Jeff Swann on Nostr: I know multiple people who are black (from the US south, from the Caribbean, from ...

I know multiple people who are black (from the US south, from the Caribbean, from African nations), I know Persians, and I know Arabs who are all almost certainly smarter than you are. I think human beings all have brains that are much larger than we need to survive. The main problem is that most are running the wrong software.

Two of the smartest people in the world are Marilyn vos Savant & Christopher Langan. Marilyn is fairly libertarian, Langan is a crazy authoritarian. Marilyn was raised in a household with hard working parents who gave her a great deal of freedom, Langan was raised by abusive acholholics.

None of that is to suggest that genetics plays no role, but the brain behaves like a muscle. People become stupid to the degree that they refuse to think. I know people who were less intellignet in school who are smarter now & I know people who were very intelligent growing up and who, for whatever reason, seem to have just stopped learning & thinking in a serious way.

If you are raised in a family where self control & rational thought are scarce then brain building is much harder. Similarly if you are raised in a family that eats garbage then you are much more likely to end up with diabetes.

And this is not a baseless aversion to racism. I think it is smart to be extra cautious when dealing with Haitians, Indians, Somalis, and any purple haired or septum pierced person too. But I also know exceptions to at least a couple of those. I am sure there are other races or nationalities or fashion signals that it might be smart to be cautious of too. My position is a recognition that collectivist assumptions, & particularly fixed genetic arguments, are often more blinding & destructive to understanding than any sort of irrational religious belief ever could be.

Those who think they have found an answer in genetics tend to deal with people in predetermined ways. This prevents connections that might challenge said assumtions & weaponizes confirmation bias against all other explanations. I do not think there is much good that can come from collectivist thinking in any form. It all generally leads to bullshit & bad outcomes.