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https://iq-research.info/en/page/average-iq-by-country/us-united-states
This illustrates how biased IQ testing is and how controversial it is.
This illustrates how biased IQ testing is and how controversial it is.
Are Bush Voters Really So "Dumb"?
One of the reasons standardized tests like IQ tests are so controversial and so disliked is that certain minority groups tend to score lower than average on them. I'm not here to defend these tests, or to theorize why these groups score lower on average (and there are many convincing and reasonable explanations); I'm merely pointing out a well-known and universally acknowledged fact. Specifically, that Native Americans, Hispanics, and African-Americans tend to score slightly lower on tests that measure or approximate IQ.
Why bring up this uncomfortable fact? Well, look at the map above again. In particular, look at New Mexico, Texas, and Mississippi, as examples. All three of these states were won by Bush. But certain counties within each state voted for Kerry. In New Mexico, as the map reveals, the northern areas went for Kerry. Yet northern New Mexico is where most of the state's Native American reservations are. Thus, Native Americans tended to favor Kerry. Now look at Texas; the state went almost entirely for Bush, except for the area along the Mexican border, which has a high concentration of Hispanics. Thus, it seems that Kerry got a lot of Hispanic votes. Now on to Mississippi: mostly Bush, except for the counties that border on the Mississippi River -- counties which are majority African-American. (The same principle applies to many other states as well.)
It doesn't take a genius to see where this is heading. IF you accept the validity of IQ (which Kerry supporters unearthed to prop up their "Bush voters are dumb" thesis), and IF you acknowledge that certain minority groups, for whatever sociological and economic reasons (poverty, language barriers, cultural differences), score slightly lower than average on IQ tests, THEN you can come to only one conclusion: that those residents of "red" states that are voting for Kerry are the ones with the lower-than-average IQs. Which means that the higher-IQ residents of many "red" states are the ones voting for Bush.
One of the reasons standardized tests like IQ tests are so controversial and so disliked is that certain minority groups tend to score lower than average on them. I'm not here to defend these tests, or to theorize why these groups score lower on average (and there are many convincing and reasonable explanations); I'm merely pointing out a well-known and universally acknowledged fact. Specifically, that Native Americans, Hispanics, and African-Americans tend to score slightly lower on tests that measure or approximate IQ.
Why bring up this uncomfortable fact? Well, look at the map above again. In particular, look at New Mexico, Texas, and Mississippi, as examples. All three of these states were won by Bush. But certain counties within each state voted for Kerry. In New Mexico, as the map reveals, the northern areas went for Kerry. Yet northern New Mexico is where most of the state's Native American reservations are. Thus, Native Americans tended to favor Kerry. Now look at Texas; the state went almost entirely for Bush, except for the area along the Mexican border, which has a high concentration of Hispanics. Thus, it seems that Kerry got a lot of Hispanic votes. Now on to Mississippi: mostly Bush, except for the counties that border on the Mississippi River -- counties which are majority African-American. (The same principle applies to many other states as well.)
It doesn't take a genius to see where this is heading. IF you accept the validity of IQ (which Kerry supporters unearthed to prop up their "Bush voters are dumb" thesis), and IF you acknowledge that certain minority groups, for whatever sociological and economic reasons (poverty, language barriers, cultural differences), score slightly lower than average on IQ tests, THEN you can come to only one conclusion: that those residents of "red" states that are voting for Kerry are the ones with the lower-than-average IQs. Which means that the higher-IQ residents of many "red" states are the ones voting for Bush.
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