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1) Lots of scientists in my feed saying “about time’’ with regard to Cold Spring Harbor Lab’s severing of final ties to Jim Watson. But also lots of people saying Watson is being persecuted for unpopular scientific opinions “just like Galileo.’’ nytimes.com/2019/01/11/sci…
2) Here’s a screenshot so you get the idea. 
3) In my previous reporting on the mischaracterization of genetic research to rationalize white supremacy, I found a large, third category of people -- non-scientists curious about race, ancestry and genes -- were often confused & misled by such messages. nytimes.com/2018/10/18/ins…
4) So I’m just going to state a few things that might seem painfully obvious. (As I’ve said previously, I really wish scientists would do that more).
5) Galileo based his belief that the Earth revolves around the sun on evidence about the movement of Jupiter’s moons and the phases of Venus. Watson’s belief that the average IQ difference between blacks and whites is genetic is not based on evidence, because none now exists.
6) Galileo was persecuted for speaking truth (heliocentric view of solar system) to power (Catholic Church). Watson was stripped of titles for statements that effectively bolster the claim to unequal political and economic power for the group that already holds it.
7) The people saying Watson is a thought-police victim say: “You say there's no evidence. But the evidence of absence doesn't mean the absence of evidence. He has a right to speculate!'' .
8) Despite the vast, observable environmental differences (schools, wealth, racism) black & white Americans face, there's no shortage of people conjuring a genetic basis for IQ differences. The problem w/Watson is he's a science icon and people take his speculation seriously.
9) Here is a thread about a new paper in which four population geneticists explain why the field’s tools cannot now reliably isolate the genetic component of differences in complex traits between genetic ancestry groups.
10) And here’s a thread where @DocEdge85, an author of that paper, explains what is so troubling about the tenor of many of these race/genes/IQ conversations. I wish everyone on the internet would read it. At least read from #18 on.
11) In case you don’t read it though, I’m going to quote it here: “It is *not* just talking science. It is a conversation that is continuous w/ centuries of racism….MORE
12) “It is taking a trait that people tie to achievement and (wrongly) tie to intrinsic human value, and asking whether certain (oppressed) groups might have less of it. The Fixated ask, "Why is this offensive? Isn't this just science? MORE
13) “Well imagine I were to dump a bucket filled with centuries of human shit on your head, and then I started writing papers speculating that you are genetically predisposed to smell like shit. Wouldn't you be offended? MORE
14) “It's offensive because these lines of speculation downplay the treatment of people, both historical and continuing. That doesn't mean that one can't talk about it or that anyone is saying "evolution stops at the neck." It just means that you have to acknowledge history.''
15) One last screenshot - the quote is what Galileo is said to have murmured as he rose from kneeling before his inquisitors, having been forced to recant or face torture.
