How do people with IQs of 60-80 think?

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The Finnish military is based on conscription and it truly is a cross-cut of the whole society. The IQ limit is 60, which corresponds to Stanine 1.

Let us say Forrest Gump is no fictional character. I indeed met boys like him, and as an officer I had the access of all the Stanine scores of the enlisted men in my unit.

Forrest Gump was assumed to have IQ of 75 in the book, but compared to the filmatization, I’d put his to 68–70. And yes, there were boys like him. Another good comparison would be Private Zero in Beetle Bailey.

People with low IQ but who are not mentally impaired tend to be very simple, down-to-earth, honest and childlike by their behaviour and thoughts. They usually understand they aren’t the brightest bulbs in the chandelier, and are aware of that, so they try to put up with other properties. And gosh, how they tried to be good soldiers!

People with IQ of 60 to 70 usually are very pleasant. They are a bit slow, they have difficulties of understanding things, they take everything literally and they don’t understand abstractions, metaphors, similes or other figures of speech. They can be troublesome if drunk. They usually are unable to learn other languages than their first, and they may have troubles on understanding written text. If I said “Enemy at two o’clock!” they’d look at their watches stupified rather than at ahead right.

A person with IQ of 60 is able to do simple supervised tasks and repetitive routine work. He would never be able to be a leader (with the possible exception of a bully) and certainly not a manager.

Usually the boys with Stanine 1 were assigned to tasks where they could be supervised all the time and they could cause as little damage as possible. Tasks like Oil Sheikh (the janitor who fills the fuel tanks of the vehicles of the garrison each morning), Fashion Guru (the janitor who puts clothes and shoes which arrive from laundry to shelves at quartermaster’s store), Sauna Major (the janitor who warms up the saunas of the garrison) and like.

The bracket from 60 to 80 is a wide one. The difference between 60 and 80 is far bigger than 80 to 110. Those with 80 to 95 are true troublemakers. They do not realize they are below average, but they usually are very street smart and savvy. Their behaviour is puerile and obnoxious rather than child-like. They likewise have problems of understanding things, but they are by no means slow nor stupid. They are incredibly anti-authoritarian and their behaviour is often challenging.