“I really do believe in IQ science”: Laura Loomer, Trump ally floated for a potential White House position, goes on wildly racist rant against Rep. Ilhan Omar

stopthatgirl7@kbin.social to politics @lemmy.world – 241 points – “I really do believe in IQ science”: Laura Loomer, Trump ally floated for a potential White House position, goes on wildly racist rant against Rep. Ilhan Omar
mediamatters.org

Only months after Donald Trump Jr. floated Laura Loomer as a White House press secretary, Loomer used her platform on Rumble to launch into a half-hour long racist screed against Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Somalians living in America, birthright citizenship, and Muslims. Loomer begun the show by referring to Rep. Omar as a "black dog" whose "district is literally Somalia," and claimed that Omar's constituents are "breeding like rabbits.”

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and claimed that Omar's constituents are “breeding like rabbits. I guess they've never heard of something called birth control.

You mean the thing Republicans want to make illegal next?

Oh, that’s just for non-wealthy white people. The “low iq” people will get forcible sterilization.

Incorrect. The low-IQ people will be forced to breed (while being denied any form of support) so the factories have a limitless pool of workers to exploit.

Yeah, but their racism one other bigotry plays a role, especially with the wannabe Nazis at hand. Forcible sterilization has been done before.

Used as a means of controlling “undesirable” populations – immigrants, people of color, poor people, unmarried mothers, the disabled, the mentally ill – federally-funded sterilization programs took place in 32 states throughout the 20th century.

https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/blog/unwanted-sterilization-and-eugenics-programs-in-the-united-states/

Recently, too

https://bpr.berkeley.edu/2020/11/04/americas-forgotten-history-of-forced-sterilization/

In early September [2020], a nurse working at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in Georgia came forward […] claiming that numerous involuntary hysterectomies (uterus removal surgeries) were performed on detained immigrant women.

Throughout the 20th century, nearly 70,0000 people (overwhelmingly working-class women of color) were sterilized in over 30 states. Black women, Latina women, and Native American women were specifically targeted. From the 1930s to the 1970s, nearly one-third of the women in Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, were coerced into sterilization when government officials claimed that Puerto Rico’s economy would benefit from a reduced population.

I also believe in IQ science.

Specifically the science showing that conservatives have low IQs.

What the science actually suggests is this:

Despite their important implications for interpersonal behaviors and relations, cognitive abilities have been largely ignored as explanations of prejudice. We proposed and tested mediation models in which lower cognitive ability predicts greater prejudice, an effect mediated through the endorsement of right-wing ideologies (social conservatism, right-wing authoritarianism) and low levels of contact with out-groups. In an analysis of two large-scale, nationally representative United Kingdom data sets (N = 15,874), we found that lower general intelligence (g) in childhood predicts greater racism in adulthood, and this effect was largely mediated via conservative ideology. A secondary analysis of a U.S. data set confirmed a predictive effect of poor abstract-reasoning skills on antihomosexual prejudice, a relation partially mediated by both authoritarianism and low levels of intergroup contact. All analyses controlled for education and socioeconomic status. Our results suggest that cognitive abilities play a critical, albeit underappreciated, role in prejudice. Consequently, we recommend a heightened focus on cognitive ability in research on prejudice and a better integration of cognitive ability into prejudice models.

Which is something plenty of conservatives lack the functional literacy to understand.

Really interesting! Particularly that it's childhood intelligence, not adult, that determines later prejudice, suggesting that racist outlooks are deeply ingrained and set early in life. It's not clear if the second analysis considers contemporary reasoning skills, but I also suspect early and adult intelligence are highly correlated

It’s also important to keep in mind that a lot of intelligence testing is meant for use on children. It’s a lot easier to gauge “how developed is your brain compared to what we expect at your age” than “how smart is this 25 year old”.

I suppose it is possible that they only studied childhood intelligence in the study.

I'm curious if the intelligence tests somehow account for the quality of their education. edit: it says yes right there in the abstract lol oops

You really shouldn't. IQ is mostly bullshit, the only thing it measures accurately is how well you do in an IQ test.

Exactly. An Amazonian hunter-gatherer might be a genius. He might be able to do all sorts of prodigy-level things if he were raised in a modern Western society. And maybe as it is, he's the best hunter-gatherer in his tribe because of how smart he is.

But give him an IQ test (for the purposes of this thought experiment you're somehow able to do it despite him not knowing how to read) and he could very likely fail it simply because it is based on a Western view of the world for which he has no frame of reference.

