HBD and America

Last week on a news show, I saw this talking head saying some good stuff I agreed with, such as how the stimulus isn’t working because companies meet stimulus demand by hiring new workers China. But then when he said his fix for America was more education, I tuned him out. What a moron, I thought.

This week, it occurred to me that what he really meant is that Americans are too stupid and we need smarter Americans. I agree with that! The problem is that he has bought into the liberal HBD denialist belief that education makes people smarter. If he understood that genes, not education, makes people smarter, then he would have had a whole different policy recommendation, and probably one that made sense.

And that, you see, is the problem with trying to solve America’s problems. As long as everyone denies HBD, they will always come up with bad solutions that will often makes things worse, such as raising taxes to pay for education that doesn’t make anyone smarter. The only way to fix America is to spread the truth of HBD.

* * *

This morning I saw Herman Cain on Squawk Box, and I thought, this guy sounds really stupid and low class. He would never have been promoted by Pillsbury to be the head of a pizza chain if he were white and he spoke like that. This is why it's rather hypocritical of him to be telling those white Occupy Wall Street people that they are too lazy to get jobs. If any of them were black, they'd probably have no problem getting hired by some big corporation seeking diversity.

* * *

But I give credit to Cain for being quite a bit smarter than Perry. Read this article mocking Perry's energy independence plan. Hilarious.

Comments

[famously nameless]

"This morning I saw Herman Cain on Squawk Box, and I thought, this guy sounds really stupid and low class"

But with a BA in math and Masters in computer science, he certainly is not. And there's no way AA could have squeezed him through those degrees.

[rjp]

The Atlantic commentary about Perry is kind of petty bullshit. Energy independence basically requires getting rid or greatly reducing the power of the EPA. Do that and it's drill drill drill for oil and nat gas, and blast them mother f'n mountain tops off in WV, and everyone that esssentially wants to work, can, at decent wage. Perry is just getting shit because he didn't spell out the details to the dim witted. And the writer is definately a DWL. I don't like Perry though because of his Texas higher education policy which essentially is "You white people can pay taxes to assist with the cost of educating people you don't even want in this state. And you know what, we'll even give them illegals' kids some extra admissions points so I hope your kids not on the borderline of getting into UT."

As for your assumptions regarding Herman Cain, I don't think you are far off. 9-9-9 is kind of more like a jingle, and he hasn't really given any details other than saying he's been advised by a guy named Lowery out of Cleveland, Texas,for my searches turn up nothing.

[D]

You’re kidding, right? Mr. Cain holds advanced degrees in mathematics and computer systems engineering. He was a ballistics analyst (ie: a rocket scientist) for the department of the Navy before running numerous companies and achieving huge success. He has orders of magnitude more experience than the current occupant of the White House!!!

[ecrasez l'obama]

we don't need smarter Americans. We need a smarter system for Americans to work in.

Chinese did not become any smarter when PRC scrapped Communism. They just got freed from a stupid and oppressive system that held back the productive, promoted the incompetents and shackled everybody's effort to improve their lot.

So, likewise, Americans did not become any dumber when the once free and effective American economic system was slowly but surely replaced with what we have now. And the solution to this is the same as what was done by Deng Xiaoping - put the "elite" bastards and parasites on a tight leash, abolish stupid laws and regulations and let the people to work and prosper in peace.

[outlaw josey wales]

Yes, you can have advanced degrees and still sound stupid. Class, of course, cannot be learned at school. Cain could never get into Harvard Law.

[Mike Kenny]

apropos promoting HBD:

http://michaelkenny.blogspot.com/2011/10/thoughts-on-promoting-reasonable-hbd.html

[DaveinHackensack]

Why do you persist in characterizing Cain as "stupid", despite all objective evidence to the contrary (some of which has been reiterated above by previous commenters)? It seems pretty clear from his background and his ability to think on his feet that Cain is quite intelligent.

[Severn]

If genes determine intelligence and intelligence is the most important attribute which a person or a nation can possess, why has the West started spiraling down the toilet bowel in the last few decades? You can't even blame it on immigration. All the important decisions are made by the white (and frequently Jewish) high-IQ cognitive elite. And things are just as bad in European countries without our huge percentage of non-whites. There is no genetic explanation.

The culture has changed. What people think and believe has changed. THAT is the difference, not IQ or genes.

[Severn]

"And that, you see, is the problem with trying to solve America’s problems. As long as everyone denies HBD, they will always come up with bad solutions"

I don't think that "everyone" denies HBD. The most fervent HBD-deniers, the most important and influential HBD deniers, are the high-IQ Ivy League elite. As you go further down the class and IQ scale you encounter a much greater degree of HBD realism. It's our leadership class which has gone insane.

You can't admit this because you're locked into a mindset in which the high IQ are to be admired by definition, and the "lumpenproles" are to be despised by definition.

[Comment]

Sigma I think you're overestimating how much companies value diversity. Pizza chains couldn't care less that he's black. It probably hurt him more than it helped him

[HS: Read what General Mills, the parent company of Pillsbury, says about diversity:

http://www.generalmills.com/Responsibility/Diversity.aspx

They seem really committed to promoting minorities. I don't doubt that Cain was a competent worker, but there are a lot of competent white workers who never got the opportunities handed to Cain because he is black.]

