Having read Riskin on science in NYRB before, I’m not at all surprised that this latest piece is filled with strawman arguments like this: geneticists supposedly aim ‘to demonstrate an innate hierarchy of intelligence.’

nybooks.com/articles/2022/… This claim mischaracterizes geneticists’ study of variation in traits as a biological essentialist effort to establish some ‘innate hierarchy.’ That’s not only a serious distortion of Harden’s book, but of genetics studies of cognitive traits more generally.

A mini-rant on science and current politics:

It's time to quit asking Kirsten Gillibrand about Al Franken and start asking her about her work with Phillip Morris during the most consequential period of litigation against tobacco companies. Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death worldwide. 16 million Americans are living with a smoking-caused disease. Smoking kills nearly half a million Americans per year, and 7 million annually worldwide

who.int/news-room/fact…
cdc.gov/tobacco/data_s…