Sunday, August 31, 2014

Catching Flak: Disjointed Ruminations of a Web Critter

A Brass Pole in Bangkok cover

This ill-tempered eructation is probably in bad taste. My childhood made me do it.Should you want to earn a doctorate in aberrant psychology, you might instead try writing a column on the web, at least if you write about third-rail subjects. The response you receive from readers will be a cross between Guy Fawkes Night and a home for rabid dogs.

The subjects engendering the sharpest ire are race, IQ, and evolution. I could write that six-year-old girls should be taught to engage in anal sex with HIV-positive feral hogs, and the response would be mildly against, almost as an afterthought. “Probably not a really great idea, Fred. Maybe we ought to think it over.”

But IQ—hoo-boy. Say that Jews are way smarter than ordinary whites (which the evidence certainly suggests) or that East Asians represent an evolutionary advance over Caucasians in intelligence (even though everything from test scores to brain size suggests as much) or especially that Latin Americans may not be stupid as hoped, and the squalling would take paint off a wall. Do not ever suggest that IQ may not be an accurate measure of genetically determined intelligence unless you are ready to go into hiding.

2 comments:

  1. "Say that Jews are way smarter than ordinary whites (which the evidence certainly suggests) or that East Asians represent an evolutionary advance over Caucasians in intelligence (even though everything from test scores to brain size suggests as much) or especially that Latin Americans may not be stupid as hoped, and the squalling would take paint off a wall."

    Sorry Fred but the research and study that indictates Jews and Asians are smarter than Caucasians is the EXACT same research and study that shows Latin Americans are NOT as bright. Picking and choosing what research to use it a time honored journalistic practice but that statement makes you look basically incompetent.

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    Replies
    1. shows Latin Americans are NOT as bright.

      I believe he alluded to that below.

      Latin Americans may not be stupid as hoped

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