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Culture War Roundup for the week of March 20, 2023

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HENRICH's MIRRORS, KENYANS and invincible ignorance

Joseph Henrich, the Harvard professor of evolutionary biology who coined the term WIERD to describe Westerners, and wrote the book on the cultural differences between us and them recently went on Hanania's podcast where he insisted that the Kenyan advantage in running records was... purely a matter of cultural psychology. Having introduced the bizzare lengths to which knowledgeable Academics will go to lie about the most obvious things; and knowing that these taboos have been the sacred in the West for so long, I'd like to propose the possibility that even committed HBDers have only scratched the surface of how far biological differences may go.

With that in mind, let's consider the matter of Kenyan children and mirrors. What matter you may ask? Well, one that might prompt the following, again from Heinrich, et al.

"It is possible but unlikely that these children, up to 72 months of age, did not recognize themselves in the mirror. Although the data presented here do not directly address the question of why they did not show signs of self-oriented behavior, we speculate that these are false negative responses..."

You read that right, standard self recognition testing does not detect self recognition in Kenyan children, a whole three years after it does so in European toddlers, and who knows how much longer.

https://www2.psych.ubc.ca/~henrich/pdfs/Journal%20of%20Cross-Cultural%20Psychology-2010-Broesch-%20Cultural%20Variations%20in%20Children's%20Mirror%20Self-Recognition.pdf

Now, you'll have noticed that a 5 years of age, even dumb children can be asked questions. Yet for some reason, the study in question shows no sign that these children were ever asked anything about what they saw. In fact the study makers decided to go for another round elsewhere, and leave it at that. Thousands of psychologists are aware of this study, it was even published in Scientific American, and yet no one has publically tried to run it again. If there is even the slightest possibility that this means what It might mean, we are talking about the most important replication attempt in modern history, and it's not even close.

If put on tape, this is the final shot in the HBD wars, and one which even the normiest normie can understand. Any takers? My own prediction is 20% non-recognition, 30% fraud, 20% innate psychological differences in responding to mirrors, and 30% abusive parenting.

Kenyan advantage in running records was... purely a matter of cultural psychology

Just another instance of what I call "propaganda for the future". There just exists too much scientific evidence right now explaining why certain groups are better at certain physical things, it's currently quite inconvenient for those who claim those differences don't apply above the neck when the below-neck differences are cited as a prior.

However, if enough "scientists" assert otherwise, it's only a matter of time before below-the-neck differences are memory-holed as well and you are a racist lunatic for looking at papers about why a certain subset of Kenyans whose ancestors lived in high-altitude areas are better long-distance runners.

He is laying the groundwork for the gaslighting that is about to come. This is independent of the sincerity of his beliefs or intentions.

Progressives have already gotchu, fam. Culture-based explanations to explain differences in athletic performance have been around for decades.

If blacks are disproportionately represented in the NFL and NBA, it’s due to systematic racism that prevents them from becoming doctors and engineers, thus leaving them with no choice but to pursue avenues like football and basketball. Certainly not related to them, on average, having higher leg-to-torso ratios or scoring higher on the Ape Index*, allowing them to run faster and reach farther. The NFL and NBA being disproportionately black is just further evidence that we need to transfer more wealth to and dedicate more opportunities and resources to blacks. However, if head coaches are disproportionately white compared to the players, it’s also due to systematic racism and A Problem that we need to address with affirmative action.

By keeping biological explanations for differences in athletic performance outisde of the Overton window, blank slatists can better keep the more controversial biological explanations for cognitive performance outside of the Overton window as well. Sailer labeled this type of tactic Outpost and Heartland, as a sister-concept to Motte and Bailey. Not only does evolution conveniently stop at the neck, it conveniently stops right below the skin. If some group of Kenyans are better at long distance running, it must be due to a legacy of colonization or something somehow.

The gaslighting will continue until morale improves.

*Wingspan to height ratio, of course. What did you think I meant?