It has always thrown me. Genuinely bright people falling for obvious bullshit. And I don't just mean some quiet conformity. I understand that. I mean the actual endorsing of obviously fictional nonsense. There has to be some kind of IQ disruptors at play.
1. Remember that Orwell himself volunteered to fight on the side of the communists in the Spanish Civil War, showing he himself was not immune to his observations about deficient reasoning: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Orwell#Spanish_Civil_War
2. COVID death jab compliance rates were greatest among the midwits; the low IQ and the very high IQ (PhD level) had lower compliance rates.
3. Decision making abilities are, as you say, a complicated thing. I think "disagreeability" on the Big 5 personality test is a very important factor; it keeps one from believing whatever the media tells them to believe. I would argue that dissidents to this system pretty much universally score high on disagreeability.
4. This post reminded me of this quote from Lee Kuan Yew about Harvard students blinded by their ideology: “I found many other fresh ideas and picked the brains of other highly intelligent people who were not always right. They were too politically correct. Harvard was determinedly liberal. No scholar was prepared to say or admit that there were any inherent differences between races or cultures or religions. They held that human beings were equal and a society only needed correct economic policies and institutions of government to succeed. They were so bright I found it difficult to believe that they sincerely held these views they felt compelled to espouse.”
5. This post also reminded me of this quote from Maurice Samuel:
“There is no test or guarantee of a man's wisdom or his reliability beyond what he says about life itself. Life is the touchstone: books must be read and understood in order that we may compare our experience in life with the sincere report of the experience of others. But such a one, who has read all the books extant on history and art, is of no consequence unless they are an indirect commentary on what he feels around him.
Hence, if I have drawn chiefly on experience and contemplation and little on books - which others will discovery without my admission - this does not affect my competency, which must be judged by standards infinitely more difficult of application. Life is not so simple that you can test a man's nearness to truth by giving him a college examination. Such examinations are mere games - they have no relation to reality. You may desire some such easy standard by which you can judge whether or not a man is reliable: Does he know much history? Much biology? Much psychology? If not, he is not worth listening to. But it is part of the frivolity of our outlook to reduce life to a set of rules, and thus save ourselves the agony of constant references to first principles. No: standardized knowledge is no guarantee of truth. Put down a simple question - a living question, like this: "Should A. have killed B.?" Ask it of ten fools: five will say "Yes", five will say "No." Ask it of ten intelligent men: five will say "Yes," five will say "No." Ask it of ten scholars: five will say "Yes," five will say "No." The fools will have no reasons for their decisions: the intelligent men will have a few reasons for and as many against; the scholars will have more reasons for and against. But where does the truth lie?
What, then, should be the criterion of a man's reliability?
There is none. You cannot evade your responsibility thus by entrusting your salvation into the hands of a priest-specialist. A simpleton may bring you salvation and a great philosopher may confound you.
And so to life, as I have seen it working in others and felt it within myself, I refer the truth of what I say. And to books I refer only in so far as they are manifestations of life.”
Orwell's saving grace I think was his willingness to embrace reality, hence his ultimate rejection of the Soviet model, even when it was inconvenient to do so during the war.
I can well believe too the midwits are dying at a greater rate than anyone else. Their great sin is conformity rather than strong beliefs as such. I suspect much of their lives are spent navigating a social terrain to get on, understanding what is acceptable. I think these are Eliot's hollow men.
I also agree (lol) disagreeability is probably the defining trait in all this, not IQ. We used to say character mattered, and I think it is this willingness to disagree. More accurately, the West is partly in decline because we will not assert ourselves, either as individuals or as societies. Once that changes, and assertiveness reasserts itself, I expect quite drastic changes will happen quickly.
A brilliant article and interesting to read how testosterone may contribute to the problem much of which I'm sure you're right about.
Though I think there is another explanation but I'm not casting aside your testosterone idea. If a man has a high IQ he tends to pass the necessary exams and gets the diplomas he requires to advance into a top level job very much connected to the government or in a position where they can withhold funding if they don't go along with what the government requires. Happened a lot during covid. So those with no morals or guiding principles simply sellout to those in control, knowing full well what they are saying is a lot of hogwash.
I don't for one minute believe that they think they are promoting the truth, they are thinking about their bank balance.
As for women coming into it, heaven help us if they get full control, I've never known such a lot of hard nosed nasty bitches as those in Western governments at this time. Simply appalling.
Personal gain is a factor. But that would leave IQ more or less intact as they would be indifferent. Top of the list would be psychopaths.
