Congress is filled with morons.

m-theory

:Edit
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Bitter Crank pointed out an inconsistency in the article I was using as a source.
I checked the article site and there is no reference to the study and I could not find the study in a google search.
This may be a fake news story.
Sorry I did not put in due diligence before posting this thread.
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Congress is filled with morons it would seem.

A groundbreaking study has determined that 83% of the members of Congress are certified morons!

The Kennedy School of Government did a longitudinal study over the last 30 years that looked at the average IQ of members of Congress – the Senate & House of Representatives.

The study found that, despite the many advanced degrees from prestigious universities, and despite the fact that many in Congress are millionaires, the average IQ of U.S. Representatives is 101. The average IQ of U.S. Senators, is surprisingly, even lower at 98.

“We spent one hour a month with each member of Congress over the last thirty years. We gave them a number of IQ tests – including math problems, verbal problems and analytic reasoning problems. The results were consistent year-in-year out. Members of Congress are morons,” said Professor Thomas Turley of Harvard.

So what is a moron? A moron is a person whose IQ is less than 100 on a consistent basis.

The lowest IQs were typically the leaders of the two-parties.

In response to the study, Senator Harry Reid said, “Is that bacon?”

John Boehner said, “Go Buckeyes!”

Nancy Pelosi said that she would have to read the study before she could make a comment on it. But, before reading it, she said that she thought it was “stupid.” People who do studies at Harvard are stupid. It’s just stupid to do studies about morons. Who funded this?”

Nancy Pelosi approved the funding of The Moron Study back in 2009.

83% is a large number of morons, but is it the same percentage in the general population?

“Only 7% of normal citizens are certified morons,” said John Murtaugh, the leader of the Harvard Study. “Except in Hollywood. The rate there is close to 49%, but that’s still nowhere near the level we find in Congress.”

So, why do Americans keep electing morons?

“Morons have one common strength: the ability to dupe intelligent people.”

Many are suggesting that potential candidates be given an IQ test BEFORE they are allowed to run for Congress.

But that idea was shot down by Congress.

Morons.

-Weekly World News Article

There is a quote from a movie (I don't rember the name) that goes something like this.

In the US people vote for leaders that they believe are less intelligent than themselves because they believe that those leaders will do less damage that way, it is a very cynical method for electing officials.

I was wondering what you all think.

Is there is any truth to this observation that people in the US are cynical and tend to consider politicians that are not very bright as less threatening?

Or

Do you think the way this can be explained is indeed that morons are good at duping the public at large as the article suggests?

Or

Do you have another idea that would explain why we tend to elect morons in the US?

Also do you think maybe we should implement an I.Q. test as part of the vetting process?

Ying

I always figured only sociopaths and delusional idealists applied for the job. Morons work too, though.

m-theory

↪Ying

Do you think that morons are elected because people are less threatened by them or because they are good at fooling others?

Or is there some other reason that people might tend to elect below average IQ officials?

m-theory

I am concerned that it might also be a narcissistic thing.
If you have inept leaders you can flatter yourself that if you were in charge you could do a much better job.
That happens a lot in the US, many people are quite sure that they would be better at leading than the leaders that take office.

Shawn

It's always easier to play dumb than justify and defend a position. Dubya was a master at this.

m-theory

I suppose another view might be conspiracy and that we are only given dumb candidate choices so that powers in the shadows can then manipulate those in power.

Shawn

It's actually called 'deep state'.

Most research from public institutions indicates that the average voter has virtually no say when it comes to laws that are passed in congress.

It's also my personal tin foil hat view, that most of the decisions of highest importance are actually considered national security issues and are barred from public discussion and approval.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_state_in_the_United_States

Ying

Well, if the only choices you have are sociopaths, delusional idealists and morons, the morons don't seem that bad.
But in all seriousness, I wouldn't know. We could speculate, but I suspect that the group of people we are talking about is too diverse to give any unified answer. People can have all kinds of reasons why they vote or don't vote. But, let's speculate.
People generally think politicians are lying scumbags, right? From a rhetorical perspective, their credibility, their ethos already is horrible; their audience isn't exactly receptive to whatever message they are peddling. Well, at one point in "De Oratore" by Cicero, he talks about an orator who feigned being unlearned, while he actually had studied rhetorics in Athens. This improved his ethos, the way his audience felt about him.
Another point would be that people with relatively low intelligence are more apt to rely on and respond to pathos as opposed to logos, telling anecdotal stories, using emotionally charged language and other shenanigans as opposed to logically constructed arguments to sway their audience.

m-theory

↪Ying

I had not considered that there might be more of an emotional appeal.
That is a rather good point.

