Say it with me:

"IQ IS JUNK SCIENCE INVENTED BY WHITE SUPREMACIST EUGENICISTS TO JUSTIFY THEIR IDEOLOGY"

It is not an "inconvenient truth". It is not an otherwise robust instrument that is misused by some people with an agenda. It is not something that's pretty accurate but that is complicated by societal factors.

It's bullshit. Bupkis. Bunk.

As Johnathan Frakes says in that one show, "We made this one up. It's a total fabrication. It's pure fiction. It's a made up tale. This one was invented by a writer. It's an urban legend... that never happened."

Don't forget. Remind yourself if you have to.

We've got a few people who are responding to this post defending the usage of IQ, questioning that IQ is still used, assuming I don't know what IQ means, etc. I have neither the time nor the inclination to reply to each of these people and try to teach/prove anything to them, so I will simply say this.

I am trained in psychology and education at the master's level so I am fully aware of what it is, where it came from, how it works, etc. Moreover, I have had modern iterations of intelligence scales administered to me. Finally, I have worked in schools for 11 years in special education & counseling so I am very familiar with how these things function in the real world.

Psychology, education, medicine, etc are all irrevocably tainted by their participation in white supremacy, capitalism, ableism, and so on. These disciplines are not neutral or objective and their abuse of marginalized groups has never stopped. The tools, metrics, labels, definitions, categories, and all other outgrowths of these twisted and corrupted areas of study are therefore also sites of oppression. IQ is one of the worst of these.

Do your own research on scientific racism, yes. But also just know that our research tools are not exempt from those glaring flaws either. If you are going to even come close to finding something remotely resembling the truth, you have got to engage with these things critically. You have got to have the courage to reject the incorrect and violent assumptions underpinning these various fields. You have got to be ruthless with yourself also, for everything that you have been taught has the seeds of oppression within it.

None of what I said was wrong. IQ is fake. It's white supremacist propaganda. Get your shit together and THINK FOR YOURSELF

My last word on the subject will be this: I will never, ever be surprised to see a white person defending IQ. It was literally made to enshrine their superiority, why would they let that go? Of course they think it's useful, IT IS! It helps keep them on top.
@tillshadeisgone Ha, they stick to the script, don’t they?
@are0h they know they ain't got shit without it

@tillshadeisgone

I was just talking about this yesterday lol.

Hilariously- in an argument, I mentioned to a dudebro what my IQ was, and that I'm Rromani.

Suddenly, he did a 180 and was all "IT'S SUBJECTIVE, YOU PROBABLY JUST DID AN ONLINE TEST"

Sure, Brad, because they totally had those in 1990. White dudes only use IQ when it benefits them, and they cannot STAND it when someone who isn't white has a "higher IQ" than them.

@tillshadeisgone I too used to defend IQ but upon some self examination discovered it was because I tested very well and therefore *wanted* to think it was meaningful and important, and made me Special. Took some time to unfuck that.

IQ pride is equivalent to wishing someone showed up at your doorstep saying "you're a wizard, Harry". It only makes people feel entitled, and then angry (or in my case, slightly sad) when they discover their score means bupkis in the real world.

@tillshadeisgone and don't get me started on the Myers Briggs test, the astrology of office workers

https://digg.com/2015/myers-briggs-secret-history

Uncovering The Secret History Of Myers-Briggs | Digg

test2

@jjcelery @tillshadeisgone The astrology of office workers. 🤣 Can I nick that?
@jjcelery @tillshadeisgone we need a better "zodiac" type system. The only one I want for people is attachment theory. "Are you securely attached? Take this test to find out!"

@jjcelery @tillshadeisgone I was raised as a "gifted" kid, high IQ etc. it did nothing to ever help me at all. In fact the main thing it did was convince me for decades that I'm better than everyone else, even while I told myself I didn't believe that.
It's only even in the past few years that I started to unfuck that bullshit.

IQ is fucking horrible

@janDeni @tillshadeisgone oh hey, are you me 🥲😉

”All animals are equal but some are more equal than others” is the root of all evil.

@jjcelery @tillshadeisgone extreme agreement. Basically every single nasty and hateful and destructive thing in the world can be traced to that thought
@janDeni @tillshadeisgone and next, of course, is people as things

@jjcelery
I went the other way, pretty much. When I took an IQ test a couple of times, I was critiquing the test as I took it. I've always scored very high on typical North American standardized tests, so I'm conscious of their flaws. So my conclusion was basically "Okay, I'm smart, but this test is crap!"

@tillshadeisgone

@tillshadeisgone I can't remember if it mentions IQ specifically but this is an excellent book I read recently covering the underlying phenomena.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Empire-Normality-Neurodiversity-Robert-Chapman/dp/0745348661

I think it helped develop my understanding of how these things work so hopefully it might help some others.

@tillshadeisgone Do we have more accurate and useful replacements?

Our local gifted education program uses IQ in part as an entry requirement and I know it was also part of some of the diagnostics trying to get my kids proper support for ADHD and potential ASD.

If DSM-V says X, I'm not qualified to refute it, but I also don't know what alternatives we have in the cases where it's genuinely used to try to help people.

@gooba42 @tillshadeisgone DSM is a tool of political oppression. -- R D Laing
@phaedral @tillshadeisgone But still the state of the art, I don't get to change that, I just have to work around/with it for now.

@gooba42 If they're using IQ as an entry requirement, your local gifted education system is discriminating against any Black kids in the system. This makes sense, because most gifted programs were created in response to desegregation in education in order to keep white kids in separate classes from Black kids.

Using IQ to support students with ADHD or autism is also discriminatory against Black children. When you say that these tools are used to help people, I would say, "used to help whom? And for what reason?"

If you're confused as to why, I recommend you go read my thread again.

We have other tools we can use to identify disability.

@tillshadeisgone I recognize the racial discrimination issue. My white kids aren't being discriminated against and I do recognize that privilege.

I still don't know how to properly divest ourselves of such privilege while still getting the necessary support from a system whose established standards I'm not empowered to change.

As a professional in that space, do you have recommendations for alternative approaches or tools?

@tillshadeisgone @gooba42

When I was a kid, I was in a "gifted" program.
There was only one black kid in the entire class.

@tillshadeisgone
In related news:
@Joe_Hill did you read my thread? Also that is disinformation