But we are concerned with people who do buy the hogwash, as many sadly do. What is ailing them? And I think it is something like the cognitive disruptors.
Cognitive disruptors yep, though many are brainwashed by their televisions, for some those people on the screen are their best "friends " and would never lie to them!
And for some they haven't got the courage to stand out from the crowd, easier to pretend you're one of them. I guess I can understand the last one more having been on the receiving end for refusing to be compliant and
I get compliance. But the brainwashing is interesting, especially in those with genuinely high IQs. What explains their inability to apply reason or critical thinking.
I agree about it being observable, the brainwashing could apply to at least some, I mean that's what schools, colleges and universities have become, virtually brainwashing centers. If they weren't the whole gender changing phenomenon couldn't have caught hold especially amongst the very young. I think when people with higher IQs start falling for something they tend to fall harder than others. Could be your testosterone levels idea comes into play there as well.
The universities are indoctrination centers for sure. Absolutely lost.
I think the high IQ are mainly religious, like everyone else. But they can't embrace Christianity as they used to. So they embrace liberalism, which is just Christianity without Christ.
Your hypothesis deserves wide dissemination. Cogent and based on common sense, which surely means those afflicted with low available T will never read, or if they do, believe a word of it. These people are mentally ill and need intervention before they kill us all.
I think the intervention is real life. Windmills aren't reliable, and nor is communism. Both lead to starvation.
Thank you for reading. I'm glad you liked it. It just struck me one day when I had blood tests for T. It is the free or available value that you need to pay attention to. Most just quote Total Testosterone.
Some of those destroying our world are clever. So it does require some explanation I think. It is a very odd form of stupidity we are withessing.
I agree, and as well as the physical limitation of low available T, there is a spiritual element. Low available T is an open door inviting attack by demonic spirits, hence these educated fools' all-in acceptance of evil philosophies.
Academic achievement is a combination of intellectual horsepower and willingness to do the work. Willingness to do the work can be caused by intrinsic interest in the subject, or it can be driven by desire to brown nose up a multi-layer hierarchy. As we have admitted too many people into higher education, the latter has come to predominate academia, and a fair portion of academia's higher level students.
Academia is the ultimate hierarchy. Why so many on the far Right extol hierarchy over free agency makes me scratch my head.
Academia was corrupted when they started requiring all professors to have doctorates.
We have WAY too many people going around with the title of Doctor. And some fields are really glorified trades. A doctorate in education makes about as much sense as a doctorate in plumbing.
Using your plumber analogy versus a tech affiliated family(like mine, fortunately not me) gives rise to my experienced dissonance among those that I live or lived with throughout my life. To add to your convincing point(s), I think the lower IQ class that deals with the more pertinent and detailed inter workings of society(plumbing, mechanics, etc...) are more intuned to real solutions to real problems than the higher IQ class that basically have convinced themselves and their groups of their combined superiority complex over the working class, which they take for granted and complain when solutions aren’t only quick and to their narrow minded liking but without inconvenience or disruption to their superior secluded lives. Your piece really hit home with me, Thanks and God Bless!!!
I think the intellectual class and their hangers on have lost their place in society precisely because they are lost in their own minds. When it comes crashing down no one will want investment bankers or HR specialists. Plenty of work for butchers and electricians though.
Thank you for your kind comment. I am glad you liked it. And foolishness is perhaps the best term here. All I would add is the role of hubris; the real fools think themselves more intelligent than us all.
In a free society, the benefits of the contributions of individuals is widely shared. New technologies, medical treatments, cultural goods, etc. financially enrich the person who creates them, but also have wide-ranging positive externalities for regular people. Additionally, among high IQ people, it's probably the case that the median benefit vs. average IQ people is not huge, while a small number of outliers, whether the superbly talented, or simply the lucky, will stand significantly apart from everyone else. Lastly, many types of cognitive achievements like humanities scholarship have limited real-world impact and therefore won't make you rich necessarily. All of these things put pressure on the psyche of the intelligent, because most of them will *feel* more special than their material status would indicate.
As a result, these people demand government intervention to put fences around their achievements (patents, copywrite protections, licensing, and so forth), and increasingly they become dependent on government to ensure that they enjoy what they believe they deserve by right. As such, perpetuating and increasing government violence against the masses becomes necessary for them to maintain their relative standing.
Yes. The ultimate expression of this urge would be the promise of state communism, where finally mathematicians and chemists will get the recognition and financial rewards they deserve etc
Your argument certainly explains their generally pro-government stance, including endorsing unwise regulation of industry, commerce and communications.
