This chart has been bandied about the blogosphere for several days. NewMexiKen thought about linking it before, but decided against. First, how is this sort of thing determined — a state’s average IQ? Second — well, you’ll see. I am a resident of New Mexico.
[Update November 4, 2004: See also here.]
Reminds me of when right-wing California Superintendent of Schools Max Rafferty lost to Alan Cranston for the U.S. Senate. Rafferty left California sometime after for a job in Alabama. Word was his move from California to Alabama raised the average IQ of both states 10 points.
It’s a HOAX.
UP
“This chart has some people up in arms
“Some folks have no sense of humor. We made it pretty clear that, even if these stats are for real, which, as we stated in English, we have no evidence that they are, we think this chart is a joke… All we can say is, lets face it, the last “tortuous” two weeks have been depressing. Everyone could stand some levity about now.”
I’m kind of sorry I managed to puncture this nascent liberal urban myth so quickly. Nothing demonstrates the hypocrisy of Democrats on the topic of IQ than the enthusiasm with which so many leapt aboard this bandwagon as a way to prove they were mentally superior to Republicans, despite, in the near-decade since the publication of The Bell Curve, having constantly denounced IQ tests as meaningless, biased, and evil incarnate.