pain, partial facial droops, confusion/ADHD, extreme anger, sexual dysfunction, night sweats, extreme sensitivity to loud sounds, severe headaches, and a host of other health complaints. I then began my long road in looking for appropriate medical treatment, I was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome, then Lyme disease, XMRV, Rocky mountain spotted fever, Epstein Barr virus, Cocksackie b virus, C. Pneumoniae, Bartonella, Babesia, Cmv, Mycoplasma infections. I have not been tested yet, but I also suspect I was also infected with a newly discovered disease, Protomyxzoa Rheumatica. This suspicion allowed me to try new tactics and help reduce symptoms further lately. These diseases are often referred to as Lyme and associated diseases, and some of the diseases on the list are as bad or worse than Lyme. -Lyme disease is a spirochete, the same kind of disease as Syphilis and also sexually transmitted, which is notorious for its effects on the mind and body, if left untreated. https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/artful-amoeba/on-the-curious-motions-of-syphilis-and-lyme-disease-bacteria/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Capone Syphilis brought Al Capone down to the mentality of a 12 year old. Was antibiotic resistant. https://www.lymedisease.org/lyme-sexual-transmission-2/ Lyme study suggests Lyme can be sexually transmitted https://rawlsmd.com/health-articles/can-lyme-be-sexually-transmitted Lyme can be passed from mother to fetus. -Lyme's ability to avoid the immune system, difficulty in accurate testing, and its ability to destroy health lead it being studied by the Japanese as a potential bioweapon in world war 2. Also, some history of Lyme. http://www.elenacook.org/bwsept06.html -Lyme is named for Lyme Connecticut and there is a yet unproven theory that Lyme is an accidentally or intentionally escaped bioweapon from Plum Island nearby. For decades, Plum Island was denied as bio-weapon facility by US government, and then finally admitted years later. The US government is very aggressive about down playing the effect of lyme, the number of people who have it, and still maintains it is usually easily treatable with a few weeks of antibiotics. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plum_Island_Animal_Disease_Center#Controversy -Official story is that Lyme is easily treatable, especially early on, and if you don't get better then you have "post Lyme disease syndrome" implying that the Lyme has been completely destroyed and something else must be going on (which they dont bother researching further). Other people who disagree that the Lyme is completely gone after a few weeks of antibiotics refer to it as chronic Lyme (and associated) disease. https://www.cdc.gov/lyme/treatment/ -The CDC for decades said that only 30,000 people a year get Lyme disease, kind of like the Liberal talking point of there only being "10 million illegals" for decades. In 2013 the cdc updated their 30,000 people to 300,000 people, ten times their previous estimate. https://www.cdc.gov/lyme/stats/humancases.html 0. Good (but not exhaustive) list of potential lyme symptoms http://www.lymediseaseaction.org.uk/about-lyme/neurology-psychiatry/ 1. Chronic Infections lead to lowered hormone levels- adrenal exhaustion, low testosterone https://www.drlam.com/blog/chronic-lyme-disease-symptoms-and-afs/15753/ https://www.womensinternational.com/hormones-and-chronic-lyme-disease/ http://www.townsendletter.com/July2014/lymeneuro0714.html Conversation between two doctors that treat Lyme re lyme related hormone problems, neurotoxins from Lyme can make even replacing hormones difficult. 2. Lyme and associated diseases severely effect the brain- depression, emotional outbursts, rage, poor concentration, low tolerance to frustration. http://www.columbia-lyme.org/patients/ld_lyme_symptoms.html http://www.nytimes.com/1995/02/15/us/personal-health-when- lyme-invades-the-brain-and-spinal-system.html Ny Times 3. Lyme disease effects the joints and spine https://www.cdc.gov/lyme/signs_symptoms/ http://www.dynamicchiropractic.com/mpacms/dc/article.php?id=43498 Spine Pain https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3743303/ Contributes to disk disease in the spine https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3656475/ Joint damage can require surgery if successful treatment of Lyme is delayed. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6249a1.htm Cardiac (heart) damage from Lyme that lead to 3 deaths. 4. Transmission not just from Ticks. CDC says just ticks, but when listening to establishment compulsive liars, I think the opposite of what they say. http://www.lymedisease.org.au/transmission/ ticks, mites, flies, fleas and mosquitoes have lyme in their bodies and can transmit Lyme via bite https://www.lymedisease.org/lyme-sexual-transmission-2/ (already previously sited above) Sexual intercourse (same as with its relative, Syphilis) transmits Lyme. May be passed from mother to child. Summary: So a disease (Lyme) that with some tests, fail to detect it a majority of the time, with there being 100+ different species of Lyme with varying susceptibility to testing, with symptoms that mimic many other diseases, that is slow growing which may make patients not be able to associate the cause of their emerging health problems after a tick or other insect bite, or after sexual transmission. A disease that lowers hormone levels, ability to concentrate, lowers emotional control, may be passed from mother to child. Lyme produces people who are emotional thinkers, cant remember government corruption, desperate for government help, people who cannot physically or mentally resist Soviet era political correctness bullying/guilt trips. People who cannot handle having or taking care of children and/or have hormonal/reproduction problems which prevents them being able to have kids. Some of the "social justice warriors" have banned clapping and prefer snapping. I suspect this is due to the sound sensitivity seen in Lyme. http://lymediseaseguide.net/test-accuracy-elisa Testing failure reference http://www.ilads.org/lyme/about-lyme.php Poor testing rates for Lyme, 50% rate of developing "bull eye" rash (most doctors think it happens 100% of the time), less than 50% even recall a tick bite, over 100 strains of Lyme in USA alone. http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/11/17/oh-snap-campus-kids-drop-triggering -applause-to-show-approval.html Social Justice Warriors ban clapping that "triggers" them, prefer quieter snapping. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/when-senior-moments-begin/ "Senior moments" of severe memory loss or forgetfulness being re-branded to apply to middle aged people as well. http://www.prohealth.com/library/showarticle.cfm?libid=21716 Lyme disease makes you more susceptible/leads to higher cancer rates **************** If anyone would like to email me on this or a related topic, my email is [email protected]. I did see Stefan mention he would be talking about Lyme Disease a single time on twitter but dont know if he has followed through on any recent podcasts. -Charles B.

