There might be some category of "aggression", or even something like "psychopathy", that is heritable and that correlates with criminal convictions. Or it could be some totally other thing, I don't know.
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Replying to @circusarmy @slatestarcodex
On reflection - I can't remember the number of times I've looked at a study and thought "well, that seems reasonable" and then looked at another study and thought "ah, the first was obviously ridiculous". There's not a lot of point in me trying to assess these.
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Replying to @circusarmy @slatestarcodex
The whole mode of debate where you dump a study into the conversation and say "answer this, fool!" is kind of a dead end. I have no way of knowing if it's bullshit or not and no way to move the conversation forward without assessing it.
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Replying to @circusarmy @slatestarcodex
Now that I'm thinking about it - the whole genetic-determinism argument has kind of a motte-and-bailey thing going on.
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Replying to @circusarmy @slatestarcodex
When you're pressed you can say you're just arguing that some human qualities are moderately hereditable. Everyone agrees with that. But when you're not under attack you can go back to believing that the lower classes are genetically inferior, or other horrible thing
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Replying to @circusarmy @slatestarcodex
(i don't actually know what you really believe, i'm just trying to understand why this conversation takes the path it does and what can be done about it)
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Replying to @circusarmy @slatestarcodex
I always used to wonder why people got so upset about the concept of "privilege" and the answer was - they don't trust it. You can say it's harmless but you might be lying to cover up for some far more extreme position.
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Replying to @circusarmy @slatestarcodex
This is probably what happens whenever you start talking about the genetic basis of crime. The initial statement might be relatively benign, but your audience has heard this kind of thing before and thinks it'll probably turn out to be about eugenics
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Replying to @circusarmy @slatestarcodex
You wouldn't necessarily notice this, and it would seem to you like people were just being incredibly fucking stupid - just as it always seemed to me that people complaining about privilege were being fucking stupid
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Replying to @circusarmy @slatestarcodex
Also, to clarify - I'm not saying that your studies are without value. I'm saying that they're very hard to effectively respond to in the context of an informal discussion. To respond to them in a meaningful way I'd have to write a paper of my own.
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More to the point, I think lots of people motte-and-bailey between "Nothing is heritable" and "Well, obviously everyone believes things are somewhat heritable, but I worry you said that in kind of a fascist way". You very clearly started with former and switched to latter.
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