I once did a music video for a guy who was the most amazing country music fiddle player you would have ever seen. Like fantastic complex improvisations when he played. I don't even like much country and I was blown away. When we had him sign the contract, he could barely write his own name.

Was he a genius or was he an idiot? Was his IQ high or low?

for the purposes of this thought experiment you’re somehow able to do it despite him not knowing how to read

Don't worry, there's plenty of precedent for giving IQ tests to people in languages they can't read and then judging them for doing badly at it!

Was the guy's name Johnny and did he win a fiddle battle against the devil

It was not and he did not, but he definitely played fiddle far better than Charlie Daniels.

The frustration that we feel over bigotry can be expressed in so many ways. We don’t need to rely on ableist slurs. Alternative phrases are more descriptive, and more accurate; unintelligence is not the prevailing problem with right wing extremists, for instance, nor is it the cause of their actions. Ignorance, prejudice, and disregard for the rights of others are.
Conflating harmful actions with lack of intelligence does everyone a disservice. To suggest that “stupidity” that is what makes people act badly undermines any real accountability. The causes of problematic behavior rarely have anything to do with mental acuity, and we can’t properly address harmful behavior while being so reductive about its causes. Carelessness, bias, hatred, greed, closed-mindedness, indifference – these are the traits that lead to oppression. Our intelligence is not the issue so much as our sense of compassion and justice.
A person can be unintelligent and still know right from wrong. There are people with cognitive disabilities who I respect a thousand times more than those who are supposedly more abled. They have stronger principles, seek to better themselves, and are committed to being good people. They are just capable of being sensitive and caring as everyone else. To imply that they aren’t is outrageous.

source

Laura really isn't in a position to insult anyone else's intelligence.

https://www.boredpanda.com/fake-slashed-tire-tweet-laura-loomer/

God, I just posted that same link like two days ago.

Their "IQ by race" schtick doesn't even hold up to the most basic questioning, let alone actual science.

They want to claim it's okay to abuse and enslave black people because they've got a chart that says they have the lowest average IQ.

But they seem to mysteriously lose all interest in the idea when you suggest removing race from it entirely and just testing individuals directly, shipping anyone below a threshold off to a concentration camp.

Since it was their idea, it seems only fair that we start by testing the nazis and their closest friends and family.

Deep down, they know their ranks would be decimated.

IQ by "race" discredits IQ (and biological determinism)

Ask: what is a 'black person' or a 'white person', and you'll find social categories, not biological ones. So, the fact that IQ consistently finds differences between these groups proves that it's not a measure of biological quantity.

It'd be like IQ testing showed that blondes really were dimmer than their peers, but the effect held for bottle blondes as well.

I didn't mean to imply those were the only problems with their racist bullshit, just that anybody should be able to see the deep flaws in it, even with no additional knowledge, long before they made it part of their abhorrent personality.

My god, this story just keeps getting better

They debunked her at every single attempt for her to double down on the "slashing" that was beautiful, she's definitely an attention seeking fascist POS.

😳 I think that tire lived through Watergate. the civil rights era the space race.

I live in Omar's district and I can tell you first hand, it's possibly the most gentrified district in the state. If there's anything wrong with the it, it's us white people.

I drive through every day, there’s plenty of niche little places that are fun in the area. (Coming up cedar ave, for example.)

Definitely white people ruining it. “Oh you have art and culture. That now belongs to us.”

Hell yeah. I’ve been to some great shows at Triple Rock and then we’d go eat at the falafel place up the street.

Dr. Henry "Indiana" Jones: This belongs in a museum!

Proceeds to fuck up the natives while "liberating" their literal god

Like I'm gonna trust some Somalian to tell me the demographics of their district. /s

Loomer is a horrid shitstain.

Excuse me, excuse me. She didn’t put herself -- and you have some very bad people in that group, but you also have people that were very fine people, on both sides. You have people in that group. Excuse me, excuse me. I read the same article as you did. You have people in that group that are there to protest to them, a very, very important issue.

I read the summary and I thought that's pretty vile. I read the whole article and feel like I need a shower.

Woah woah woah I thought they were pro-life, so why is “breeding like rabbits” bad?

Maybe the rabbits are the wrong color? That must be it.

I thought jsut yesterday there was a headline “republican goes on wildly racist rant” but with different names. Hmmm. Hmmmmmmmm.

Of course they believe in it. They are doing everything to keep the IQ low, or they would lose their voter base.

I find it very curious that some of the worst examples of a human tend to be convinced that they are part of a group of better people.