After some reflection I regret introducing this topic. It seems to be divisive (and that is not a. flaw in itself.) but. it seems to be divisive without yielding much in the way of fruitful debate. No one is going to much look at evidence or be persuaded from their original positions. Maybe that is the way with most people about most things. I would probably disagree with Martin on many things but he said "I believe in the human race no matter their differences." I agree with him on this.
I may be racist but I do believe that the Chinese and Germans are more intelligent than other nationalities. Not too sure about "The human race", though. I have some grave doubts about that.
I think we're confusing intelligence and achievement, largely because I don't believe that any test can accurately measure intelligence.
Not necessarily, sometimes, it is programming. We have all heard (as parents) that we should not call our children stupid or dumb, because it can program their mind to believe that they are. Two examples that I remember reading about: Zig Ziglar always told the story of the boy who thought he was dumb, because his parents had called him that all of his life. He barely made it through school, and then got a very menial job, something like a janitor somewhere, if I remember right. This lasted many years, but for some reason, at some point, they gave this man an IQ test, and it turned out that he was actually a genius. With new information, he started teaching himself, and became very successful. Zig said who it was (I am pretty sure he did), but I don’t remember the person’s name, just the story. Second, was about a class of children in a school. The principal called the teacher in and explained that some of the children who showed the most aptitude from testing should be given extra attention so that they would excel even more, and the ones who were not likely to learn much anyway, would have much less time spent with them. Everything went as planned, and the high IQ kids excelled in class, and the lower IQ ones barely made it though the year of school. Then, the teacher was told the truth..... the kids she was expecting more from, were actually the ones no one thought would get good grades, and the ones that barely passed, and had been ignored and led to believe that they were stupid in school, were actually the kids with the high IQ ratings. So, it showed that when the teacher acted like the children were smarter than their classmates , and expected more from them, she got that; while the ones she ignored and made them feel like they could not learn, did just that, too. This was from an old Readers Digest, so my memory on it is not total , either; but both of those stories have stayed with me for many years, and I believe that in some cases, at least, nurture is more important than nature.
I don't know about that about your "test" statement above. I remember, years ago, going to a company to apply for a job and was given an Aptitude Test. Spelling, math, filing and other things on the test. I had no problem with taking/passing those tests, but people today would probably call them "discrimination" tests, being they were a test to weed out people that didn't do good in the testing areas.
I admit to being a racist when it comes to the Jews of Israel. As they are the ones that are stopping an entire ethnic group..the Palestinians from having their own homeland. Why is Israel allowed to be the only nation to occupy another when almost all of the international community condemns it? The Nazis and specifically Adolf Hitler, hated the Jews for one specific reason. Resentment as Jews held many elite positions in German society. Positions he believed should have been held by Aryan Germans. Hitler was a not only a meglomaniac..responsible for the annihilation of the European Jewish race, a supreme racist but a hypocrite too. He carried Jewish blood in his veins from his paternal grandmother. Just why have the Jewish race been so persecuted thruout history. Many will tell you it is because they were responsible for the death of Christ. History tells us that this is true as it was the Jewish priests that sentenced the Lord to death after Pontius Pilate put the question of release or crucifiction to them. The priests saw Christ as a menace of the Hebrew religion.
Maybe I'll take it back about regretting posting this topic. The last dozen or so posts have a variety that is engaging.
I agree. I wonder if it was done intentionally to obscure the amount of overlap between races. One's initial reaction is to concentrate on the peaks.