Comment by AuryGlenz
7 hours ago
I'm sorry, but that sort of thinking just doesn't pass the smell test.
We can easily identify the geographic locations of people's ancestors by looking at them. That means that we evolved quite a few exterior physical traits that are easily grouped and identifiable. Do you really think our brain, which is our most important survival trait, was immune to evolution? That people that moved to specific regions didn't have had selective pressures of some kind on the way we think?
Where this can go awry are the people that learn about this and then think that it's reason to discriminate against individuals or groups - of course it isn't. As you said, genetic diversity within groups is large. And even something like IQ certainly doesn't sum up the worth of someone, or even their brain.
The whole point of what I posted though was just to point out the fact that Wikipedia is, in fact, biased in what's put on there. It wasn't that long ago that it was perfectly OK as an academic to study the racial differences in IQ. Now? Good luck. Wikipedia reflects that.
What? No you can't.
And: it remains perfectly OK to study racial differences in IQ. It's an actively studied topic. In fact, it's studied by at least three major scientific fields (quantitative psychology, behavioral genetics, and molecular genetics). The idea that you can't is a cringe online racist canard borne out of the fact that the studies aren't coming out the way they want them to.
Does it now? Noah Carl would disagree. He was a researcher at Cambridge University that was dismissed after an open letter signed by over 1,400 academics and students accusing him of "racist pseudoscience" for merely arguing that race-IQ research should not be off-limits.
James Flynn (of the Flynn effect) has also publicly stated that grants for research clarifying genetic vs. environmental causes of IQ gaps weren't approved because of university fears of public furor.
You're trying to axiomatically win an argument that is already settled empirically. It won't work. You can just read the papers. My point being: the papers exist, and more are published every year. Once you acknowledge that, your argument is dead. Literally no matter what the papers say. Don't make dumb arguments.
Noah Carl has a sociology doctorate. He doesn't work in the fields that study this; he just tries to launder his way into them.
Flynn is, famously, a race/IQ skeptic.
https://medium.com/@racescienceopenletter/open-letter-no-to-...
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/may/01/cambridge-...
> for merely arguing that race-IQ research should not be off-limits.
Help me connect the dots here.