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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   31623 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of January 9, 2023

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I mean, can one respect someone while simultaneously claiming they're duller?

Yes, obviously? Why would someone being duller than me have any sort of connection to my respect for them?

Seems like it would take some real contortions, common-sensically, once you feel someone is not at least your equal, you don't respect them.

I run into people who are not my equal all the time and have no trouble respecting them. Some of them are shorter than me, physically weaker than me, or stupider than me. Everyone runs into people all the time who are not at least their equals, if they function in society. It is essentially a necessary component of a functioning society that people are able to respect others regardless of others being at least their equals or not. Choosing how much you respect someone based on whether they're at least your equal or not isn't common sense in any way.

Sure, you can still feel compassion for them, but it sounds very disempowering to say "whites should be compassionate towards blacks". Arguably, that's the attitude wokes take, but I think that's the reason they often say things that sound awfully racist.

That's the attitude wokes take, yes, and that's indeed a reason they often say things that sound awfully racist. So to avoid that, we can say that "individuals should respect other individuals without care for their intelligence." And then really live it.

One can respect people who are not one's equals yes, but I think this is conditional on one not thinking very often, or at all, of the ways in which one is superior, particularly if intellect is the disparity. Which suggests a way forward here, since it doesn't seem like individualism will be making a comeback: the truth about black IQ can't be in the water supply. It probably can only be safely handled in the ivory tower, though even there there's a vigorous effort to squelch it. But no, it would probably be healthier to come up with a way to process it.

One can respect people who are not one's equals yes, but I think this is conditional on one not thinking very often, or at all, of the ways in which one is superior, particularly if intellect is the disparity.

I don't think this is true at all, and I don't see any reason why it would be true.

Which suggests a way forward here, since it doesn't seem like individualism will be making a comeback: the truth about black IQ can't be in the water supply. It probably can only be safely handled in the ivory tower, though even there there's a vigorous effort to squelch it.

I disagree with both sentences here. Despite all the efforts by extremists on both (all) sides of the political spectrum, individualism is still around, even if weakened, and the idea that truth about IQ could only be handled safely in the ivory tower just seems like baseless scaremongering.

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