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Culture War Roundup for the week of September 5, 2022

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Could you tell me what is HBD?

Thank you for the encouragement.

HBD is an acronym for 'Human biodiversity'.

It's the opposite of the blank slate theory. Proponents of HBD argue that the intelligence, personality, temperament, and a lot of other psychological/psychometric factors are genetically determined/influenced. Believing this leads you to a lot of inferences/conclusions that are very controversial to say out loud in polite society.

Of yeah I am a firm believer of human biodiversity.

The thing is that society is fully functional only at the level where it has evened out its diversity levels. We managed to do that at the national level then it stopped. One day we achieve enough intermixing at the continental level and it no longer matters again.

The group expands either by further intermixing of larger and larger groups or in a competitive state some groups simply dying out over time.

Believing this leads you to a lot of inferences/conclusions that are very controversial to say out loud in polite society.

It's only controversial as long as people do not understand that working out will make anybody seem more attractive and attractive people have the highest reproductive success rate.

It's only controversial as long as people do not understand that working out will make anybody seem more attractive and attractive people have the highest reproductive success rate.

Cognitive dissonance is a hell of a drug.

You might say that anyone who understands; genetic fitness (and markers for it like good looks), the basic mechanics of the biological evolutionary process, and selection effects; can connect the dots and reach a position where that more or less conforms to HBD.

But you'd be surprised. Just look at how much opposition there is to intelligence research because the research shows that some groups of people score lower on iq tests on average. Saying that out loud practically gets you and your bloodline cancelled.

I mean being a genius isn't even all that great. Being smart does not guarantee social success, nor does it guarantee the best income. If you wanted to be rich you would be a businessman. If you wanted to maximize reproductive success you would keep working out. I think one of the primary issues is that on the functional society level we fail to realize that there are multiple solutions and values beyond intelligence. I am pretty sure I can make myself sound smarter than almost everyone I know, but my reproductive success is the lowest nonetheless. You gotta accept the markers then look at where you are deficient and what to do about it.

I mean being a genius isn't even all that great. Being smart does not guarantee social success, nor does it guarantee the best income. If you wanted to be rich you would be a businessman.

Doesn't guarantee (100%) != 0% correlation. And IQ does explain up to 30% of variance in income level, which is the most of anything else. So it is quite significant if you are into understanding and modelling certain demographic or individual trends.

True true, I am just saying it is not the only meaningful variable.