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Michael Magoon's avatar

I struggle a bit to come to terms with what I think about this article. It simply has too many jumps in logic for me to support it.

I agree with 90% of your factual claims. I also agree that the Big Lie by the Left on Equality is poisoning American political culture.

I have no idea what a “white interest” is. There is an American interest, yes, but it does not separate by race. As you yourself claim, ending the Big Lie will help all races.

I also do not understand why “Real peace may come only when different groups are free to go their separate ways,” which you seem to take as the big lesson of average racial differences. Understanding genetic differences does not lead to segregation. Tall people and short people intermingle regularly.

The reality is that a substantial percentage of white Americans have below-average intelligence, and a portion of black Americans have above-average intelligence. So what exactly is the “white interest” and the “black interest?”

The fundamental problem with your argument is that you do not push it far enough. The Big Lie is not just about Racial Equality; it is about Equality of Outcome in general.

Equality of Outcome cannot be achieved and serious attempts to do so are horribly destructive of society. The Soviet Union did not need a large black minority to embrace a twisted equalitarian ideology. Nor did China or North Korea or Vietnam or Eastern Europe.

https://frompovertytoprogress.substack.com/p/why-achieving-equality-is-an-impossible

The reality is that the American Big Lie is just another flavor of the Big Lie in other societies. By focusing on race, you actually undermine your own argument.

The reality is that all societies need to overcome the Big Lie of Equality of Outcome and admit the enormous impact that genetic diversity has on outcomes for all individuals (even within whites).

You seem to believe that if we ditch the Big Lie on race equality, then the Big Lie is gone. No, the Left will just shift to a different Big Lie based on another demographic characteristic (gender, ethnicity, religion, etc). That will be no better.

Ironically, it is also far easier to move a typical thinking moderate towards hereditarianism by focusing on inequality between individuals within the same group. It is not hard to convince many people that:

1 Some individuals are more intelligent than others.

2 The difference between those individuals is largely, though not entirely, caused by genes.

3 Those differences lead to substantial differences in life outcomes.

4 It is very hard to change environmental factors in ways that benefit the less intelligent without also helping those with greater intelligence. So those inequalities are extremely difficult to get rid of without causing substantial harm to society in general.

The same argument can be made for other heritable factors that lead to important differences in life outcomes.

5 It is very important to enable those who are most able to contribute to society are put in a place where they can best do so. Only merit-based decision-making in organizations can do this.

https://frompovertytoprogress.substack.com/p/the-merit-of-merit-part-1

6 Those who are less blessed by genetics benefit far more from long-term economic growth caused partly by merit-based decision-making in organizations rather than government programs to redistribute income and wealth.

If the above is widely believed all the arguments of the Left collapse. So what is the point of embracing “race realism?”

https://frompovertytoprogress.substack.com/p/why-progress-and-upward-mobility

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Sixth Finger's avatar

I'm happy to see that Aporia has given Mr Taylor a platform to make his case for race realism - a case that I find quite compelling. Aside from the pragmatic merits of RR, I'm also a proponent simply because in the public sphere I value Truth as the preeminent virtue. Any society that sacrifices it for political ends is ultimately doomed to destruction.

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