Shawn

Well, if the only choices you have are sociopaths, delusional idealists and morons, the morons don't seem that bad. — Ying

Actually, it's probably worse. You have the idiots managed by sociopaths.

Ying

Actually, it's probably worse. You have the idiots managed by sociopaths. — Question

There's a daoist poet, Ruan Yi, who lived during the tail end of the Three Kingdoms period in China. He compared the situation to snakes congregating around the dragon, the dragon standing for imperial power/the emperor. It's an apt image imho, and one that repeats constantly throughout history... It's one of the reasons why I have such a low opinion of politicians in general.

"Part of being a historian is that you quickly learn to become a hater of all things. And you realize that we are on a small boat in a world of shit, and there's a leak."
-Jason Scott.

Shawn

"Part of being a historian is that you quickly learn to become a hater of all things. And you realize that we are on a small boat in a world of shit, and there's a leak." — Ying

Yet, SOMEHOW self-interest makes the world go round.

I still struggle to accept that idea even though the evidence seems to support it all.

BC

↪m-theory

I am concerned that there might be a factual contradiction in your otherwise valuable report: First you state that ...

The Kennedy School of Government did a longitudinal study over the last 30 years

Then you state that ...

Nancy Pelosi approved the funding of The Moron Study back in 2009.

There is an unexplained discrepancy between the past 30 years and the past 7 years. How do you account for this?

There is no functional difference between an IQ of 101 and 98.

It is a well known fact that "want to" is more important than IQ. You have neglected the role of blind ambition. A highly focused, energetic, and ambitious moron can out-achieve a laid-back genius any day. Other studies have found that the level of high-T-driven ambition (males and females both) in elected officials approaches the capacity limit of measurement tools. They are, in a word insanely ambitious.

delusional idealists — Ying

Ying, there are no idealists in the US Congress, delusional or otherwise. There are dissembling slime balls who pretend to have ideals, but they always prove to be craven crooks.

BC

Do we need to worry about sensitive terminology here? "Dull normal" might be less hurtful to women who whelped really stupid bastards.

BC

we are on a small boat in a world of shit — Ying

Have you heard that song by the Fugs (1960s) "Wide Wide River"?

(gospel sound)
River of shit,
River of shit,
Flow on, flow on, river of shit,
Right from my toes,
On up to my nose,
Flow on, flow on, river of shit.

(transition to Rock)
I've been swimming In this river of shit,
More than 20 years, and I'm getting tired of it,
Don't like swimming, hope it'll soon run dry,
Got to go on swimming, cause I don't want to die.

(spoken with gospel sound in background):
Who dealt this mess, anyway?
Yea, it's an old card player's term,
but sometimes you can use the old switcheroo and it can be applied to ...
Frontal politics
What I mean is ...
Who was it that set up a system,
supposedly democratic system,
Where you end up always voting for the lesser of two evils?
I mean, Was George Washington the lesser of two evils?
Sometimes I wonder ...
You got some guy that says
"For God sake, we've got to stop having violence in this country."
While he's spending 16,000 dollars a second snuffing gooks.

m-theory

↪Bitter Crank

You know I did not do my due diligence before I posted.
The article does not site any source and I could find no such study in a google search.

m-theory

↪Bitter Crank

thanks for pointing that out Bitter

Ying

Have you heard that song by the Fugs (1960s) "Wide Wide River"? — Bitter Crank

I have, now. :D

Baden

This may be a fake news story. — m-theory

I presumed it was satirical. Bitter Crank's inconsistency aside, 98-101 is an average IQ.

Baden

Interestingly, when I typed "members of congress iq" into both Bing and Google, this piece of bullshit was the first result for both. I may have to adjust my thinking about "post truth". (If this sort of stuff is misleading our relatively intelligent members what hope for the population at large!)

Benkei

90-110 IQ isn't a moron but "average". Borderline retardation is 70-80, which I suppose I'd equate with morons.

