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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   34940 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of January 30, 2023

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I wouldn't even call it "mind-killing", because of the impressive mental gymnastics required to avoid ever even considering the idea that there could be meaningful group differences. The bizarre hypotheses, type errors, or misdirections that my friends and colleagues come up with when I ask if there is even in principle a possible difference in group averages is constant source of surprising creativity in my life.

On the contrary, I would say that the extent of these gymnastics is strong evidence of mind-killing. After all, they already know what the cause is, they simply need to get there, whatever convoluted reasoning it takes.

The fact that the NYT article even mentions the possibility (to immediately dismiss it) already puts it in the top tier of clear thinking on the issue in my experience.

Yet the question is whether it is genuinely considered, or just 'our enemies would say it, so we have to address it.' Given the poor reasoning to dismiss it, I would argue the latter.

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