(Tuesday blog)
Are we getting stupider?
For 50 years or more the subject of IQs has been taboo. Why? Because comparative testing done across the world in the 1950s and 1960s started to indicate that different races had different IQ levels:
It was also noticed that the average GDP per capita of different countries seemed to be closely related to their average IQs. Aaaarrrggghhhhh! Horror! Quick, hide the data!
To discuss this would have been waacciiissstt. So all research into IQ and race was stopped and any researcher trying to study the subject would have immediately been fired and would never have worked again.
However, now the progressive liberal elites are allowing research into IQ again. Why? Because our elites, always seeking new excuses to control our lives, have hit upon the idea that pollution (particularly from diesel cars) is leading to lower IQs and behavioural problems among children.
It was in the 1990s that researchers started to notice that average IQ levels (and educational performance) in Scandinavian countries were falling. At first this was conveniently attributed to “technology”. The theory was that falling IQ levels were a result of a combination of factors, including a weakened education system, increased television watching and increased use of computers, tablets and mobile phones replacing reading books and social interaction. This gave our socialist nanny state an excuse to advise parents to limit the amount of time their children spent with their ‘technology’.
Then came a 2017 UNICEF report which claimed that toxic air lowers children’s IQ and memory, affects their test scores and triggers neurological-behavioural problems such as anxiety, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and development delays. And now we see a concerted attack by our rulers on diesel cars – the very cars our rulers have spent the last 30 years telling us to buy because of their supposed environmentally-friendly fuel economy.
With me so far? IQs were falling in the West, particularly in Scandinavia. The usual ‘experts’ claimed that overuse of technology was to blame. Then the experts hit upon a new wheeze, actually, the experts claimed, it was air pollution that was the real cause of falling IQs and children’s behavioural problems.
But hold on a minute. The falling IQ phenomenon was most clearly identified in Scandinavia. I know the area well as I lived and worked there for many years. As far as air pollution is concerned, the Scandinavian countries are remarkably clean because there are very few people. The population density of Finland is 16 ppl/Km2 (people per square kilometre). Norway is also 16 ppl/km2, Sweden is 22 ppl/km2. Only Denmark with 130 ppl/km2 seems a bit more crowded. Yet, Denmark is nothing compared to England with 395 ppl/km2.
So, I scratch my head ‘cos I’m not too bright. How could the ‘experts’ claim pollution is causing falling IQs in some of the least polluted countries in the world? Hmmm. I’m stumped.
What about immigration?
I wonder if there’s anything else that has happened more in the Scandinavian countries since 1990 than in some other parts of the world. Well, there is the small matter of immigration. Possibly due to their incredibly generous welfare systems, the Scandinavian countries have taken in more Third-World immigrants per capita than many other parts of Europe. The net migration per 1,000 of population into the Scandinavian countries between 2007-2012 was: Denmark – 17; Finland – 20; Sweden – 29 and Norway – 47:
In comparison, even though around 46,000 migrants flooded into Britain every month, our immigrants per 1,000 of population was just 14 and thus lower than any Scandinavian country.
And here’s something else: where has the supposed phenomenon of pollution causing falling IQs and behavioural problems in children been most noticeable? In inner city areas, that’s where. And what else do you have in inner city areas? Yup, the greatest concentration of Third-World immigrants. But I haven’t heard of any of the mainstream media’s favourite ‘experts’ or the BBC or C4 News daring to suggest that falling IQs and increasing behavioural problems with children could be linked to increasing immigration from Third-World countries with much lower average IQs:
(Sorry about the chart being largely illegible – it claims to show national IQ points lost due to immigration. You can find a better version if you go to Google Images and input “National IQ points lost due to immigration”. The countries in black are those thought to have lost the most IQ points due to immigration, then come those in dark red. For Europe the immigration would be from Africa and the Middle East. For the US the immigration would be mostly from Latin American countries)
Of course, being politically-correct and progressive and liberal and brain-dead, I believe the chart above is just waacccissssttt wubbish. And not being a scientist I can’t prove or disprove that issues with children’s IQs and behaviour are linked to either technology or pollution. But I do know that when the ‘experts’ and the mainstream media present just one acceptable narrative and shut down any discussion of alternatives – like falling IQs possibly being linked to immigration – then what we’re being presented with is not ‘science’, it’s liberal, progressive, bollox, socialist propaganda.
So what is causing falling IQs and increasing behavioural problems in our children? Technology? Air pollution? Or Third-World immigration?
You decide.
(to see comments or post a comment, click on the title)
Speaks for itself doesn’t it really, but you do explain it in an amusing fashion, allways makes me smile 🙂
More genius from David Craig. Folks, send this on far and wide, maybe some goons from the BBC will actually get to read it, or some other brainless journalist from The Times, Guardian, same thing…
Most of the Western world, the cradle of art, science, music, literature, medicine – in short what we call “civilization” – is diving head first educationally to the lowest common denominator. The division in Western society now is less between rich and poor than between the enlightened and the unenlightened and given the evils of “multiculturalism” that division can only widen with time. In the UK our State education system is being debased in the name of “equality”, since no youngster must feel “disadvantaged” because of limited intellectual ability. It’s not uncommon now for 5-year olds to start formal education still incontinent and unable to form a coherent sentence. Friends and relatives living in France tell me it’s the same there. There’s only one ultimate outcome a few decades down the line – total disintegration of Western society.
I’m with Stillreading on this issue. It is failing education which is now state brainwashing based on emotional issues: diversity, human rights, equality. Not only are the young not being taught to think for themselves, some of the elderly are no better.
Nothing demonstrates this more that the huge world wide belief in global warming. It needs very little science, just rational thought to see that this is a huge fraud. Science backs this up. But we have Brian Cox supporting it, I can only assume because he is using it to promote his left wing political objectives. Then we have David Attenborough who shows us glaciers calving and tells us it is global warming, but it is glaciers growing. We lap it all up regardless of IQ.
As I posted on an American site during a discussion about their (don’t laugh) ‘black history month’ – “When we British arrived in black Africa, we found virtual stone-age primitive tribal societies, naturally enough with no written languages and hadn’t even come round to inventing the wheel. When we departed, we left behind roads, railways, telephone and telegraph systems, farms, factories mines, hospitals, trained police, a judicial system and a civil service. And what has self rule produced? Well after aid worth ten times the value of the wartime Marshal Plan pouring into that continent – the natives are a lot poorer now than before independence. When we find that, just one example, Nigeria’s black leaders have stole or misused £220 billion in the past – that begins to explain a lot.”
I’m sorry David, but as you say yourself you are clearly not that bright. I’m sure the experts are already working on a simple solution to this problem and very shortly will announce the recalibration of the IQ scoring system and Hey Presto, we will suddenly see a jump in IQ scores and we will be back to normal ! ;D