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Culture War Roundup for the week of April 14, 2025

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unless Musk being a jerk is genetic, his genome does not appear to have any big downsides

The HBD position, supported by his father (and possibly one of his brothers - all I know about Kimbal Musk is that he and Elon got into literal fistfights over disagreements at X) being a jerk, is that Musk being a jerk is genetic.

I think it's genetic.

I don't think HBDers have a set position on that one. A lot of HBDers I've talked to online tend towards a perspective that views intelligence and trivial phenotypic traits as heritable, but stops short at personality. You see this discussed a lot with respect to Jews.

That makes me think HBDers aren't better informed about behavioral genetics than their scientific critics.

(For anyone interested in behavioral genetics, Kathryn Paige-Harden's - or whatever the correct spelling of her name is - "The Genetic Lottery: [Something Something Social Justice]" is good, and it lives up to its subtitle, i.e., she addresses the implications, she just has an opposing point of view to many HBDers. No comment on my own point of view.)