Sam Harris, many know of him and respect him from many sides of politics if not likely religion. Sam is painfully aware of the race and IQ correlations, but refuses to concede that deportation and the wall is one answer to a large crime, social welfare and healthcare epidemic in our country. I watched many of Sam's talks, debates and have even touched his books. The man is too rational to not see the political corruption attached to the left and DACA. He has had many podcasts decrying President Trump for racism and stupidity, who has done wonderful things since being elected, who received the Rosa Parks Award for wouldn't you guess it, not being racist, who was hailed as an icon in the media for his pro diversity business practices for above two decades. Sam has always to my knowledge presented reasonable arguments for his assertions and considered the opposition's point of view in great care if not delicacy, but what I hear from him lately is the derangement syndrome that has infected the left, just name calling and blatantly untrue accusations on the part of Sam. Has anyone else noticed this in public intellectuals, or can give further examples? Is Sam's inability to acknowledge the threat of importing low IQ races and cultures a sign of his fragility to his mainstream nature of public life or has he really just gone full syndrome? I listened to his podcast with Charles Murray on the race and IQ differences and can say he is painfully aware of the data points. I would be happy to chat about any of Trump's policies and their potential impacts, though I cannot say I would find many on the left of center on Stefan's community discussions.

I am considering taking Jordan Peterson’s Self Authoring thingy. But I am unsure if it would be helpful for me. I am an engineer and my brain works a little differently. The deterant is the price, if it won’t help, the cost is an absolute loss, if it does help thenit would be worth it. I recently turned on the radio and heard Dennis Prager talking about how the ability to communicate clearly is indicative of an organized mind or somesuch. And while I often have trouble communicating clearly when it comes to things that are engineering related my memory seems better I can hold a complex machine design in my mind and see how all the parts are interacting and what problems might arise and how to fix them just leaning back in a chair thinking without paper and pen.

