Of course you raise some good points here, but I also see things differently.
Putting aside any statements regarding "IQ" and related tests, which are flawed, I don't think there is anything wrong with expressing the negative feelings felt in relation to a particular set of experiences, even if those experiences are connected to what might be considered a privilege, or desirable to other people, separate to those negative feelings. A "privilege" will only take you so far if you and your environment are not also accommodating.
This is just another one of the problems of our society and does not take away from how someone feels they have been negatively impacted. One is the feeling of having squandered opportunities, the other is the situation of not being given those opportunities at all. I don't think something has to be "the worst situation that one could conceivably be in" in order to feel put off about their own particular set of circumstances.
For many people these things are, in the mind, essentially one and the same. These statements are essentially a proxy for communicating the feeling of "I wish I had not endured the pain or issues associated with my experience having this particular trait." I do not think anyone is making the claim that the disadvantages are on par with not possessing it, outside of their own personal experience. The grass is always greener on the other side. Of course it is not inherently a curse, but similar to other long sought after "positive" attributes it can be something that is the catalyst for for misfortune-- perhaps a double edged sword is a more clear-cut comparison.
The issue is that the solution being laid out in many of these comments is to erase the privilege or reduce it, which misses the point and it is actually harmful if people genuinely believe this is the solution and try to convince others of the same, it's not without consequences, otherwise I would have said nothing.
In
that way, they absolutely
are claiming that being without a privilege would be preferable. (So they must be willing to back up the sentiment that the pitfalls, or in your words-disadvantages-are not only on par with not possessing said privilege, but somehow
worse.)
And even in the context of one's own experience, they're not realizing that being without the privilege brings on a whole other world of suffering, with BOTH squandered
and unavailable opportunities.
A better cliché of a statement for this whole scenario is "You don't know what you have until it's gone",
and seeing a negative or two as overshadowing the abundance of positives, wherein you believe that ridding yourself of the discerned source of the few negatives is the solution, whilst that vied for solution would, in fact, leave you with the inverse-a few positives with an abundance of negatives (aka a true disadvantage in life, because even full-blown disadvantages can allow for minuscule 'pros', as the privileged among us so often love to grasp for and point out).
Not all things are equal, that's just the truth.
We are not all on the same playing field, a privilege or a disadvantage makes a huge difference in a person's life, whether they claim to knowingly utilize it or not (intelligence is going to be used regardless, one way or another, even during menial tasks).
I never said a privilege prevents a person from misery or ending up on this site.
But it is what it is, in the context of life, relative to all things real, never to be dismissed or trivialized in quotation marks.
Feelings don't always align with reality, I have not dismissed anyone's feelings, simply outlined why intelligence itself is not the problem, but that there are issues surrounding it which are, and those surrounding issues are much more likely to have a negative impact similar to those which have been complained about.
If anything I've tried to make concessions by pushing for these other issues to be known as a possible reason as to why certain negative experiences have been had, thus supporting them and nodding to the pain and feelings behind them.
Unfortunately I have to speak within the confines of IQ and quantifiable intelligence (or similar) because those are the guidelines OP set out to discuss, and without them, the waters become muddy and subjectivity is allowed to take over to the point where anything goes and nothing makes any more or less sense than the next thing.
We can't speak about privileges if we cannot measure them, and if we do, then we are no longer speaking about privileges, subsequently making my own words a moot point entirely, to be argued back and forth for eternity.
I think you may be misinterpreting some of what I said, as I don't recall saying anything had to be "the worst situation that one could conceivably be in" in order to be sympathized with or acknowledged.
We all have people worse off than we are, but for instance..if I have an eating disorder, and I claim food to be the problem, I would be incorrect, if I were to say "if food would just be eliminated or if I could be provided with far less money for food things would be a lot easier", I would be kidding myself and spitting in the face of those who starve or whom are living paycheck to paycheck (which isn't necessarily the worst thing imaginable).
I also absolutely disagree vehemently with the platitude of "the grass is always greener" in the sense that it's not..because it IS.
It's always greener on one side versus another, especially in the vacuum of having a privilege versus having that privilege diminished or obliterated completely, where the former is a far more fertile landscape to be living in.
Doesn't mean you can't struggle, doesn't even mean you can't suffer from societal issues in close relation to your privilege.
I did not mean to imply otherwise.
I meant to speak on this specific topic, not to expand the horizons to making a case for one privilege being the end all/be all for a life worth living/the pursuit of happiness, I know of course there are far too many factors at play for that to ever be the case.
However, even defining a privilege as a double-edged sword is overly generous, I said everything had pitfalls, that should be enough to allow anyone to realize that I know nothing in this life is perfect or without cons alongside the abundant pros.
But again, in the context of this life-and the world entire, a privilege is the best position humanly possible, to be had in any number of areas, though it may admittedly still not be enough.
You put the word positive in quotations too..I mean, I very much appreciate your presence on this forum and what you've had to say, but it's just going to become a weird back and forth about definitions and semantics if we do that sort of thing.
Like an argument about what is "moral" or what is "right" and "wrong", that's a slippery slope, so I cannot entertain that type of rhetoric, I am sorry.
*I don't want to cause a full-blown derailment, so I'm probably not going to state anything further on the subject.
