Friends, I unequivocally recommend:
Mike the Mad Biologist's blog for bookmarking. He reliably rips right-wingnuts a new one, especially those of an anti-science, anti-rational bent - i.e. just about all of them!
In a
recent post, he tears into the
genetic conservatism (his phrase) of Charles Murray (author of
The Bell Curve) and others of his ilk.
What I find obnoxious whenever I listen to or read Murray and his genetic deterministic ilk is the implicit assumption that, you, Dear Reader or Listener, are part of the genetic overclass; it's those other people, not in attendance, who are the lumpen üntermenschen. Not only is this one of the oldest rhetorical cons going, it's incredibly arrogant.
Which, for me, inevitably raises a question that mysteriously is never asked:
What is the genetic heritability of being an asshole?
He goes on to define some various kinds of
assholery (You'll recognize some people you know!) and then to speculate:
Maybe the 'greed is good' crowd is genetically determined. Perhaps some people are just born arrogant and obnoxious, or callous toward the suffering of others. Maybe they just can't help themselves. But I think, perhaps, with early intervention, Charles Murray might not have become an asshole.
Of course, I'm a squishy liberal, so I'm probably wrong, and maybe Murray was born an asshole.
Also, check out:
Framing the Not-So-Obvious Answer, Stimulus, Theopolitical Conservatism and the Power of Empowered Stupidity. Here he explores the 'reasoning' behind the out-of-all-proportion power given to Blue Dog Dems and the Theocratic right.
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