Correction

Many times we throw insults around without knowing what we're saying. For instance, I was surprised to read in a book, Public Education in America that many insulting words are actually intended to be scientific measurements of intelligence. In the book mentioned, I found the following chart:

LEVEL.................IQ INTERVAL
Idiot............................. 0-25
Imbecile........................25-50
Moron...........................50-70
Borderline.....................70-80
Low normal...................80-90
Normal.........................90-110
Superior.......................110-120
Very superior................120-140
Near genius.................140 and over

All this time I've been calling politicians and steroid pumping athletes idiots, when in fact they're just morons. My bad.

8 Responses to “Correction” »»

  1. Comment by Matt Martin | 03/01/09 at 10:53 pm

    ha its a great thing learning, expanding your vocabulary, learning new ways to insult people. well generally being more informed than you were before is a good thing especially when you meet that one person you just quite cant find the right words for!

  2. Comment by Cam Beck | 03/02/09 at 3:13 pm

    Why is it you can become a "near genius," but not a "genius?"

  3. Comment by gannonbeck | 03/02/09 at 3:24 pm

    Cam, I have no idea. It thought the chart was very interesting in a couple of respects though. That was one of them. The other thing it got me thinking about was how certain words take on a negative connotation. I think there is probably no word you could choose to call someone "stupid" that wouldn't take on a negative connotation pretty fast.

  4. Comment by Cam Beck | 03/02/09 at 4:01 pm

    I can just imagine the conversations in front of the SOTU address.

    "What an idiot!"

    "No no... He's merely an imbecile."

  5. Comment by gannonbeck | 03/02/09 at 4:11 pm

    We have to be careful about labels, particularly with IQ. First, IQs aren't as fixed as people once thought, and second, there are many kinds of intelligence that the test doesn't measure. I'm sure there are lots of kids that grew up into adults thinking they weren't smart because of what some test said. What a shame.

  6. Comment by Chris | 04/25/09 at 6:47 pm

    This is rubbish, the words may have been used by that author to describe people of that certain IQ range, but the words existed long before that. Etomology from the OED:

    idiot: ORIGIN Greek idiotes ‘layman, ignorant person’, from idios ‘own’
    imbecile: ORIGIN originally in the sense "physically weak": from Latin imbecillus ‘without a supporting staff’.
    moron: ORIGIN from Greek moros ‘foolish’.

  7. Comment by james julin | 05/16/09 at 6:13 am

    I can see this being thrown out-or being in the Smithsonian. These days everyone is a winner (in some societal aspects) and the mean is the level of dispersion. Average is the stamp for all. At my son's soccer team years ago, there was no scores so as to not hurt feelings. A little digested crow from being a loser occasionally builds character.

    I hope the classifications remain intact. Yet, I have serious doubts. Moronism, Idiocy, and Imbecility will become protected Civil rights classes and you cant descriminate ( or have a scale that draws a distinction). Positive is that we discuss the pro's cons' of such and become better citizens through interaction and healthy defensible opinions. Oh by the way, near genius and above average will be done away with (maybe) so the people that suck don't feel bad. Granted there is mental retardation and such, but classificatoin need to remain so services can be delivered. Ones with no excuse need to take responsibility for their lives, get off their A$$, and do it (or die trying).

    jjj

  8. Comment by james julin | 05/16/09 at 6:33 am

    Opinion-perhaps 140+ wil/can be changed to insane, wacko, or sociopath. Most higly intelligent folks can't handle that power and have meltdowns in their lives. Unfortunately, many geniuses end up under park benches and have a mean Mad dog 20/20 addiction. Perhaps, there needs to be a distincton drawn between those that are able to function (highly) and those that fall prey to being overly gifted. Cognitive filters are great things for these people that have trouble maintaining sanity. Helps maintain sanity. those with no cognitive filter self=implode. substance abuse functions as a cognitive filter for a little while then eventually destroys its victims by screwing up cerebral wiring. and later vital organs.

    then you have underutilization of talents-I bet that is a high number because sometimes society scares or used to scare those that are waaay off the scale into the "how dare you spread your wings and fly away" syndrome, so they are made to feel like they are troublemongers and eventualy are taught that they shouldn't be so much of a bother with their unconventional opinions (such as Franklin, Michaelangelo, Salvador Dali), and shut up and eat your pablum with a smile. Those that dish out discouragement like that will eventually suffer that which they inflict=imo universal law.

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