But what about genuinely bright people believing the bullshit? Climate, the tabula rasa, diversity is a strength. What is going on in their minds?
Climate hysteria, racism, COVID all merit more government (or so they argue), and therefore more ways to pillage. Part of it is indirect, where a class consciousness develops among professions entwined with the state, and then the social pressures you mention kick in.
Yes there is definitely a racketeering element to all this. But I'm fascinated by the true believers who have the brains to work it out but don't. What a time to be alive.
I think humanities scholarship can offer enormous benefits, but it has been so corrupted that it has become all but worthless outside the niches it inhabits.
If an idea engages the emotional part of the brain, it must be simple (some might say dumb) enough for those primitive structures to grasp, processing capacity of the frontal lobes notwithstanding.
This is what I call The Smart Guy problem. The culture of smart people is often an isolated one; Ivory Towers of Academia being the most commonly known example. Divorced from reality, smart people think that, if they think it, it must be true. After all, they're smart. And if it makes sense to them, it should be the way it is IRL.
Nothing is further from the truth. All Smart Guys(tm) should be made to serve as enlisted troops in the Army or Marines or Navy. There, they will learn what reality says about a great many things. Then, and only then, should they be allowed into Academia.
A very interesting thesis, but I personally think most (or all) of it can be explained by other factors. At first I was going to write a comment detailing these other factors, but I just realized that'd take way too much space. Perhaps it's time for me to write my first substack...
When we look far into the past this kind of behavior was not the usual one. So, what changed? Maybe the West has a parasite sitting in the middle and upper classes (but not in the lower classes these days) that promotes these dumb ideas like mind poison to overcome the organism?
University may be the culprit. They no longer teach critical thinking and there seems to be some truth in the notion the universities are indoctrination camps.
I think there are some bright sparks out there who don't believe any of this nonsense. Analogous with a Bond villain. People pushing the climate agenda who don't believe a word of it, for example.
But I'm interested in genuinely bright people who do buy it. What is going on in their heads? That's the real puzzler.
Maybe the problem is you're equating highly intelligent people with being smart or bright, I've never found that so. There's more smart people in the criminal class who tend to be rated average or lower on the intelligence scale. There's an awful lot of idiots in the higher intelligence bracket, or at least that's always been my experience in life. Just because you passed several exams that use that intelligence in the field you're aiming for doesn't make you a well balanced person in other areas.
Most people who have a harder life because of a lower wage bracket have to learn to live by their wits, wits make you smart. 😉
Yes, my theory is similarly that intelligent people are sometimes more susceptible to certain rotten but socially desirable beliefs because they are better at rationalizing bad things than stupid people. Of course, stupid people believe in all sorts of stupid things too, like flat earth and Pentecostalism, but neither of these belief systems are beneficial to believe in. Meanwhile, you get brownie points for being a shitlib in high-IQ social circles. Basically, intelligent people are better thinkers, but also better motivated thinkers, which often makes them worse thinkers.
Another major factor is that high IQ people tend to be high in trust, so they place more trust in institutions than low IQ people. This is made more of an issue when high IQ people don’t care about the field in question. Why would they devote research to a thing they don’t care about and cannot impact? Unfortunately, a lot of institutions are full of idiots. Or bad actors.
10 points to Gryffindor for making the analogy between total T and available T. I think that captures things perfectly.
It came to me in a dream.
It has always thrown me. Genuinely bright people falling for obvious bullshit. And I don't just mean some quiet conformity. I understand that. I mean the actual endorsing of obviously fictional nonsense. There has to be some kind of IQ disruptors at play.
Nice post, Spaceman. A couple comments:
1. Remember that Orwell himself volunteered to fight on the side of the communists in the Spanish Civil War, showing he himself was not immune to his observations about deficient reasoning: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Orwell#Spanish_Civil_War
2. COVID death jab compliance rates were greatest among the midwits; the low IQ and the very high IQ (PhD level) had lower compliance rates.
3. Decision making abilities are, as you say, a complicated thing. I think "disagreeability" on the Big 5 personality test is a very important factor; it keeps one from believing whatever the media tells them to believe. I would argue that dissidents to this system pretty much universally score high on disagreeability.
