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An awful lot of people believe that low intelligence logically implies moral inferiority. That if you are unintelligent, you are a bad person. It is a moral failing to not be smarter.
Progressives seem to believe this more strongly than conservatives, and use it as one of their primary attacks against the right. If you take "stupid = bad" as an axiom, then HBD forces you to conclude that less intelligent races are bad, and progressives who don't even question the "stupid = bad" axiom automatically equate HBD with "some races are inferior". But because the "stupid = bad" axiom is unstated, and probably not consciously endorsed, they can't quite articulate this chain of reasoning. The embarrassment that would come if it were incontrovertibly proven that some races were inferior on a genetic level is that it would be revealed that they are bigots. They have always been bigots against unintelligent people, but by restricting their bigotry to unintelligent white people, manage to convince themselves that that doesn't count. But if colored people are even less intelligent, and it wasn't society's fault it was inherent to the individuals themselves and their genes, then the progressives would either have to admit to being racist, or change their worldview to account for good but unintelligent people. Who, in my opinion, exist in multitudes. I've met quite a few. But a lot of people aren't ready to admit that.
This matches my pet theory exactly. Something I've noticed is that people who strongly hold the "stupid = bad" axiom (though I might characterize it more as the equivalent "intelligent = virtuous" axiom) often tend to be quite intelligent themselves and also enjoying the fruits of their intelligence. E.g. they make a lot of money in white collar work that they got through excelling at school, and they also have little trouble with the law or finances due to being pretty good about planning their behavior. It's led me to believe that much of this belief in this axiom is tied up with one's ego, that believing in the virtuousness of intelligence rather than the dumb luck of it allows one to more easily justify the cosmic rightness of one's good lot in life. And that deep belief that the reason one lives a better life than others is because one earned it by being more virtuous is a hard thing to let go of, especially if your worldview also posits that the luck of birth having any impact on one's lot in life relative to others is wrong and ought to be destroyed wherever possible.
I've said similar things myself on this topic previously. Everyone is biased to think that their own attributes are better and more valuable than other peoples'. I've struggled this myself, and do still retain some subconscious sense of superiority for my own intelligence. But philosophically I reject the premise on a conscious level, and I think that has helped keep my ego in check somewhat, though definitely not entirely.
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