TheMadFool

Morons in Congress?
Who put them there?

m-theory

↪Baden

Yes I am embarrassed that I did not read the article more carefully and check for sources before I posted.
I am glad there is not an IQ test for posting here.
:P

Metaphysician Undercover

What's with all the bogus news stories these days, they seem to be popping up everywhere, even getting picked up by mainstream media agencies some times? Is this the new trend for pranksters, or should I be worried about a deeper conspiracy?

BC

↪Baden

↪m-theory

I thought M-Theory had made up the story himself--curses, foiled again. However, I am sure that had he elected to write such a story, it would have been even better.

I have always assumed (but could not know for sure) that when people picked up the print versions (tabloids) of this sort of stuff at the supermarket they don't actually believe that a woman in Arkansas literally gave birth to a monster fathered by an alien from Proxima Z, or that someone had actually given IQ tests to the US Congress. I could be mistaken, of course.

If we are to take the OP seriously, then allow me to dissent: I very much doubt that the average IQ of the US Congress is 100, and no, I don't think the population elects people who are perceived to be relatively stupid because they think they will be safer. Congressmen may not sound like Oxford scholars when they talk, but it still takes a lot of intelligence to be an effective liar, thief, knave, and scoundrel at the professional level.

Selecting stupid people for leadership positions is something only the elite are in a position to do, usually. Her Honor the Mayor might appoint an approximate moron to head up an initiative she didn't want to have in the first place and now wants to wreck. Or you might promote the factory owner's son into a position he can not succeed in so that you can finally get rid of him. It isn't that the elite themselves are so clever, it's just that they generally have power disproportionate to their value in society.

I'll stick with the view that there are no idealists in Congress, even deluded or deceiving ones.

Lower Case NUMBERS

Good discussion. I agree with the implication of the Opening Piece but www.dictionary.com clarifies a moron as an I.Q. between 50 - 69. Not sure if that is a credible source; not being sarcastic.
Also, the piece seemed somewhat partisan in giving examples.

BC

I am glad there is not an IQ test for posting here. — m-theory

There is. You just flunked it.

BC

What's with all the bogus news stories these days, they seem to be popping up everywhere, even getting picked up by mainstream media agencies some times? Is this the new trend for pranksters, or should I be worried about a deeper conspiracy? — Metaphysician Undercover

Worry about a deeper conspiracy.

Bogus news stories have been popping up for a long time. What is different is that the Internet is perfectly positioned for the bogus to spread far and wide, and to be taken more seriously than ever before. 100 or 50 years ago fake news stories were published in newspapers, but there were few ways and means for a story appearing in the Wacko, Texas Daily News to "go viral".

The Press has published bogus stories for a long time. The difference between the New York Times and some vague "news site" on the Internet is that the New York Times is a substantial financial asset with a real reputation to protect, with real journalists and editors on the job to do the protecting, and XYZ "news site" isn't. If the New York Times decides to publish something dicey (or a straight-forward lie), it's the result of a calculated decision. Like, they might trust the government to tell the truth on important issues, especially when they are not in a position to double check the facts of the matter themselves.

Did the Russians hack the American Election. Could be. I wouldn't be surprised. Those who can hack will hack. The press has reported it. Neither the American People nor The Press are going to see the raw data of the Intelligence Agencies (CIA, NSA, FBI, etc), so we have to take their word for it--for now at least.

Unprovoked attack in the Gulf of Tonkin? Highly doubtful, but it was a useful story at the time. Nuclear weapons in Iraq? No, but it was useful fake news at the time.

BC

Good discussion. — Lower Case NUMBERS

It is a good discussion and the OP accidentally demonstrated how a possibly fake news story can be taken for real news by an intelligent and earnest reader. I swallowed the bait, didn't check the link, and came to altogether erroneous conclusions myself.

Lower Case NUMBERS

↪Bitter Crank

I didn't realized that until I went to the commentary, but I immediately knew to challenge the data. This was a good exercise in fact-checking but I've taught myself to apply the rules of reason to everything; therefore strengthening my capability to filter effectively.
When Nancy P. was quoted, it just seemed somewhat fashioned.

Real Gone Cat

Do we need to worry about sensitive terminology here? "Dull normal" might be less hurtful to women who whelped really stupid bastards. — Bitter Crank

90-110 IQ isn't a moron but "average". Borderline retardation is 70-80, which I suppose I'd equate with morons. — Benkei

If you asked my children, a moron is the driver of another car when riding with Dad.

Congress is filled with morons.

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