I am assuming it is low due to low IQ due to juxtaposing the correlation with high school dropouts and IQ with high school dropouts and the incarnation race. If you look at racial states, Negros and Hispanics are more likely to go to jail than to go to college while Asians and Jews are more likely to go to go to college and thrive. Likewise, a plethora of scientist observed that apes have more of a tendency to criminality than then human counterparts. On the contrary, I have seen a study that states that I have the same IQ as an Inmate(my IQ 90, which is low for whites but average for Hispanics)

I have not taken an IQ test ever to my knowledge, but if I did , would I be able to dispute it? Let me elaborate. If I took the IQ test and let's say I got an 85 would I be able to do a practical test that shows I'm above 85 if that practical test is for 100? Does the IQ test really mean I'm smart or not smart? I like practical application over binary questions. I'd think if I can show I can grasp abstract concepts then that could mean an IQ test is incorrect. What do you think? Would challenging an IQ test with actual practical application put the IQ test to rest?

Hello all. My first post here, but I can't think of another community on or offline that hasn't drunk the 'family koolaid'. TL;DR: The issue at hand, and I think many of us might have a similar situation, is that my fiancée has an expectation/ desire that my family of origin has a place in our lives together. I think they are really bad people, so damaged that they have no clue how toxic they are. Ironically she wants nothing to do with her abusive mother. I occasionally try to connect with them mostly out of a sense of misplaced duty but I leave every visit angered and saddened. I think I have to explain my feelings towards them by giving some background. As a warning, some of the things I discuss here may provoke either rage, sickness or incredulity so again I warn you and also swear that this is the real truth of my life. My mother grew up as R-selected as you can get: zero male figures in her life, with angry, abusive and neglectful females as her 'caretakers'. This was post-war Germany where sadly stories like this are common. When my mother was 9 her mother died horribly. My mother grew up admiring the USSR and communist ideals, naturally, seeing them as the opposite of the much maligned NSDAP. My mother is extremely foolish as later as an adult some man asked her to have his child and she obliged him even though they weren't married, just assuming he would stay. Naturally he left her shortly after. He died not long after in what is likely a drunk driving accident, leaving my mother with my brother. Four years later she met my father, and older American army officer, himself from an extremely rough background involving whatever abuse and privation you can imagine including frequent familial sexual abuse. He himself I would say now had traits of both autism and sociopathy. I imagine my mother would naturally be attracted to her perfect R-selected match or perhaps to her limited judgement he represented an image of respectability, strength and charm. I don't want to be unfairly hard on them as they essentially experienced hellish lives, but all I mean by that is that I will not exaggerate. I believe cross-cultural matches are dangerous because the language barrier/ culture barrier sort of fogs peoples evaluations of one another relative to their native social context. During my childhood my mother, inspired by feminists in her liberal arts program, decided to divorce my father and excise him from my life. Perhaps it was the propaganda, perhaps it was my father's constant philandering. Regardless of the details, which to this day I can not fully know, I received the wrath of my mother for years as she attempted to indoctrinate me and my brother to believe that everything male was evil, females are 100% good, communism is the ideal society, the sexes are not only psychologically identical but somehow even physically identical (???) as were the races. I was praised as being 'so smart' when I would parrot all this nonsense back to her. The most terrible thing she tried to teach me was that sexual promiscuity was a good thing and a man had no right to expect fidelity from his female partner. Or actually many the most terrible thing was that modern art was supposedly better than classical art -- she literally yelled at me every time I tried to draw a doodle that was remotely identifiable as a real-world object. For fun she liked to invite a series of men of the years to share her bed at the house my father bought for her. She also had zero physical boundaries, often going nude in passing or just barging in when I was using the restroom or shower. I remember just shivering with a feeling of violation as she would demand to inspect my penis' foreskin for phimosis which I know now is a nonsense condition that either resolves itself naturally or may be overcome with simple stretching. No need to slice of 1/3 of my penis which thankfully didn't happen. I had zero trust in her. Compounding this were my own psychological and developmental problems. I couldn't tie my shoes until I was 9, I couldn't really read until I began puberty. I had a violent temper that I would unleash against my pears, hurling invective at them just like my mother would constantly lambast anything American or male related or even anything she imagined was somehow American rather than ubiquitous. I was a small boy for the longest time, skeletally thin or fat and pre-hypertensive due to having little to eat or only junk food to eat (for no good reason as my father dutifully paid child support which my mother used for her own purposes). My mother knew what she was doing and would lie to doctors about the health of my diet. I was always weak and cranky, often nearly passing out upon standing. Ironically my mother was always screaming about how fat Americans were and how fat and calories were so evil. My brother during this time would stuff his face to my mother's criticism while she alternately praised me for how little I took. As I entered puberty, I became aware of my situation. My mental and physical development exploded and I began to assert control over my own wellbeing. I fully recognized that I had grown