This is a response to a chart at http://attenuation.net/files/iq.htm


Hmmm...
I think the attenuation.net IQ table is a bit strange. Haven't left-leaning folks been saying for years that IQ tests are culturally biased? Now that it's convenient we're citing them as proof that people who voted for Bush are stupider than people who voted for Kerry? Seems to me that you can't have it both ways. & if blue state Kerry-supporters are going to indulge in Social Darwinian rhetoric I want off the bus.

I'm with Chris Stroffolino who wrote on the Buffalo poetics list the other day about trying to understand why people are often voting against their economic interests. What do people mean when they cite *values* as a reason for voting to Bush? Why don't Kerry's values including civic service--a *value* he's lived (whether you agree w/ his service or not)--register with enough people in the so-called heartland?

I've been reading exit polls from each state. I've been trying to read press reports from the red states. & I plan to read Frank's _What's the Matter with Kansas?_ as soon as I can. I need to understand this better.

I don't think it's a matter of IQ, though it might be a matter of education & information. For example, exit polls seem to indicate that many voters have conflated "Iraq" & "terrorism". & those who watch Fox News as their primary source of journalism are more likely than not to believe Saddam Hussein was directly involved in the terrorist attacks against the United States (See: _Outfoxed_).

To say people are too stupid to know better is also to say they're not responsible for their vote & to say that nothing can be done to make sure this doesn't keep happening. Winter in New England is long enough without heaping political fatalism on top of the pain I'm already feeling.

I wonder if others have opinions about this. (&, yes, I realize that I have a tendency to take jokes too seriously sometimes. Hello, my name is E(a)rnest.)

James