Scott Siskind believes scientific racism is “probably partially correct” | Hacker News Reader

Scott Siskind believes scientific racism is “probably partially correct”

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10 pointsdamnyou13 comments

Like nearly any wrong idea, scientific racism is probably partially correct.

Siskind is very thoughtful and reads a lot. If, after weighing the evidence, he concluded that some of the white/black difference on IQ tests is probably genetic, that does not make him a bad person or a "white supremacist", unless he has advocated denying civil rights to blacks. He has not done so.

There is much current discussion of how to deal with racial disparities in outcomes in employment and education. What to do about them depends on what factors cause them, which should be studied objectively.

Yes, yes, that's the standard scientific racist line. "Oh we just care about educational outcomes".

IMO, anybody who takes Charles Murray seriously needs to be hit upside the head with a hardcover of Stephen J. Gould's The Mismeasure of Man, which exposed race-and-IQ studies for the racist bullshit they are in the 1970s, years before the publication of The Bell Curve.

It seems that everyone wants to talk about science until it involves race and IQ... why is that?

Its incredibly socially awkward to float the idea that you could judge someone’s intelligence by their physical features and claim some objective validity. This is quite unfortunate because in my opinion IQ is pseudoscience and intelligence is socially constructed, so its not going to be possible to substantiate that view. But since we can’t even propose such an idea for purposes of argument without the danger of social sanction, those ideas are never properly debunked.

Why is it white supremacy and not Japanese supremacy, since Japanese have the highest average IQ in studies I've seen? White countries all lag behind east Asia.

It is really weird that Scott would be called a racial supremacist for exposing data that puts his race squarely in the middle of the pack.

> puts his race squarely in the middle of the pack

Don't Ashkenazi Jews as an ethnic group have the highest average IQ?

> Why is it white supremacy and not Japanese supremacy, since Japanese have the highest average IQ in studies I've seen?

Because its not about the specific issue, its about demonizing people who are willing to consider dangerous ideas.

> racial supremacist for exposing data that puts his race squarely in the middle of the pack.

He’s Jewish but you wouldn’t know that from all the people accusing him of being a nazi.

>... all the people accusing him of being a nazi.

This is no different than schoolyard name calling and is so juvenile. I just can fathom the thought process of someone that takes it to this level. If this is how someone believes they can win an argument, maybe it time for them to do a little self reflection.

it's not really about winning arguments, so much as it is about making it so that reasoned discussion is difficult/impossible. And introspection is probably the only way for them to realize this. Unfortunately intellectual curiosity doesn't seem to be a common characteristic of this crowd.

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