up deprived of food, sleep, attention, healthy social interaction, community and male role models except for the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Steven Segal, Sylvester Stallone and Jean-Claude Van Damme. In a very real and also very sad way, these movie men were my surrogate fathers, serving as my most powerful role models, if not perfect, of what a man can and should do in the world to my adolescent mind. I continued to starve until I was too big to be yelled at for fixing myself a sandwich by my apparently psychotic or extremely cheap mother. I became popular at school as I took the pose of both teacher's pet but also class-clown. During this time my mother acquired another husband, who actually lived with us and off my father's child support payments for a good number of years. This man was a broken shell, a product of a sadistic father and a psychopathic mother. Naturally he was a very malleable doormat for my mother. He was phlegmatic, to a point, but possessed an explosive temper when pushed to his limit, which these days is next to nothing to set him off. Everyone was always screaming: my brother was constantly angry and yelling and slamming doors, my mother with her blood-curdling scream, my step-father a porcupine and me trying my hardest to stay out of the way of these angry, illogical freaks. As bad as this was, this was the least miserable time during my childhood/ young adolescence. As a child otherwise unremarkable or below-average I had been able to speak with adult level sophistication since an unusually early age. Later it really became apparent that I was a 'late bloomer' and my scholastic achievements began to pile up, and naturally my brother, who was always terrible academically, began to hate me. My mother spoke about my achievements to all her friends like she had single damn thing to do with any of it. Seeing myself through my peer's eyes I began over the years to correct my own faults: temper, immaturity, rudeness, fear and to this day I struggle with these behaviors. Having my fiancée with me is a great help in this matter as she is very sensitive and loving -- being with her reminds me of how people are naturally quiet in a library, and our good communication allows me to know when I am unconsciously or even consciously less than fair. I love her so much it brings tears of joy to my eyes. Perhaps it is unhealthy because she is essentially the only psychologically healthy person I know better than an acquaintance, however she has always acted with love towards me and I to her. Besides just her feedback and my self-analysis I make sure to get the correct amount of sleep, avoid blood sugar fluctuations and get plenty of vitamin D and exercise. This continued through my young adulthood. I became extremely intelligent -- so intelligent I wish every day I were an idiot. Workplaces love me -- my peers view me as some kind of sage but I can't connect with them and form real friendships. I built up degrees and honors and pursued my career deliberately in anything as different from art or humanities as I could determine, not because I hate these things but because I hate the people who occupy these fields. My mother took credit and my brother hated me. My mother used my stepfather's eventual relative fortune to buy a series of dilapidated shacks. My brother instead circled the drain of life with expectations completely mismatched to the actions he took. Mostly he partied, drank, slept around and blamed everyone else under the sun why he almost failed out of high school and a third tier state college. He lives at home to this day with my mother's 10 cats, in a pose of codependence, after having lost he job he got through nepotism and that he failed out of through sheer incompetence. My brother especially makes visiting hell because he eagerly consumes pop culture. Every time I challenge him when he brings up a mainstream media anti-Trump or anti-Right smear with widely documented facts, facts my brother doesn't contest mind you, he becomes enraged almost to the point of striking me, accusing ME of starting an unwanted debate and trying make HIM a loser by merely challenging anything he says. His way of conciliation is to demand that I agree that everyone is an idiot, and that I shouldn't try to maintain any beliefs because nobody will ever accept them and that all world views are compatible despite the presence a little thing called state power. What he really means is that I shouldn't directly or indirectly reveal to him how little thought he puts behind things and he doesn't care about right, wrong or even basic societal order. He is also a true-blue leftist. He also criticized me for 'pulling away from the family' -- no shit. Why would I want to spend a second more with three broken gas-lighters so aggressively unintelligent, catastrophically dysfunctional and morally debased that they resist even things like the Non Aggression Principle or the idea that Straw Men are not arguments? I shouldn't be surprised they do given our history. After this rant, the issue is that my fiancée wants my 'family' to participate in our future children's lives. She doesn't blame people for their behavior no matter how long after the initial trauma they maintain the effects. This is probably why she tolerated me during our early days when I was still bad at expressing my feelings productively and took measures to further mature. So basically she is a poor judge of character, luckily and also unluckily for me. But in my family I can't think of people more diametrically opposed to my most cherished values than those people or more toxic to a child that wants to grow up with: objectivity, virtue, a pursuit of belief or non-belief in religion unassailed by ideologues, personal interests, health, safety, joy, comfort, secure love, protection, education and example. What can I do as neither of our families are sane? Can we be just an Island and still be healthy? Especially as a right-wing pro-religion yet paradoxically a classically atheist there are hardly any people like me in our very liberal city. Oddly my fiancée is a recovering leftist from a leftist family but she absolutely loves Ancap ideas when I support them with objective universal arguments and historic evidence that the opposite is demonstrably bad.

