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Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 16, 2023

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Consider the omnigenic model. Simple thing like 'height' have tiny contributions to heritability from thousands of genes. The causes of being a 'liberal' are manyfold, and depend in myriad ways on your environment - which in turn are caused by genetic traits! The (many) intelligence-associated will mean you're more likely to get educated, maybe making you more liberal? Would that make you more liberal 200 years ago? That's one of a many possible contributors. So, what even is a 'liberal gene'? "Liberalism genes" will mostly go through environmentally contingent circuitous pathways from something like 'slightly more athletic' or 'slightly more prone to random injury' to '.01% more likely to become democrat', as opposed to anything directly political.

Also, all genes depend on environment too. Imagine a plant with space that can be occupied by one of three genes, Wet, Dry, or Neutral. If it has a Wet gene and is planted in a swamp, it grows 10 centimetres taller than a plant with Neutral, but if it’s planted in a desert it grows 10 centimetres shorter than neutral. And vice versa for Dry gene.

So are what will grow taller, a plant with Wet or Dry? It depends entirely on environment. It can very well be the same with a “liberal” gene- maybe it makes you more liberal than average in one environment, but more conservative than average in another.