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Take note of this quote from the article: "And their findings about teen births, women’s status and innovation depend on Scandinavia, a region with a mild and

by sedachv 16y ago

Take note of this quote from the article: "And their findings about teen births, women’s status and innovation depend on Scandinavia, a region with a mild and sensible culture that is equally evident among people of Scandinavian stock who live in America." The whole thing is basically an elaborate rationalization of racism through the cliche of social darwinism. As much as I dislike stupid people, I hate social conservatives even more.

kiba 16y ago
The whole thing is basically an elaborate rationalization of racism through the cliche of social darwinism. As much as I dislike stupid people, I hate social conservatives even more. I don't detect endorsement of social darwinism.
- forkandwait 16y ago
  That's because you don't know what social darwinism means.... (edit) ... it means that individuals who win the various competitions in society (jobs, attractive spouses, etc) succeed because they have innate superiority in some way, and that we should allow such competition because it somehow propagates excellence.
m-photonic 16y ago
I don't know, to me it looks like the bit about Americans of Scandinavian stock is just a throwaway line that has nothing to do with the point they're actually making, which is that the observed correlations are mainly just a product of the fact that there are a few countries with low levels of inequality that also happen to be exemplars of things like high life expectancy or women's rights. I don't think they're actually making any racial arguments in this article. When they do mention race later on, it's to make the point that the correlations of social problems with inequality don't have any more inherent explanatory value than the correlations with race.
- candeira 16y ago
  I am writing from memory, but I think the writer of this piece had in mind the following Milton Friedman anecdote: When told there was almost no crime in quasi-socialist Nordic countries, Friedman retorted (I paraphrase) "ah, but we have almost no crime among Nordic-Americans".
- sedachv 16y ago
  "I don't know, to me it looks like the bit about Americans of Scandinavian stock is just a throwaway line that has nothing to do with the point they're actually making" Then why go out of your way to use such a contentious statement? Why mention this later on: "race is a far more accurate predictor of murder, imprisonment and infant-mortality rates"? What does this have to do with the "cognitive elite?" This is just "fuck niggers, heil nordic ubermensch" stated in different terms. Both the agendas of that article (racism and classism) can much better be explained by the growing gender divide: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/07/the-end-of-men/8135 http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/07/the-end-... Women are better in the knowledge economy than men, and sex is a much better predictor of murder and imprisonment rates than race.

by sedachv 16y ago

kiba 16y ago

The whole thing is basically an elaborate rationalization of racism through the cliche of social darwinism. As much as I dislike stupid people, I hate social conservatives even more. I don't detect endorsement of social darwinism.

forkandwait 16y ago
That's because you don't know what social darwinism means.... (edit) ... it means that individuals who win the various competitions in society (jobs, attractive spouses, etc) succeed because they have innate superiority in some way, and that we should allow such competition because it somehow propagates excellence.

m-photonic 16y ago

I don't know, to me it looks like the bit about Americans of Scandinavian stock is just a throwaway line that has nothing to do with the point they're actually making, which is that the observed correlations are mainly just a product of the fact that there are a few countries with low levels of inequality that also happen to be exemplars of things like high life expectancy or women's rights. I don't think they're actually making any racial arguments in this article. When they do mention race later on, it's to make the point that the correlations of social problems with inequality don't have any more inherent explanatory value than the correlations with race.

candeira 16y ago
I am writing from memory, but I think the writer of this piece had in mind the following Milton Friedman anecdote: When told there was almost no crime in quasi-socialist Nordic countries, Friedman retorted (I paraphrase) "ah, but we have almost no crime among Nordic-Americans".
sedachv 16y ago
"I don't know, to me it looks like the bit about Americans of Scandinavian stock is just a throwaway line that has nothing to do with the point they're actually making" Then why go out of your way to use such a contentious statement? Why mention this later on: "race is a far more accurate predictor of murder, imprisonment and infant-mortality rates"? What does this have to do with the "cognitive elite?" This is just "fuck niggers, heil nordic ubermensch" stated in different terms. Both the agendas of that article (racism and classism) can much better be explained by the growing gender divide: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/07/the-end-of-men/8135 http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/07/the-end-... Women are better in the knowledge economy than men, and sex is a much better predictor of murder and imprisonment rates than race.