I wonder how viable it is as a reproductive strategy, to marry a woman of less IQ. Today's women with higher IQ appear to want to get highly educated, "realize their potential" and not be too excited about taking care of children. They would also be less interested in "just a good man", e.g. if you can have a virgin cutie(trough less intelligent) interested in you, the higher intelligence woman interested in you would be 30+ years old, with a bunch of life problems, deceased with god knows what rots from the horde of previous man. But will mother with lower IQ kinda doom my direct descendants to an IQ cap in this world where being of high ability is more essential then ever? Yes there are other factors then genetics(Probably one mother will give them more security, the other one be more of a challenge in conversations).

Stefan has a brilliant video on mental illness, titled "There Is No Such Thing as Mental Illness" I am curious on the subject of mental fatigue or burnout. I have looked at the research and it seems many experience it, however, to my knowledge, there is no scientific test that can prove it. Is there a common chain holding people who claim mental fatigue? Is it just an excuse or is there more to it? Any thoughts and experiences on this subject are appreciated And if anyone wonders why I am asking, I notice a rise in the market for "smart drugs" that claim to help mental fatigue. I also have a few friends that claim to experience it and they ask me how I am able to not experience it. I currently do not believe in mental fatigue or burnout, but, of course I am opened to change my stance on it. And one last thing that intrigue me are the studies that claim self discipline is more important for success than IQ. And its supposed that mental fatigue or burnouts depletes your self discipline skills. Thank you

