Ammonite

Ammonite

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Three Degrees of Stupidity

Would you rather be called an idiot or a moron? Neither probably, but surprisingly there is (or was originally) a substantial difference between the two. The words were invented by an American psychologist (and eugenicist) Henry H. Goddard as a means of classifying degrees of mental incompetency.
The scale is as follows (in my own words not H.H. Goddards. He was a little more..er..technical than I am):

Idiot: IQ 0-25, with 0 being a hula hoop. Mentally you are somewhere between a rock and a hard place...literally. This is the worst of the worst, the bottom of the barrel. If you are an idiot then you might to learn how to tie your shoes but most likely you'll just end up trying to eat them. If you were smart enough to list your favorite things to do drooling would be at the top followed closely by watching Melrose Place.

Imbicile: IQ 26-50, The good news is you aren't an idiot. The bad news is you are still an imbicile. You might not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but at least you can learn how to use one. If evolution worked according to mental capacity you'd be somewhere between a lab rat and a golden retriever (both of which are better groomed than you).

Moron: IQ 51-70, You are the highest of the low if you fall into this category. When someone calls you a moron, you say with pride "Well, at least I am not an imbicile." You (being a moron) think it's a compliment but the rest of us know it's not. It's like being employee of the month at a company that specializes in scrubbing poop stains out of carpet, or being the champion of a hot dog eating contest (both of which morons are good at by the way). Sure you are the best, but is that really a good thing? Bottom line is you aren't smart enough to work a dishwasher but you can whip a five year old's ass at Connect Four, (and are damn proud of it).

2 comments:

  1. Just out of curiosity what do you call a person who didn't know all this until they read your blog?

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  2. In the same boat as me:) I only know because it came up as a side note in a essay I was reading about eugenics...

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