IQ’s Slippery Slope

At any given moment, half of the US population is walking around wondering what on earth has happened to the other half.  Are they not paying attention? Do they not realize what is happening to this country? Do they not see the erosion of human rights, the widening gap of haves and have-nots, the destruction of checks and balances, the disappearance of any adherence to honest and responsibility on the part of those in charge? Can they not see that the NRA is pulling the strings to make us international outliers in our demented attachment to guns? Are their little red caps pulled down so far on their heads that they have restricted blood flow to their brains?  Have they truly lost their minds?

At the same time, the other half of the population is walking around wondering what on earth has happened to the rest of the population. Do they not notice that all God-given values we used to have are now disappearing?  Do they not see the (non-Russian) invaders at the door? Are they not aware that people who don’t belong here are taking their jobs and threatening their children and, in general, ruining their lives even though they refuse to speak English? Do they not know that all the news sources they never consulted anyway are fake? Do they not care that our country was built by black coal, white patriots and silver guns? Have they truly lost their minds?

This post will seek to answer none of those questions. But it will educate readers to an actual phenomenon that is occurring under our very noses, a phenomenon that may or may not contribute, in some part, to the inexplicable inability that some members of our populace has to living in a world of reality: IQ scores have been steadily falling.

In a study done this month, Norwegian researchers have analyzed the IQ scores of men born between 1962 and 1991. Until 1975, scores increased. Since 1975, there has been a steady decline. Similar studies throughout Europe have noted the same decline.

LBL shall pause here as she imagines the population once again dividing themselves as follows:

“We suspected that!  That’s what makes those people wear those stupid red caps!”

“That research is fake!  It was done in Europe!  We have nothing to do with those people! We are Americans!”

Even more incendiary, the cause of the plummet in IQs is credited to environmental factors: Fluoride exposure in utero is linked to lower IQ in kids.  The head of the research project notes that “environmental factors could include changes in the education system and media environment, nutrition, reading less and being online more.”

We have, in effect, started to reverse the IQ upswing that occurred in the twentieth century thanks to better access to education and health care.

Again, the divided population weighs in:

“Just as we suspected!  We have destroyed the environment!  When will all those other people realize that?!”

“Fake!  There is nothing wrong with the environment! God gave us the environment to do with as we saw fit!  Just like guns!”

This research flies in the face of previous assumptions that any fall in IQ scores would be due to people of lesser intelligence producing more children. Even siblings displayed IQ discrepancies, depending on the years they were born.

While more research is needed, it’s clear that access to education is key.

“We knew it!  Our education system sucks!  Betsy DeVos sucks!”

“There is nothing wrong with our education system or anything else!  If it’s American, it’s great! The only way we can improve education is to arm teachers!”

“I agree with these findings. This is exactly why we need to abolish public education and give people what they truly deserve: a choice between private school or home-schooling. And, if we brought back factories, we could send children to work by age 8. This would solve our education problem.”

–Betsy DeVos