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practical_romantic  2yr ago (text post)   3912 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 23, 2022

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I’m not all the way through, but is this from the intro? A bit uncharitable to suggest that wasn’t just his enthusiastic assertion of non-Europeans being as smart as Europeans.

He said:

He and I both knew perfectly well that New Guineans are on the average at least as smart as Europeans. [...]

In fact, as I shall explain in a moment, modern "Stone Age" peoples are on the average probably more intelligent, not less intelligent, than industrialized peoples. [...]

That is, in mental ability New Guineans are probably genetically superior to Westerners, and they surely are superior in escaping the devastating developmental disadvantages under which most children in industrialized societies now grow up.

It is not uncharitable to take people at their word.

He loses all credibility from the get-go.

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