[DaveinHackensack]

"[HS: Read what General Mills, the parent company of Pillsbury, says about diversity:"

That's today. Cain started working there in the 1970s. Affirmative action and the promotion of diversity wasn't nearly as widespread back then. Also, he only got put in charge of the pizza chain after he demonstrated a track record of success running hundreds of Burger King franchises.

[chucho]

He didn't go to an Ivy, so he's not smart. QED.

[Insider]

'As you go further down the class and IQ scale you encounter a much greater degree of HBD realism.'

No, no, that's just racism you're talking about. Racists will hop aboard any philosophy or belief system that comports with their racism.

While it's unfortunate that playing the 'racist' card drowns out a lot of honest discourse, that doesn't mean a substantial percentage of the HBD-realist lower-class cross-section isn't just racist.

Ironically, I think the only society that can safely accept a truth like HBD is one that itself already possesses a high average IQ.

[Insider]

'Read what General Mills, the parent company of Pillsbury, says about diversity'

In 2011...

I'm not buying the AA line on Cain. The guy's record is pretty impressive. Now it's quite possible that he just received -every- opportunity because he was black. Or it's possible that he excelled in the positions he occupied. Since his record reads 'Herman Cain put into job X, crushes job X, moves to better job Y, crushes job Y...' I have no reason to believe he's just an AA guy.

To all appearance, he's shown great competence in all his positions. This does not tip the scales toward AA.

Barack Obama's path tips more toward AA (latent potential theories notwithstanding) than Cain's.

[Jefferson Raskin]

Although I won't stupidly announce "HS is a racist!", I do think you are wrong about Cain, I think he is 2 standard deviations smarter than the average NAM.

[Question]

Chucho said...

"He didn't go to an Ivy, so he's not smart. QED"

---

Didn't Sigma earn his law degree at Arizona State? What would that say about him?

And if a math major who masters in computer science before working in ballistics and completely turning a company around doesn't qualify as smart, who does?

[Camlost]

"They seem really committed to promoting minorities. I don't doubt that Cain was a competent worker, but there are a lot of competent white workers who never got the opportunities handed to Cain because he is black."

HS, you really don't have a good understanding of how AA actually works on the ground within the corporate world. Maybe that's because you lack HR or actual hiring experience outside of doing technical phone screens for programmers.

EEOC and AA in the corporate world is all about reporting, and making numbers look good. Thus a software company can be 10% black and look like a solid "Equal Opportunity Employer", but all of the black employees are clustered in level 1-2 tech support, with an occasional black project manager or network technician.

If you're a company with government contracts then you also have to comply with OFCCP, which is an enhanced version of AA/EEOC, meaning that you're under even heavier scrutiny for your diversity hiring. But, if you're a company in Idaho then you're not expected to have 15% black employees when the surrounding area is only 2% black.

NO companies are hiring underqualified blacks and putting them in charge of positions with actual budget access and/or strategic influence (where they could actually screw up something). It's much easier to make your AA reporting numbers look good by hiring a bunch of blacks in low and mid-level sinecure positions where unqualified people can "hide" and not really contribute much while collecting a paycheck. Herman Cain's meteoric rise within Pillsbury could not have been due to AA - he was already WORKING for Pillsbury so there was no additional AA benefit for Pillsbury to promote him unless he actually deserved the promotions.

Obama is an AA baby because he never had to actually DO anything besides give speeches to adoring people.

[HS: I see. So when Obama writes a book, it's explained by the fact that there was a conspiracy of smart white people to write a book for an unknown black guy in order to make him look good. But if a black guy gets promoted at Pillsbury, a big corporation with a diversity policy, the promotion can't possibly have anything to do with a program to promote diverse employees.

The double standards of the right are almost as stupid as the double standards of the left.]

[Camlost]

Even if we agree that Obama wrote all of his books by himself, solely, it's still astonishing that you don't see the difference between writing bullshit fluff books, and actually succeeding (numerous times) at difficult task(s) in the business world, where REAL money is on the line and you have to answer for failure.

Again, like I said, diversity promotion is not common, and controlled when it does happen. Diversity hiring, however, is common. There's a difference.

No companies are promoting unqualified blacks into management positions of Cain's type - they're all pushed into management positions within HR, support, client services etc. - areas where unqualified people can hide and be insulated from the effects of potentially bad decision making.

[???]

I don't get it, Sig, why are you still nursing a hard-on for Obama and believing he's actually intelligent?

[Mercy Vetsel]

Actually Cain has demonstrated considerably more intelligence than Obama. I'll bet you $100 that if their SAT's ever surface that Cain did better.

Like many people in NY, your bias against people with a southern accent (and especially a black southern accent) make you think they are stupid.

I actually noticed that I have the same bias I while back when I was working on a consulting engagement in Houston. My first thought on hearing the clients speak with such a drawl and in such an infuriatingly slow manner was "wow, what a bunch of stupid hicks." But I quickly learned that this impression was very wrong and that I had bought into a false Hollywood stereotype.

