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Culture War Roundup for the week of April 24, 2023

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We all agree (you, FC, dase, nybbler and I) that HBD is true. ( @HlynkaCG has chosen delusion, special category).

We disagree on what to do with this knowledge. The latter group support disseminating it/telling the truth, while you and FC, from what I can tell based on your behaviour, have adopted a ‚don‘t tell‘ policy. This manifests in a stream of arguments on why dissemination is impossible/undesirable and attacks on the moral character of ‚HBD-ers‘, etc.

Consider the possibility that you have allowed your disgruntlement to force upon you an interpretation that isn't actually present if you read what I (and others) have actually said. Though I cannot speak for FC.

while you and FC, from what I can tell based on your behaviour, have adopted a ‚don‘t tell‘ policy.

My policy is not "don't tell" though certainly I don't go around in real life or blasting on Twitter the Good Word of HBD. I have never advocated that we should all politely pretend to believe pretty lies.

This manifests in a stream of arguments

Where do you see a "stream of arguments" ? The once or twice it's come up before? I respond to a post and it's "a stream of arguments," I might not respond to every single post and you accuse me of "refusing to answer." Come on, dude.

on why dissemination is impossible/undesirable

I don't think it's impossible - just difficult. Undesirable? Not really, I am always in favor of the truth being known. But I don't know how we get to a society that peacefully adjusts to a reality like that (if it is reality). Acknowledging a problem is not saying "Therefore we should ignore it and pretend." That is a projection on your part.

and attacks on the moral character of ‚HBD-ers‘, etc.

I only attack the moral character of the folks who use HBD as a justification for their racial animosity. I do think actual racial prejudice (not believing that HBD is true, but prejudging or mistreating an individual based on his race) is immoral. Be salty about that if you like.

Let‘s get the slapfighty parts out of the way first: I am neither „disgruntled“ nor „salty“, just disappointed. And ‚projection‘ is overused at the best of times, the ‚I know you are, but what am I‘ of the debating world, but your use here doesn‘t even make sense. What opinions do I hold, that I project onto you? An ambivalence towards the truth? Where? I do not think people are incapable of processing the truth.

Onto your ‚stream of arguments‘ where you, imo, „align yourself with liars‘:

  • presenting HBD as pseudo-scientific

  • questioning why anyone would wish to proclaim the truth, including their motives, preferred policies, associates and intellectual forefathers

  • defending HBD censorship (on the sub that one time)

  • claiming that there is ‚no easy way forward‘ and that expecting people to accept the truth is ‚unrealistic‘

Telling the truth is the easy way forward. You ostensibly can‘t go forward, you‘re stuck in place, refusing to answer or move. From a distance, you do move somewhat. Backwards.

I suspect we are at the point where continuing to be very precise and specific and detailed in what I do and do not think will continue to be fruitless, because you are already at the point of making things up about what I do and do not think, but I will give it one more go:

presenting HBD as pseudo-scientific

Do you deny that it's abused in a pseudo-scientific way? That doesn't mean there is no legitimate science behind it, but the same applies to things like AI and transgenderism and gun control - there is a lot of science and a lot of pseudo-scientific hot takes based on half-understood kernels of fact.

questioning why anyone would wish to proclaim the truth, including their motives, preferred policies, associates and intellectual forefathers

I didn't do this.

I think a lot of HBDers lack humility or self-awareness: they know blacks have lower IQs on average and think they can state with certainty (though they don't actually understand what science there is any better than the average I Fucking Love Science person understands Newtonian physics) that this is a complete explanation for black poverty, black criminality rates, black educational outcomes, etc. It is what it is, it's biological, we should just "recognize reality" and wash our hands of it.

I do not think everyone who wants to "proclaim the truth" is a white nationalist, which is the reductionist claim you seem to be driving at. I do think HBD is a very convenient rhetorical tool that white nationalists are happy to use.

defending HBD censorship (on the sub that one time)

If any one topic was becoming insanely annoying and taking over every thread for weeks on end, I'd probably be provisionally in favor of a moratorium on it again.

Get over it.

claiming that there is ‚no easy way forward‘ and that expecting people to accept the truth is ‚unrealistic‘

Correct, I do not think there is an easy way forward, and I do think it's unrealistic to think most people today will accept that some races are biologically inferior. I think the idea of racial equality in the innate, born sense and blank slateism has the power of religious conviction for most of liberal Western society, and thinking that we should just "proclaim the truth" until they believe it sounds like tilting at windmills to me. Not that I don't respect a good windmill tilt, but even if you are Galileo, recognize that you are Galileo. (And yes, I know the Galileo story itself is more complicated, work with me here.) And also, I am not convinced that the HBDers, especially the "Hard HBDers," actually have rock-solid science on their side, whereas you apparently think this is unambiguously the side of truth and virtue.

That doesn't mean there is no path towards accepting unpleasant truths, but I stand by my position that I'm recognizing a bitter pill, not pretending it doesn't exist.

Do you deny that it's abused in a pseudo-scientific way?

No, of course it's abused, like every true thing. Of course people who believe it will pretend to know and understand more than they really do. Something being abused and ‚I love science“-ed does not make it pseudo-scientific.

I do think HBD is a very convenient rhetorical tool that white nationalists are happy to use.

By your own admission it is true, so convenience is neither here nor there. How convenient for nazis that physics allowed them to build rockets.

If any one topic was becoming insanely annoying and taking over every thread for weeks on end, I'd probably be provisionally in favor of a moratorium on it again.

Get over it.

I don‘t get over censorship of the truth. I honestly don‘t know why you feel I misrepresented you, we seem to be in perfect agreement on what your positions are.

you apparently think this is unambiguously the side of truth and virtue.

You already agreed it is the side of truth. Is there a gap between the side of truth, and the side of virtue ?