4. This post reminded me of this quote from Lee Kuan Yew about Harvard students blinded by their ideology: “I found many other fresh ideas and picked the brains of other highly intelligent people who were not always right. They were too politically correct. Harvard was determinedly liberal. No scholar was prepared to say or admit that there were any inherent differences between races or cultures or religions. They held that human beings were equal and a society only needed correct economic policies and institutions of government to succeed. They were so bright I found it difficult to believe that they sincerely held these views they felt compelled to espouse.”
5. This post also reminded me of this quote from Maurice Samuel:
“There is no test or guarantee of a man's wisdom or his reliability beyond what he says about life itself. Life is the touchstone: books must be read and understood in order that we may compare our experience in life with the sincere report of the experience of others. But such a one, who has read all the books extant on history and art, is of no consequence unless they are an indirect commentary on what he feels around him.
Hence, if I have drawn chiefly on experience and contemplation and little on books - which others will discovery without my admission - this does not affect my competency, which must be judged by standards infinitely more difficult of application. Life is not so simple that you can test a man's nearness to truth by giving him a college examination. Such examinations are mere games - they have no relation to reality. You may desire some such easy standard by which you can judge whether or not a man is reliable: Does he know much history? Much biology? Much psychology? If not, he is not worth listening to. But it is part of the frivolity of our outlook to reduce life to a set of rules, and thus save ourselves the agony of constant references to first principles. No: standardized knowledge is no guarantee of truth. Put down a simple question - a living question, like this: "Should A. have killed B.?" Ask it of ten fools: five will say "Yes", five will say "No." Ask it of ten intelligent men: five will say "Yes," five will say "No." Ask it of ten scholars: five will say "Yes," five will say "No." The fools will have no reasons for their decisions: the intelligent men will have a few reasons for and as many against; the scholars will have more reasons for and against. But where does the truth lie?
What, then, should be the criterion of a man's reliability?
There is none. You cannot evade your responsibility thus by entrusting your salvation into the hands of a priest-specialist. A simpleton may bring you salvation and a great philosopher may confound you.
And so to life, as I have seen it working in others and felt it within myself, I refer the truth of what I say. And to books I refer only in so far as they are manifestations of life.”
Orwell's saving grace I think was his willingness to embrace reality, hence his ultimate rejection of the Soviet model, even when it was inconvenient to do so during the war.
I can well believe too the midwits are dying at a greater rate than anyone else. Their great sin is conformity rather than strong beliefs as such. I suspect much of their lives are spent navigating a social terrain to get on, understanding what is acceptable. I think these are Eliot's hollow men.
I also agree (lol) disagreeability is probably the defining trait in all this, not IQ. We used to say character mattered, and I think it is this willingness to disagree. More accurately, the West is partly in decline because we will not assert ourselves, either as individuals or as societies. Once that changes, and assertiveness reasserts itself, I expect quite drastic changes will happen quickly.
A brilliant article and interesting to read how testosterone may contribute to the problem much of which I'm sure you're right about.
Though I think there is another explanation but I'm not casting aside your testosterone idea. If a man has a high IQ he tends to pass the necessary exams and gets the diplomas he requires to advance into a top level job very much connected to the government or in a position where they can withhold funding if they don't go along with what the government requires. Happened a lot during covid. So those with no morals or guiding principles simply sellout to those in control, knowing full well what they are saying is a lot of hogwash.
I don't for one minute believe that they think they are promoting the truth, they are thinking about their bank balance.
As for women coming into it, heaven help us if they get full control, I've never known such a lot of hard nosed nasty bitches as those in Western governments at this time. Simply appalling.
Personal gain is a factor. But that would leave IQ more or less intact as they would be indifferent. Top of the list would be psychopaths.
But we are concerned with people who do buy the hogwash, as many sadly do. What is ailing them? And I think it is something like the cognitive disruptors.
Cognitive disruptors yep, though many are brainwashed by their televisions, for some those people on the screen are their best "friends " and would never lie to them!
And for some they haven't got the courage to stand out from the crowd, easier to pretend you're one of them. I guess I can understand the last one more having been on the receiving end for refusing to be compliant and
obey more than once.
I get compliance. But the brainwashing is interesting, especially in those with genuinely high IQs. What explains their inability to apply reason or critical thinking.
It is definitely an observable phenomenon.
I agree about it being observable, the brainwashing could apply to at least some, I mean that's what schools, colleges and universities have become, virtually brainwashing centers. If they weren't the whole gender changing phenomenon couldn't have caught hold especially amongst the very young. I think when people with higher IQs start falling for something they tend to fall harder than others. Could be your testosterone levels idea comes into play there as well.
The universities are indoctrination centers for sure. Absolutely lost.
