Math, like science, is no friend to racists. Let's do a thread on scientific racism, math, and the claims they downplay in public.
The HBD'ers (Human Biodiversity, a.k.a scientific racists) claim that the average Nigerian IQ is 69. That says >50% of Nigerians are intellectually disabled. That's ridiculous, but let's keep going.
Let's stick with Nigerians, but note that the estimates from Richard Lynn (cited all over by HBD'ers) says all of Africa is around IQ 70.
The average "white" American IQ according to the HBD guys is 100.
While claiming Africans have average IQ of 70 and "white" people of 100, the politically savvy scientific racist will say "but there's massive overlap and this says nothing about individuals".
Hmm, math doesn't work that way...
Math says if HBD'ers accept their beliefs, then only 2.3% of Nigerians are as smart as *the average* white person, and the average African person is less intelligent than 98% of "white" people. Tell me again how this isn't making broad claims about "groups"?
Look at that again. According to scientific racists there is only a small overlap between Africans and "white" people on intelligence, and what they don't say loud is they think only the smartest "black people" even compare to the least smart "white people", with exceptions...
In fact, if you believe HBD math, you'd be illogical *not* to be racist in practice. If you meet a random white person and a random Nigerian, approx. 93% you'd have to assume the white person is smarter.
They will defend that view, but don't want you looking into the math.
Why do this thread? Many who think HBD'ers just hold somewhat heterodox views rarely dig into their claims.
Scientific racists will frame things in a politically correct way. They ask you to trust your intuitions. But I ask you to confront those intuitions with math.
Math isn't racist, but scientific racists sure are. They'll often try to back their racist ideas with math. I doubt the civil racists will like when you use math to inspect what their beliefs say though.
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Rorschach Tweet - tweets containing enough social cues to be read 100% accurately by groups A and B, with both groups having violently conflicting reads.
A Rorschach Tweet example.
X: "fjlsuk adrhl chdet jdtyuf."
Group A: "Yeah, dogs are totally cute!"
Group B: "This monster wants to kill cats!"
I have felt frustrated seeing tweets that make sense to me, and others also think it reasonable.
Then, I see others without those cues who have reads that I think are ridiculous. But are their reads really invalid?
I have zero moral high ground on this. I've been on both sides.
One of the challenges of "criticizing your own side" when they go against your stated principles is it invites others to jump in and attempt to discredit the entire set of principles.
My own principles require that I speak out when my friends violate those principles. I ask and hope for the same from those on "the other side". Your principles should come first and foremost.
So, let's create positive space for that.
I should be able to address people who are fighting racism when they do so in a way I don't think is healthy, without having people seeing it as an opportunity to attack the entire anti-racism project itself.
People really think "why isn't transracialism okay?" is a gotcha in their argument for race as a biological reality, but all they do is display their misunderstanding of social constructs.
Also, people have quite often chosen their "race". So-called passing is a useful tradition in American history, where people who were black legally (!) said they were white to get access to certain things. As long as they were believed, they were white.
If talking about white privilege is "woke" or "critical race theory", then those camps already represent the majority of Americans.
59% think being white helps one's ability to get ahead.
Pew asked a similar question in 2017, and a majority of Americans acknowledged white privilege then as well.
If the right and their allies continue to designate the belief in things like "white privilege" and "systemic racism" as woke or critical race theory, they'll continue to separate themselves from the American majority.
43% of progressives and 25% of conservatives say the other side has a fundamentally evil moral foundation.
These poll results really surprised and saddened me and each for different reasons.
I was talking with @freespe4ker and he said many progressives think conservatives have an evil foundation. I didn't assume that was the case. He estimated the number would be around 30%.
I was very wrong.
For progressives, selfish and mean were things I expected to be said about cons. I didn't expect evil, not at that rate.
On the conservative side, I hesitated before posting it, because I thought cons would see progressives as naive or overbearing, I didn't expect evil.