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Culture War Roundup for the week of November 14, 2022

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Well, I guess it was only a question of time before the ADL condemned Dave Chappelle and SNL more generally for "popularising" anti-Semitism.

Chappelle had a SNL monologue a few days ago where he walked a tightrope between supposedly condemning Kanye and Kyrie before slyly signal-boosting some of their talking points. Kanye comes across as crazy and Kyrie as plain dumb but Chappelle is neither, so this is arguably bigger news. Of course, Chappelle has been courting controversy before, such as his perceived anti-trans comments or complaining about college kids being too sensitive these days.

So I am not sure if this is some kind of cultural shift where black entertainment elites are more willing to criticise Jews or if it is simply Chappelle running towards controversy in order to stay relevant. Maybe it is both. Nevertheless, I think the ADL has by and large been enormously inefficient and self-defeating during these past 6 weeks. It seems even some Jewish publications agree.

He says Hershel Walker is dumb. He's as dumb as the average American, at least going by his academic credentials. It's like there is a reason elites exist even if they are a convenient scapegoat for everything wrong with society. Things we take for granted from political leaders, like being articulate, are not that common.

Good football players in the south regularly graduate from college without being able to read or write. I don’t think having a college degree really tells us anything about walker’s ability.

But the average American high school graduate cannot read or write well either . I know people who have never written anything in their adult lives , even with degrees. Reddit, people who spend a lot of time online is not representative of the general population. If you compare his credentials to someone like even George W. Bush, who graduated from Yale and whose SAT scores confer an IQ of around 125, there is probably a 20 point IQ difference, so 100, give or take 5, sounds right, which is average.

I said read or write, not read or write well. Football players who graduate from college despite not having done any coursework and needing help to write their names on the registration paperwork is a common story.

Is there a writeup of this somewhere? I'm prepared to believe it, but I'd like something more than single-point anecdote to base it on.

[EDIT] first result on google seems relevant. ...damn, that's depressing.

Football players who graduate from college despite not having done any coursework and needing help to write their names on the registration paperwork is a common story.

But the same for non-athletes. That's why the dropout rate is so high. NFL players score as well on the Wonderlic as the general population, about 20, which is average IQ. Mr. Walker quit college to join the NFL, which was a rational and understandable move on his part. It's not like he failed out.