Well, the original idea behind Mensa was that if you got a bunch of really smart people together, they just might solve all the world’s problems. Didn’t quite work out that way, so I’d agree that it has no real reason to keep existing anymore.
Comment on ultra high iq
Mikina@programming.dev 2 days ago
I don’t get why something like Mesa even exists. Like, what even is the moment where pulling out your Mensa card is a good idea?
Assuming you are inteligent, you should know that flashing a card from a gatekept “clever people” club will probably not impress many people, just like you should recognize that the test you did doesn’t mean shit and IQ is not a good way how to measure people.
parlaptie@feddit.org 1 day ago
5too@lemmy.world 2 days ago
At a guess? Smart people like validation too; and are just as vulnerable to manipulation that uses it. Potentially even more vulnerable, in fact.
DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 2 days ago
As someone who doesn’t need to guess:
It exists as a social club founded in eugenicist thought.
Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 1 day ago
it’d make sense if it was just a club to help people be social, since high IQ and social difficulties tend to come together
but no… they charge you to be part of it…
ProfessorPeregrine@reddthat.com 2 days ago
Yeah, no one “flashes a Mensa card” unless they are a jerk. We joined many years ago when we lived in Iowa for the social aspect. The parties are a lot of fun and the people are all fascinating. Not all people you want to spend time with, but fascinating. We let our memberships lapse when we moved back to Colorado.
Nearly universally, Mensans recognized that IQ is only measure of how well you do on an IQ test (which, as you may know, was never intended as a test for the upper end, only to find students who needed intervention) or the other allowed tests.
There were materially successful people and not, socially adept and not. People we learned to avoid and people who became friends. Cringe and connection.
I suppose it is like any other social club where you have something in common with the additional kicker that people were not holding back in conversation. You had the chance to rapidly be humbled in that case if you went on at length about some favorite topic only to find out the person you were talking to was an expert in it.
Plus there were cool speakers and field trips. “Dumb things smart people do” was one of our favorites.
VitoRobles@lemmy.today 1 day ago
One time I made fun of people who do cross fit and someone at the table said “I do CrossFit.” Then I said, “It’s almost as annoying as people who flex over their AMEX card.” And another guy pulled out his AMEX card.
I regret not bringing up a Mensa Card.
ProfessorPeregrine@reddthat.com 1 day ago
Heh, that would have been perfect.
Mikina@programming.dev 1 day ago
Thank you, that makes perfect sense. It’s easy to fall from the outside into the trap of judging it by the “smarter than you club” label, and forgetting that probably isn’t the point for most members, and the club part is the important one.
Sibshops@lemmy.myserv.one 1 day ago
Honestly, that sounds like a lot of fun.