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Culture War Roundup for the week of January 9, 2023

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Smart people can be cracked out murderers. It's less likely, but entirely possible. More realistically, smart people can have high paying jobs and obey the law and still do unethical things that cause harm to others in a less traceable way, but often with much greater effects due to their increased influence. Just because it's hard to create and enforce laws that measure their misdeeds and punish them appropriately (which is especially hard because most politicians are this kind of person) does not make them good or valuable people, even if some people treat them as if they are.

Of course if you choose the nicest most benevolent person in the smart people group and compare them to the worst person in the dumb people group then you'll conclude the smart people have more value. And even if you look at the nicest most benevolent person in each group and compare them you'll conclude the smart people have more value because they have more power and influence with which to do good things. But if you look at the worst and scummiest people in each group you'll conclude the opposite because the smart person has more power and influence with which to do evil things. No low IQ murderer will ever come close to doing as much evil as Hitler or Stalin, who were highly intelligent people. Intelligence gives more potential, but this potential can be used for good or evil, and it's the person's moral character and personality that determines what they'll use it for, and thus their net moral value.