Herrnstein and Murray (1994) estimate that ‘the genetic component of IQ is unlikely to be smaller than 40 percent or higher than 80 percent’ (p. 105). And claim that ‘The most unambiguous direct estimates, based on identical twins reared apart, produce some of the highest estimates of heritability.’ (p. 107). Moreover, they say that: ‘The purest of the direct comparisons is based on identical (monozygotic, MZ) twins reared apart, often not knowing of each other’s existence. Identical twins share all their genes, and if they have been raised apart since birth, then the only environment they shared was that in the womb. Except for the effects on their IQs of the shared uterine environment, their IQ correlation directly estimates heritability.’ (p. 107) This ideal scenario of reared-apart twin research, put forth by Herrnstein and Murray (1994), is far from the reality of what actually occurs in studies of reared apart twins. The use of the term ‘reared apart’ is highly problematic in and of itself. Put simply, most twins ‘reared-apart’, aren’t reared apart for significant portions of their developing lives. Jay Joseph (2015) evaluated some of the most well-known twin studies and I will be relying heavily on his work to justify this claim. The first twins reared-apart (TRA) study was conducted by Newman, Freeman, and Holzinger (1937, cited in Joseph, 2015) and included 19 pairs of monozygotic twins reared-apart (MZA). Here’s Joseph’s summary of each pair: ‘the MZA age of separation ranged from 3 weeks to 6 years, and pairs often grew up in the same town or region. Rather than being “separated,” many pairs had regular and prolonged contact and, more importantly, had a relationship with each other. For example, Pair I corresponded with each other and had been living together for 1 year when studied; Pair II had lived and worked together for 5 years; Pair IV had visited each other all their lives; Pair V lived together for 1 year and had visits and were regularly in correspondence; Pair VI was in regular contact their entire adult life and were living together at age 58 when studied; Pair VII had annual visits; Pair IX lived 3 miles apart and saw each other regularly; Pair XII had seen each other often for 5 years leading up to the study; Pair XIII visited each other regularly in the years leading up to the study; Pair XIV corresponded and tried to spend a few weeks per year with each other for the 15 years leading up to the study; and Pair XIX was reared together for the first 6 years of life and studied nursing together at age 17.’ (p. 24 & 28) Shields (1962, cited in Joseph, 2015) published the second TRA study which included 44 MZA pairs. Again, Joseph summaries the supposedly ‘reared-apart’ twins: ‘Examples from Shields’ case descriptions of the 44 MZA pairs seen in Table 2.2 include, “have always been closely attached to each other,” “have been in business together for the past 8 years,” “were in cottages next door to one another and attended the same school,” “went to school together,” “came home to mother at 14,” “ were dressed alike . . . . They attended the same school,” “met about once a fortnight during adolescence,” “brought up within a few hundred yards from one another,” “met about twice a week and sometimes spent holidays together,” “met regularly,” “now correspond frequently and meet at holidays,” “until [separation at age 8] the twins had done everything together,” “formed an extremely close association,” “brought up together till the age of 7,” “were reunited most of the time from 5 to 15,” “were closely attached and went about a lot together,” “became very close . . . . they are mutually dependent,” “After reunion [at age 5] in the parental home the twins went to private schools together until [age 17],” and “lived a few roads away from each other in the same northern industrial town. They were dressed alike.”’ (p. 30-31) Juel-Nielson (1965, cited in Joseph) studied 12 MZA pairs without using a control group. Here is Joseph’s summary of the twins: ‘age at separation ranged from 1 day to almost 6 years, and 5 of the 12 pairs spent at least the first year of life together. In addition, Pair IV (“Ingegerd & Monika”) was reared together with their mother between the ages of 7 and 14. Several pairs had a close relationship and years of mutual contact. Each of the 12 case histories Juel-Nielsen presented contained a section called “The Twin Relationship,” which should not be found in a study of “reared-apart” twins where the common perception is that twins were separated at birth and had never met, and therefore had no relationship with each other. Most twins in this study grew up in impoverished rural or urban environments. This restricted range of rearing environments added an additional important similarity-producing bias to the study.’ The Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart (MISTRA) is the most well-known TRA study. It’s been referenced in many popular books including Pinker’s The Blank Slate (2002) and Ridley’s Nature Via Nurture (2003). One of the MISTRA’s researchers, Nancy Segal, was interviewed on FDR last year. Segal authored Born Together – Reared Apart (2012), which discusses the findings of the MISTRA. As you may by now be able to guess, the use of the term ‘reared apart’ in her book title is far from accurate. As Joseph (2015) notes, the MISTRA ‘consisted mainly of MZA pairs only partially reared apart, most of whom grew up reared together—at the same time—in similar social, political, and cultural environments.’ (p. 103). The facts about the TRA study samples enumerated above clearly conflict with reasonable conceptions of what it means to be ‘reared apart’. Joseph (2015) also evaluates other TRA studies in his book, citing similar flaws. To come back to The Bell Curve (1994) for a moment, what is concerning about Herrnstein and Murray’s work, is that they do not appear to mention any of the issues regarding the use of the term ‘reared apart’ as it relates to twin studies. In fact, their section devoted to genetics and IQ is only about 4 pages long (see p. 105-108). The sad fact is that the mislabelling of these twin studies as ‘reared apart’ is just the tip of the iceberg with regards to their flaws. Below is a partial list of TRA study issues and biases discussed by critics, summarised by Joseph (2015): Many twin pairs experienced late separation, and many pairs were reared together in the same home for several years Most twin pairs grew up in similar socioeconomic and cultural environments MZA correlations were inflated by non-genetic cohort effects, based on common age, common sex, and other factors Twins share a common pre-natal (intrauterine) environment, and the MZA pre-natal environment is more similar than the DZA pre-natal environment TRA study findings might not be (or are not) generalizable to the non-twin population In studies based on volunteer twins, a bias was introduced because pairs had to have known of each other’s existence to be able to participate in the study MZA samples were biased in favor of more similar pairs, meaning that studied MZA pairs are not representative of MZAs as a population The similar physical appearance and level of attractiveness of MZAs will elicit more similar behavior-influencing treatment by their social environments Twins sometimes had financial and other types of incentives to exaggerate or lie about their degree of separation and behavioral similarity, and their accounts are not always reliable There were several questionable or false assumptions underlying the statistical procedures used in the studies MZA pairs were not assigned to random environments There was researcher bias in favor of genetic interpretations of the data There were problems with the IQ and personality tests used The validity of concepts such as IQ, personality, and heritability are questionable In cases where evaluations and testing were performed by the same person, there was a potential for experimenter bias in favor of twin similarity A registry should be established to house raw TRA study data, which should be made available for independent inspection and analysis I encourage everyone who is interested in the topic of individual differences (including IQ) to read about the flaws in twin research. This research method has become the foundation of a lot of behavioural genetics research but it is deeply flawed. It seems that most critics of behavioural genetics are labelled as left-leaning, PC egalitarians who think that identifying differences in race, IQ, etc. is prejudicial. That may be so, but you don’t have to be a PC lefty to be sceptical of the conclusions drawn by behavioural geneticists. As Joseph (2015) has demonstrated, there is a plethora of reasons to doubt their conclusions (e.g. IQ heritability estimates). I recommend Joseph’s books The Trouble with Twin Studies (2015) and The Gene Illusion (2004), which I have referenced below. If you’d prefer not to read a whole book on the subject, Joseph also blogs at Mad in America (created by Robert Whitaker, of whom many of you may be familiar), where you can find several articles that concisely explain his arguments against the validity of twin studies. ReferencesHerrnstein, R. J., & Murray, C. (1994) The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life. New York: Simon & Schuster Joseph, J. (2015). The trouble with twin studies: A reassessment of twin research in the social and behavioral sciences. Routledge. Pinker, S. (2002). The blank slate: The modern denial of human nature. Penguin. Ridley, M. (2003). Nature via nurture: Genes, experience, and what makes us human. HarperCollins. Segal, N. L. (2012). Born together—reared apart: The landmark Minnesota twin study. Harvard University Press. Also see: Joseph, J. (2004). The Gene Illusion. New York. Algora. The Trouble with Twin Studies (Featured Blog): http://www.madinamerica.com/2013/03/the-trouble-with-twin-studies/ Studies of Reared-Apart (Separated) Twins: Facts and Fallacies (Featured Blog): http://www.madinamerica.com/2014/12/studies-reared-apart-separated-twins-facts-fallacies/ “Bewitching Science” Revisited: Tales of Reunited Twins and the Genetics of Behavior (Featured Blog): http://www.madinamerica.com/2016/03/bewitching-science-revisited-tales-of-reunited-twins-and-the-genetics-of-behavior/

