Mike, I gave you some examples such as the success of Dr. Ben Carson. There are plenty of people who were raised in similar circumstances of poverty, disadvantage, and lack of nurturing who have excelled because they had and used an innate ability. Ben Carson admitted that he almost went down the wrong path when he tried to stab someone at age 15. That doesn't mean he had a low I.Q. that magically changed. All it means is that he might have been the smartest cleverest felon on the cell block of State Prison. I don't really have time to produce links that would possibly prove my contention to you this evening, but the information is there if you care to look on your own. Neither have you shown us any links proving your opinion.
Psychological indoctrination or brain-washing has little to do with intelligence. I don't believe the Soviet style indoctrination that dominated King Brown's life lowered his inborn I.Q. any appreciable amount, if at all. In fact, being a disciple and a salesman of that philosophy may have necessitated becoming sharper in order to advance it. I don't think that King Brown is a stupid man by any stretch, but I am sure he is an avowed Liberal Socialist who has been smart enough to hoodwink a lot of people for a lot of years, and his level of intelligence has permitted him to get away with being very deceptive. An idiot is someone with an I.Q. between 0 and 25. An imbecile is someone with an I.Q. between 25 and 50, and a moron has an I.Q. between 50 and 75. I have conceded that nurturing can increase the I.Q. of individuals who fell within those clinical ranges of intelligence by a few points, but all the nurturing, early reading, and care in the world will not turn any of them into geniuses or even move them into the range of average I.Q. An I.Q test is not a measure of acquired knowledge. It is a measure of analytical reasoning and innate abilities and aptitudes. I believe you are in the HVAC business. If you are really good at it, it would not surprise me a bit if you inherited the traits of good business sense and mechanical aptitude. I am also employed in the skilled trades and have 3 journeyman cards, and I've noticed that those who excel very often have fathers, grandfathers, uncles, etc. who just had the natural ability to solve problems and fix things. Due to things like quotas and affirmative action, I have also seen people get into trades and go to school and have people bend over backwards to help them, and they couldn't find their own ass with both hands after years of training and experience. I'll bet you've seen the same and possibly even employed some.
About 10 years ago, a good friend about 10 years older than me told me that he had a son that he hadn't seen in over 30 years. I had known him and worked with him for 15 years and didn't even know he had a son. He had went through a nasty divorce and actually won custody of his infant son in 2 different states, but his ex kept kidnapping the boy and moving to another state. After a lot of heartache and money, he took the advice of an aunt and just let the kid be with his mother in Florida, giving up a third custody battle, and he totally lost contact and told me he didn't even know where he lived. A few years later, the kid, now a grown man, showed up at his house because he wanted to meet his Dad and also wanted to see for himself if he was all the rotten things his Mom claimed he was. Although they had zero contact since the boy was a year old, it was uncanny how similar their lives were in so many different ways. The mother hadn't told the boy anything about his Dad except that he was no damn good. He told us that his Mom wouldn't tell him anything about his father at all. He didn't know that his Dad owned an Auto Body Shop, was into rebuilding engines and building street rods, and was addicted to collecting old Corvettes. But he also owned a Body Shop, and had the exact same automotive interests, the same political views, and even their dislikes were the same. They remained close until my friend died at a very young age, and he was pretty pissed that his Mom had been so dishonest about his Dad and had kept them apart. We had a lot of conversations afterwards as I helped him and the family locate old Corvettes, cars, street rods, and engines and parts that my friend had stored in a 3 county area because he was hiding his automotive addiction from his second wife. The more I talked to him the more amazed I was at how similar their lives were. They couldn't have been more alike if they were identical twins raised together.
