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Notes -
It always has been. I realize you are mostly referring to racial HBD theories, but an HBD regime would equally be earthshaking for the poor, the working class, the failures more broadly. The majority of people in America who have reason to dread an HBD regime are white, because the majority of Americans are white.
If genetic talent will out, as the study purports to show, then if your family is still in the mud they probably deserve it, right? Affirmative action might in a few cases explain why someone is an engineer instead of a doctor, it never explains why someone is working retail instead of getting a real degree.
Alternatively, your riches are not because of hard work or dedication but simply because you won a random genetic lottery... so why do you deserve all these good things in life due to blind luck? It's a case that socialists can make just as well.
Wealth sure, status no. Beyond a bare minimus of comfortable survival, redistribution rhetoric has never taken the form of "Yes the ruling class is smarter, stronger, harder working, better looking, but still!"
Humans intuitively think smarter better humans deserve more reward.
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