A red flag...

 ABA supporter: ABA is just like having a job! Your paycheck is withheld unless you earn it, and you're not allowed breaks without permission!

Me, a socialist: I'm glad you brought that up...

IQ

What is IQ?

Your IQ is, literally, the score you get on an IQ test.

That’s it.

It’s a score on a standardized test.

IQ scores are weighted and calibrated so that 100 is always the “average.” In general, average scores go up over time as the population becomes more educated (the Flynn effect), although this has slowed in recent years. These trends are statistically interesting, but also irrelevant to the point of this post, so I’ll move on.

In theory, your IQ measures how well you understand certain learning concepts, although performance can be affected by various external factors. Like all standardized tests, an IQ test can be a useful tool to assess students’ learning, to recognize what they already understand and what they may need help with or still need to work on. That’s the only real use IQ tests have.

That’s what IQ is -- a score on a standardized test. Here’s some things IQ is not:

• IQ is not an intrinsic attribute.
• IQ is not a measure of capacity for agency, autonomy, or self-expression.
• IQ is not a reflection of whether someone is capable of learning.
• IQ is not a reflection of survival.
• IQ is not a measure of worth.
• IQ is not a requirement for human rights.

Humans do not have to pass an arbitrary test to be humans. Your right to control your own destiny should not be dependent on how well you match geometric shapes to their mirror images. Your right to access healthcare while maintaining bodily autonomy does not require a proficiency in verbal analogies. All persons -- all beings who are human -- are capable of thinking, learning, and making decisions, and deserve the freedom to do so.

Abolishing vulnerability

"How would you prevent vulnerable people from being taken advantage of?"

One of the most frequent questions I get, and the easiest to answer!

Give them equal legal, social, and economic power, and they won't be "vulnerable" anymore.

When people are stripped of their rights, they become vulnerable to abuses by people who have more rights and can coerce people with fewer rights to bend to their will. When people are routinely discredited and disbelieved, they become vulnerable to abuses by people with greater social credibility who can confidently know that they can abuse their lower-status victims whose accusations will never be believed. When people lack the material resources needed to live their lives, they become vulnerable to abuses by people who can control access to those resources.

The "vulnerability" of poor, disabled, and otherwise marginalized people is a consequence of social inequality, which is then used to justify further marginalization in the name of "protecting" these "vulnerable" people from "being taken advantage of."

If everyone has equal legal, social, and economic rights, they cease to be vulnerable, and interactions with others cease to be "taking advantage."