I think the high IQ are mainly religious, like everyone else. But they can't embrace Christianity as they used to. So they embrace liberalism, which is just Christianity without Christ.
Sounds about right.
Your hypothesis deserves wide dissemination. Cogent and based on common sense, which surely means those afflicted with low available T will never read, or if they do, believe a word of it. These people are mentally ill and need intervention before they kill us all.
I think the intervention is real life. Windmills aren't reliable, and nor is communism. Both lead to starvation.
Thank you for reading. I'm glad you liked it. It just struck me one day when I had blood tests for T. It is the free or available value that you need to pay attention to. Most just quote Total Testosterone.
Some of those destroying our world are clever. So it does require some explanation I think. It is a very odd form of stupidity we are withessing.
I agree, and as well as the physical limitation of low available T, there is a spiritual element. Low available T is an open door inviting attack by demonic spirits, hence these educated fools' all-in acceptance of evil philosophies.
I think actual low testosterone levels do account for a lot. But it also works as an analogy for low IQ behaviours too I think.
Academic achievement is a combination of intellectual horsepower and willingness to do the work. Willingness to do the work can be caused by intrinsic interest in the subject, or it can be driven by desire to brown nose up a multi-layer hierarchy. As we have admitted too many people into higher education, the latter has come to predominate academia, and a fair portion of academia's higher level students.
Academia is the ultimate hierarchy. Why so many on the far Right extol hierarchy over free agency makes me scratch my head.
Academia is destroying itself with these changes. We all see it dying. It is becoming a parody of itself.
Academia was corrupted when they started requiring all professors to have doctorates.
We have WAY too many people going around with the title of Doctor. And some fields are really glorified trades. A doctorate in education makes about as much sense as a doctorate in plumbing.
Using your plumber analogy versus a tech affiliated family(like mine, fortunately not me) gives rise to my experienced dissonance among those that I live or lived with throughout my life. To add to your convincing point(s), I think the lower IQ class that deals with the more pertinent and detailed inter workings of society(plumbing, mechanics, etc...) are more intuned to real solutions to real problems than the higher IQ class that basically have convinced themselves and their groups of their combined superiority complex over the working class, which they take for granted and complain when solutions aren’t only quick and to their narrow minded liking but without inconvenience or disruption to their superior secluded lives. Your piece really hit home with me, Thanks and God Bless!!!
Glad you liked it. And thank you for commenting.
I think the intellectual class and their hangers on have lost their place in society precisely because they are lost in their own minds. When it comes crashing down no one will want investment bankers or HR specialists. Plenty of work for butchers and electricians though.
Probably the best article of 2024. Most low available IQ individuals can be characterized as fools.
Below is a Christian perspective on fools based on scripture.
https://www.gotquestions.org/fool-Bible.html
A fool possesses no common sense and lacks discernment because they are void of wisdom. Wisdom can’t be obtained through any educational institution.
Thank you for your kind comment. I am glad you liked it. And foolishness is perhaps the best term here. All I would add is the role of hubris; the real fools think themselves more intelligent than us all.
In a free society, the benefits of the contributions of individuals is widely shared. New technologies, medical treatments, cultural goods, etc. financially enrich the person who creates them, but also have wide-ranging positive externalities for regular people. Additionally, among high IQ people, it's probably the case that the median benefit vs. average IQ people is not huge, while a small number of outliers, whether the superbly talented, or simply the lucky, will stand significantly apart from everyone else. Lastly, many types of cognitive achievements like humanities scholarship have limited real-world impact and therefore won't make you rich necessarily. All of these things put pressure on the psyche of the intelligent, because most of them will *feel* more special than their material status would indicate.
As a result, these people demand government intervention to put fences around their achievements (patents, copywrite protections, licensing, and so forth), and increasingly they become dependent on government to ensure that they enjoy what they believe they deserve by right. As such, perpetuating and increasing government violence against the masses becomes necessary for them to maintain their relative standing.
Yes. The ultimate expression of this urge would be the promise of state communism, where finally mathematicians and chemists will get the recognition and financial rewards they deserve etc
Your argument certainly explains their generally pro-government stance, including endorsing unwise regulation of industry, commerce and communications.
But what about genuinely bright people believing the bullshit? Climate, the tabula rasa, diversity is a strength. What is going on in their minds?
Climate hysteria, racism, COVID all merit more government (or so they argue), and therefore more ways to pillage. Part of it is indirect, where a class consciousness develops among professions entwined with the state, and then the social pressures you mention kick in.
