by Milo Yiannopoulos -- 19 May 201419 May 2014 1216 -- (Milo Yiannopoulos is the former Editor-in-Chief of the Kernel Magazine) ___ Most scientists will tell you that race has no biological basisit is, in academic-speak, a social construct. But a new book by distinguished journalist Nicholas Wade challenges that assumption, concluding that race is real and human social behaviour is subject to natural selection just like everything else. As the New York Review of Books put it, in its coverage of Wades A Troublesome Inheritance: Genes, Race and Human History, there is now a statistical sense in which races are real. Scientists can tell, based on genetic variance, which continent a DNA sample comes from. That might not sound revolutionary to you, but its only recently that weve had the computer processing power to do it. Wade doesnt shy away from the disquieting implications of his theories: our genes, he says, could explain why some countries are wealthy while others languish in penury. In fact, the more we discover about ourselves from genomics, the more it becomes apparent that science and ideology are on a collision course. Why? Because its totally unacceptable to say in public these days that different races might have different behavioural characteristics, and that those characteristics might be genetically determined even though thats the way the science seems to be pointing. To be fair, its easy to understand why researchers get cagey. The all-consuming cult of equality struggles with any suggestion that social behaviours might be genetically determined: that habits and predilections might have diverged along with skin colour. No scientist wants to be responsible for research that justifies crude observations about white sexual mores or black dietary preferences. Its one thing to say that tribal cultures have smaller trust circles; quite another to say that science can explain why black people smoke menthol cigarettes, or why Asians are good at maths. (Or, for that matter, why people with ginger hair are less sexually attractive.) ___ Most common sense people already know this. Thus we repeat jokes pertaining to a certain race of people to the angst of the speech police. They call us racists. We also know some races tend to be better athletes to the angst of the liberals. They call us racists. We know some races excel in school while others fail, to the angst of the liberal do-gooders. They call us racists for mentioning that fact. We recognize some races are lazy while others are industrious, upsetting the liberals. So, they call us racists. We say some people are turned off by some race's physical characteristics, upsetting the "we're all the same" crowd loons. We're call racists. There are people on this forum who will jump on the trendy band wagon and call others racists just because we dare mention something about a race of people we don't like. The PC sheep call us racists. To all the people who know race can make a difference, I say, ain't common sense and critical observation a wonderful trait to have
What a Crackpot. Read and learn: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guns,_Germs,_and_Steel or watch: http://www.pbs.org/gunsgermssteel/show/index.html
Where does a "distinguished journalist" get the credentials to determine any social or genetic claim! Beside - he's an outright crackpot!!!
Well first off, no one thing determines human behaviour. How we act is influenced by countless different things to widely varying degrees. Secondly, race is certainly a social construct, and one based on appearance and political geography rather than actual genetic identification (racial groupings being pretty much set in stone long before the idea of genetics being properly understood). Genetics are obviously a significant factor in our individual behaviour and there are clearly genetic trends within interrelated groups but individual genetic make-up is also greatly variable and there is an ever increasing mixing of pretty much all of the commonly identified racial groups across the world, especially when talking about different racial groups living in a single place. The other problem here of course is that identification of racial differences, while not intrinsically racist, is almost always promoted for racist purposes, identifying exclusively negative characteristics in specific groups with the aim of deriding and disadvantaging all members of that defined group. There are clearly significant differences between peoples originating from North, West and East Africa yet they’re typically lumped together as a “black” racial grouping. You also have mixed-race individuals who (in the USA and Europe at least) are typically associated with a single racial group (based on appearance) and presumed to have only the characteristics of that group. Genetics is certainly key here but race is (at least now) far too simplistic to honestly assess it.
A rare point of agreement. This book may be "new and provocative" or whatever BS hype it's lauded with, but it's the age old question of fate vs determination and I'm glad to see you side with determination. So do I.
if you stand together people from Sweden, germany, france, italy, bosnia, greece, turkey, lebanon, Sinai, egypt, ethiopia, yemen, kenya, zimbabwe south africa, you will see a very clear transition from lighter hair/skin/eyes to darker hair/skin/eyes. this is proof that today, in 2014, race really doesn't exist.
All that is true, but doesn't address the OP's claims. I was hoping you'd see the same error in the OP that I do.
I completely agree ! look for example all those people living north of the Alps , 200.000 years of savagery confirm that they are savages. They may dress in suits and carry briefcases but genetically they are looters , cannibals , murderers and rapists . Hey they don't even have terms for science in their own languages !!! And never forget : Barbarians are best dealt with an axe , sustaining civilization is everyone's duty . *On a small note : having light colored eyes in the Mediterranean can be very painful at summer months .... not to mention sunburn .
Genetics were proven to have an influence over human behavior a long time ago, just as they influence the behavior of all living creatures. That the self-declared "party of science" is so fundamentally invested in denying this is pretty sad. "Race" is just shorthand for commonly shared traits. Groups that commonly share certain traits definitely exist.