We know Obama didn't write his books not because he's black, but because everything he wrote before then sounds so sophomoric and unintelligent like his article for the Columbia student newspaper.

Obama's books are like the star high school football player who scores 1310 on the SAT after previously scoring 630 and 570 on his first two attempts.

It's no different from JFK. We now know that in high school his IQ was tested at 119 and that he faked writing his Pulitzer-prize winning "Profiles in Courage" and yet he was (and still is) hailed as incredibly intelligent and given a 174 in the Lovenstein Presidential IQ Hoax.

Obama copies the same structures and incredibly specific stories that Bill Ayers used, things like a child noticing the Hudson river flowing North and being wrongly corrected by an adult who knows which way the river is supposed to flow.

Herman Cain was born into a poor family with middle class values. If he were born into an upper class family he would have adopted trendy political views and studied Law or Public Policy rather than mathematics and computer science.

Camlost is exactly right. AA may have boosted Cain at some point in his career, but how many black CEO's are there NOW, let alone in the 1980's. You are off your rocker if you think owners hire a CEO because of AA. The executive AA positions are for made up bullshit positions like Executive VP of Cultural Understanding or Diversity Director not for people with real P&L responsibility.

-Mercy

P.S. For now I'm still a Romney guy, but I sure do like Herman Cain

[Commander Shepard]

"The double standards of the right are almost as stupid as the double standards of the left." - Half Sigma

Absolutely. I'd like to see a future blog entry discussing this.

[Linda]

"HS: I see. So when Obama writes a book, it's explained by the fact that there was a conspiracy of smart white people to write a book for an unknown black guy in order to make him look good."

Sigma, no one is alleging there was a conspiracy to write Obama's book; the theory is that his friend Bill Ayers (who has a history of helping liberals write books) gave him a helping hand. If a Harvard educated icon with political ambitions asked me to help him with a book I would jump at the opportunity. That's how Bill Ayers got ahead, by making himself useful to people on their way up. Bill Ayers had something to gain by doing people such favors (friendships, connections) but Pillsbury had nothing to gain by picking anyone other than the best to make multimillion dollar decisions. Unless Pillsbury used Herman Cain in commercials targeted and blacks to show off their black exec, I seriously doubt he was promoted because of race.

Now I'm not saying Obama lacks the ability to write a great book (I actually think blacks rhythm is useful in writing), but I don't think he had the interest so it's perfectly plausible that he got some help with it.

[Linda]

"I don't get it, Sig, why are you still nursing a hard-on for Obama and believing he's actually intelligent?"

Sigma worships Obama for the same reason he hates Sarah Palin, Rick Perry and Herman Cain. He wants want people at the top in politics and business to be from the most elite schools preferably with degrees in law (like Sigma has) and to be upper class in their family background, mannerisms, speech, and physical appearance. Plus Obama did well in a good law school so believing this achievement requires a genius IQ validates Sigma who also did well in law school.

[Georgia Resident]

While I would never vote for a black man in the primaries, especially after the "you're lazy and should get jobs" blow-off to the OWS protesters, denigrating Herman Cain's intelligence while boosting Obama's is rather unfair. John Derbyshire, who definitely isn't one to buy into PC bullcrap, seems to think Cain is a fairly smart individual ("Raising Cain" Taki's Mag online).

Cain's accomplishments, in a STEM background and as an executive, are far less likely to have been the result of negrophilia than Obama's. I doubt that Godfather's Pizza customers cared that the CEO was black, while pretty much every office Barack Obama's been elected to has been in large part the result of his race. There are certainly AA recruits among military officers, but they're typically but in bullcrap positions like "minority outreach", not something like ballistics (where Cain worked), in which incompetence could be rather damaging.

Obama has mostly proven that he can be loquacious (which seems to be the Great Black Talent anyway) and he can talk without an obvious black dialect. While I would prefer to claim that Obama (who's half white) is clearly smarter than Cain, who looks to be about as close to fully West African as one's likely to find among the American Negro population, there's far more evidence that Cain is smarter than advertised, while Obama is quite a bit less intelligent than advertised.

[HS: I know lots of computer programmers who aren't smart enough to be president and aren't even smart enough to make a web page that doesn't look horribly ugly. Cain is probably as smart as the average college graduate (which makes him a lot smarter than the average black person), but I'd really like to see someone ABOVE AVERAGE as president.]

[Camlost]

"I know lots of computer programmers who aren't smart enough to be president and aren't even smart enough to make a web page that doesn't look horribly ugly. "

C'mon, man.

By definition, the best programmers ALWAYS make Web pages that are ugly in the aesthetic sense. Being talented at Web UI layout/presentation is a totally different skillset than doing real, actual server-side programming of the heavy duty variety.

If I'm interviewing some developer and he seems to be overly interested in Web layout principles I start to doubt whether he can actually program on the back end.

[jef]

Cain seems about as smart as Clarence Thomas to me. And that's a step or two behind Obama.