Hello, I'm skeptical of some of the IQ tests that come up on a basic google search in that it seems likely that they'd give you a higher number to make you feel smart about yourself so you buy into the stuff they're offering and just wanted to hear what others on here used to verify their IQ. So far I've had sites tell me ranges from either 100 to 128, and I want to know if my brain is that of a layman NPC or an industrial powered engine of special snowflakes. I thought it was low-average from shitty school experience but I'm skeptical now. The sites I used were, Memorado, IQ-test.dk, and this other one that seemed good but didn't give me the result cause it didn't tell me about the 20 Euro price tag until after I spent all my time finishing it. All insight and sources are appreciated sincerely, or if there's a thread or resource somewhere that I overlooked please let me know. Thank you.

Hi all, I heard Stef's podcast with Helmuth Nyborg and started to look into the data myself to confirm what they had been talking about. To give a summary, Professor Nyborg prescribes the advances of Western Civilisation and Democracy to greater IQs amongst the Northern Europeans and predicts that greater immigration from the Middle East will dillute the average IQ in Europe, uses Denmark as an example, and predicts that by 2050 the average IQ of Denmark will fall below 90 and democracy in the country will start to fall apart as democracies do not exist in countries that have an average IQ of below 90. That all sounds plausible and goes a long way to explaining the state of the world. Until you start to look at the data, and this is the bit I'm struggling with and maybe someone on here can show me what I'm missing as I'm seeing more exceptions to the conclusions reached by Professor Nyborg then the opposite. Most sites I found on Google for IQ data by country had similar numbers so I'm trusting sites such as this one as reliable sources of data. Some glaring examples: India has an Avg. IQ of 82 and is one of the largest democracy in the world Democracy in Eastern European countries has only been a recent concept and in the case of countries like Russia, which an Avg. IQ of 97 (similar to USA) democracy is staged and doesn't really exist. And historically Eastern Europe hasn't exactly been a great place to live. China has an Avg. IQ of 100, one of the highest in the world, and they too are no models of democracy or civilisation, just take a look at the Where to be born Index, the Corruption Perception Index, or the Quality of Life index So what's going on here? High IQs make for better countries and better democracies doesn't seem to hold up once you start to look at the numbers worldwide. If you just looked at China and India, they are 35% of the World's population. So 35% of the World's population are in direct conflict with Professor Nyborg's conclusions. Surely this invalidates his conclusions. What am I missing? Abs

If researchers failed to find genetic markers to account for discrepancies in intelligence (besides disorders like down syndrome) and if there is no strong evidence that it is the result of a consortium of genes, then it would be worthy to look into epigenetics. In other words, it would be worthy to also control for the expression of genes and familial history that could influence it. This raises the question: does the environment explain a population's intelligence? Do lower IQ people who immigrate in higher IQ nations, have their intelligence increase down the generations significantly? If not, Are their long lasting differences on how the epigenetics of an individual behave and react Now hopeful someone in the field sees this and weighs in.

Hi everyone, so I was doing a little research into IQ and the Flynn effect and I'm stumped myself upon a problem, perhaps someone here has an answer? So the Flynn effect is the trend in increasing average IQ with time (presumably because of increasing living standards, nutrition and more peaceful parenting). Here is a link to some musing on the Flynn effect ending Vs. Moore's law http://earlywarn.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/moores-law-vs-flynn-effect.html Which refrences the following paper The end of the Flynn effect? http://www.iapsych.com/iqmr/fe/LinkedDocuments/Sundet2004.pdf Which produces the following trend for IQ of Norwegian conscripts vs time This is average IQ of conscripts vs 20xx year So here is where I am stumped. Given that the average IQ of Norwegian conscripts is >100 and said IQ is representative of the population at large and it has been over 100 for over 60 years how is it possible that the average IQ of Norway today is only 100?

Many of you have probably seen my videos in which I illustrate provocative and compelling philosophical thinkers. If you haven’t please check out my YouTube channel Illustrated Philosophy. Here’s the latest one narrated by Stef and Dr. Linda Gottfredson on race and intelligence.

Which IQ test(s) reliably measure(s) G, where can I take it/them, what agencies or persons administer them, and how much does it/do they cost? If there are any special conditions the agency/agencies or person/persons you name require, What are the conditions I must meet in order to take it? Thank you : ]

http://www.cambridgebrainsciences.com/ You can take tests in order to assess your memory, reasoning, concentration and planning. I'm scoring top points in reasoning and concentration, memory however is a big problem for me. Let me know how you guys do! P.s - anyone know whether there is a way to improve short/long term memory? Always been struggling with it.

Thought there were some interesting insights and responses in this crowd-sourced inquiry into the implications of lower IQ...in this case around 70. https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/3ygt9k/what_does_an_iq_of_70_entail_cognitively/

Watched the call-in show about intelligent people being around un-intelligent people. I thought that Stefan did an excellent job describing the problem that goes with being an intelligent person around people who are less intelligent, however I thought there was something missing. I find myself in a similar situation, I know that I have a higher intelligence than most of my clients (which is the general public) except I am a business owner and I rely heavily on my ability to be confident in what I'm providing, and more importantly how I communicate that to my clients. The trouble I find, is that I have a very difficult time relating to people in a way that's meaningful to them. I know what I would want to hear when buying my services, but I have the hardest damn time figuring out the best way to communicate it to my clients. I guess what I found lacking in Stef's answer in the call in show is, What in the world do we do about the problem? I'm trying to figure out more practical solutions to the problem. Like in my case, do I just give up trying to educate my clients and leave it to an advertising/marketing company or are there techniques I can use to, in a sense, bring myself to their level and communicate more effectively?