5 ms·
I agree that the best evidence of a person's intelligence and inclinations is their phenotype, not the average of their racial group or sex. Thus, race and sex
by Moshe_Silnorin 10y ago
I agree that the best evidence of a person's intelligence and inclinations is their phenotype, not the average of their racial group or sex. Thus, race and sex should not be used as a proxy for any characteristic when employing people. We don't need proxies when we can directly measure - though note, some forms of measurement (such as culture fair IQ tests) are illegal for anyone but universities to use in employment, a delightful hypocrisy.
Nonetheless, those parts of academia that define the narrative on these topics (sociology, history, feminist academia, and political science) do not believe there is significant non-cultural variation in any economically relevant trait among the sexes or ethnically distinct populations, and put anyone who openly states the obvious through a struggle session that usually results in their firing, as happened with Summers. Though the vast majority of psychologists admit that IQ is largely genetically heritable, accepting the consensus of the twin studies, any future inference about what this implies is outside the Overton bubble.
Just as not knowing disease was caused by small invisible germs made us unable to treat disease properly, our inability to admit that intelligence and stupidity are caused by small, invisible alleles has made us unable to treat social pathologies properly. The distribution of intelligence is grossly unfair. But we can fix it if we are willing to admit its cause. Let us seize the high-IQ alleles and distribute them to the proletariat!
I think there is a deep sense in which education as a treatment for stupidity is like wearing perfume to prevent the plague.
Also, acknowledging these differences prevents racism. Antisemites love pointing out that jews are overrepresented in many high-status occupations, postulating crazy conspiracy theories for why this is the case. But once you acknowledge the IQ gap (Ashkenazi Jews score roughly a standard deviation above gentiles in most psychometric tests) we have an entirely benign explanation and it's evident that these conspiracy theories hold no water.
These differences are a perfectly valid subject of inquiry of very little use to the individual, but becomes necessary to discuss when progressives beg the question, assuming falsely (just as antisemites do) that underrepresentation in cognitively demanding endeavours necessarily implies discrimination that isn't based on ability.
- leot 10y agoIt is obvious that genetics matter. What isn't obvious is how, or how much. Ontogeny is context dependent at every scale of analysis. As such it is sensitive to precise manipulation in myriad ways, the vast majority of which are likely not yet known. We remain profoundly ignorant of what intelligence is, let alone what underlies it. It's likely that large population differences are the result of a synergistic interaction of genetics and culture, with each depending on the other. Ashkenazi Jews benefit from one such interaction, but there may well be many others yet to be discovered. I disagree that the social theorists as a whole are entirely ignorant of basic biology. I think they would argue that the cultural forces swamp genetic signals often enough to be worthy of criticism. There are no doubt theorists with views that are more extreme, but the appropriate response isn't to counterweight by going further in the other direction. Group membership cannot be destiny. If it is we're not free.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]