Yes there is definitely a racketeering element to all this. But I'm fascinated by the true believers who have the brains to work it out but don't. What a time to be alive.
I think humanities scholarship can offer enormous benefits, but it has been so corrupted that it has become all but worthless outside the niches it inhabits.
If an idea engages the emotional part of the brain, it must be simple (some might say dumb) enough for those primitive structures to grasp, processing capacity of the frontal lobes notwithstanding.
This is what I call The Smart Guy problem. The culture of smart people is often an isolated one; Ivory Towers of Academia being the most commonly known example. Divorced from reality, smart people think that, if they think it, it must be true. After all, they're smart. And if it makes sense to them, it should be the way it is IRL.
Nothing is further from the truth. All Smart Guys(tm) should be made to serve as enlisted troops in the Army or Marines or Navy. There, they will learn what reality says about a great many things. Then, and only then, should they be allowed into Academia.
Yes, it is a problem. Enlisting in the military, driving a truck or other delivery job, or working in a warehouse. Anything to ground them may help.
Yes. Learn a skill, but more importantly, stay in touch with people from other walks of life.
That is why I have quite a few working class friends even though I have a PhD and a cushy office job myself.
Cool. I had some via sports participation. Playing music is another way.
Both are feasible ways to stay in touch with people from other walks of life. I have met my friends via rock concerts.
Delusional behaviour comes from being too comfortable to have to face reality.
The best cure for magical thinking is an empty stomach.
The upper class used to send their boys off to hard boarding schools to counteract decadence.
Today they are free to become as delusional as they want.
The modern madness makes sense as magical thinking on a massive scale.
They believe that if they can change enough people's perspective, the world itself will conform to their will.
https://open.substack.com/pub/thewayofflesh/p/the-magical-thinking-which-rules?r=2j0opk&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
I think this is correct. Delusion and magical thinking. Also indulging luxury beliefs.
As you say, the cure is hardship. The cure is to understand many face hardships daily. Even doing charity work up close may help them.
So the enemy is not an elite as such, but a distant, out of touch elite.
A very interesting thesis, but I personally think most (or all) of it can be explained by other factors. At first I was going to write a comment detailing these other factors, but I just realized that'd take way too much space. Perhaps it's time for me to write my first substack...
You should. It is exactly this kind of thing the mainstream no longer really explores. That is especially true of competing points of view.
So when you do write it, let me know. I'll read it and be happy to plug it for you.
I'm a simple man.
The smarter you are, the better you are at making excuses and twisting yourself into pretzels about what you "should" do.
When we look far into the past this kind of behavior was not the usual one. So, what changed? Maybe the West has a parasite sitting in the middle and upper classes (but not in the lower classes these days) that promotes these dumb ideas like mind poison to overcome the organism?
University may be the culprit. They no longer teach critical thinking and there seems to be some truth in the notion the universities are indoctrination camps.
So true. Bond villains are always depicted as Evil Geniuses. Ditto for The Brain, who wants to ‘Take over the world’. 🐀
I think there are some bright sparks out there who don't believe any of this nonsense. Analogous with a Bond villain. People pushing the climate agenda who don't believe a word of it, for example.
But I'm interested in genuinely bright people who do buy it. What is going on in their heads? That's the real puzzler.
Maybe the problem is you're equating highly intelligent people with being smart or bright, I've never found that so. There's more smart people in the criminal class who tend to be rated average or lower on the intelligence scale. There's an awful lot of idiots in the higher intelligence bracket, or at least that's always been my experience in life. Just because you passed several exams that use that intelligence in the field you're aiming for doesn't make you a well balanced person in other areas.
Most people who have a harder life because of a lower wage bracket have to learn to live by their wits, wits make you smart. 😉
Yes, my theory is similarly that intelligent people are sometimes more susceptible to certain rotten but socially desirable beliefs because they are better at rationalizing bad things than stupid people. Of course, stupid people believe in all sorts of stupid things too, like flat earth and Pentecostalism, but neither of these belief systems are beneficial to believe in. Meanwhile, you get brownie points for being a shitlib in high-IQ social circles. Basically, intelligent people are better thinkers, but also better motivated thinkers, which often makes them worse thinkers.
Another major factor is that high IQ people tend to be high in trust, so they place more trust in institutions than low IQ people. This is made more of an issue when high IQ people don’t care about the field in question. Why would they devote research to a thing they don’t care about and cannot impact? Unfortunately, a lot of institutions are full of idiots. Or bad actors.