PUFAs And Their Influence On Political Leanings

[vulture]

No, not all countries. But there is a significant correlation between low marginal tax rates and increasing social/economic inequality, and then there is a clear significant correlation between inequality and mentall illness, rate of violence, incarceration, and so on. So, a low-tax, highly unequal country with quasi free access to guns is the perfect place to get shot.
In theory, I agree with all your basic sentiments and I somehow dislike the realtionship between citizens and the state that can coerce me to pay property taxes, send my kid to a school with indoctrinated teachers, etc. But I am not so naive as to think that simply lowering taxes, and providing more economic freedom will remedy that. The realtionship will remain the same while the society around us becomes even worse, with the rich getting richer and more influential, and the middle class and lower class people becoming more desperate, sick, and violent.
I would also like to life in a society where everbody is free from government coercion and can work for, and achieve a good life if they just work hard enough. Simply providing more economic freedom, though, will just result in a horrible dystopia like the United States .
I come from a working class family where nobody ever attended university or made much money, and I was the first to ever graduate from one. The only way that was possible, is because people in Germany pay relatively high taxes so that I could go to a good (free of charge) Kindergarden, learn to play an instrument, be part of a sports club, and get free tutoring, in order to later attend a university free of charge (an idea utterly absurd to Americans or Brits). My parents would never have been able to afford all these things on their own, so I know on a personal level that paying your taxes has a good side for society.
Social upward mobility, the chance to move up in life for those who were not born with a silver spoon in their mouths, is inversely correlated with low taxation and inequality, and I have never seen any evidence that higher taxes is negatively correlated with cultural freedom. So, high taxes will not causally lead a more unfree society just as lowering taxes will not free you from the oppression of government and big corporations.

If you increase taxation, you decrease your purchase power and increase a political elite purchasing power. I do not agree on free education, first because there's not free lunch and it's really that someone else's forced to pay your education, but it's even worst if you are not chosing your education (via vouchers), that would be slightly better: you get some money only spendable on education and you chose a private institution to get education, thus avoiding indoctrination.

U.S.A. is closer to mercantilism than capitalism, they are consistently getting more regulations, corporate influences increasing decade after decade on the state. If you let the state rule over every aspect of your life, you are f****d, someone's gonna pay or get that power to sc** you. They sell their abuse to avoid privates abuse, but that's a lie, they end up using the increasing power to pursue their interest, and once the state have gained power over something, it might not be that easy to revert it. Socialism doesn't seem to get reverted but once it induces a severe crisis. That's why I'm inclined to natural rights, state shall not be able to dispose of your property, life or freedom, those are basic rights, and I think gun control is usually going to make easier for tyrants to decrease peoples freedom without having to face armed miliatias opposing their power, you may have 1.000.0000 military, but that's nothing compared to dozens of millions of people that hates you and are also armed, maybe those rights in the constitution and people armed to defend them is what have prevented the U.S. to have a tyrant and more abuses. Also, gun control usually doesn't take guns out of criminal hands (there's a black marke) -and obviously not from cops and military, but from working people.

 

[vulture]

swap out the state for private tyranny


"Your foreman or supervisor gives you more or-else orders in a week than the police do in a decade."
-Bob Black

But he's not gonna shoot you or kidnap you if you don't obbey =)

 

[Sobieski]

I am not defensive, I am just pointing out the obvious here. Why do you ask me whether I am against any inquiry of that sort? I am not against any inquiries, just against claims that are not based on any evidence or misleading statements.
By the way, I am now absolutely convinced that @Prosper never read those studies and just copied the screenshot from somewhere. I just started reading the full text of the Wang and Su (2004) paper, and the statement that is on Prosper's screenshot "This allele is common in Eurasians but rare in Africans" appears nowhere in the paper. It's a made up statement. In fact, the whole paragraph isn't in the paper that was accepted and published by the journal.

I was curious as to your opinion. Do you think there is a possibility, however slight, that the ceiling for intelligence, or for various types of intelligence and behaviour is distributed differently amongst human groups just as physical traits are?

 

[vulture]

I was curious as to your opinion. Do you think there is a possibility, however slight, that the ceiling for intelligence, or for various types of intelligence and behaviour is distributed differently amongst human groups just as physical traits are?

You may find this interesting

 

[managing]

The truth, same as any other branch of scientific enquiry. Are you open to it?

To racially discrimination? Go on, pretend it is closed-minded to not be interested in research that seeks to make qualitative distinctions between the races. You and your methods are transparent to anybody who embraces RP: Perceive. Think. Act.

 

[managing]

I am not defensive, I am just pointing out the obvious here. Why do you ask me whether I am against any inquiry of that sort? I am not against any inquiries, just against claims that are not based on any evidence or misleading statements.
By the way, I am now absolutely convinced that @Prosper never read those studies and just copied the screenshot from somewhere. I just started reading the full text of the Wang and Su (2004) paper, and the statement that is on Prosper's screenshot "This allele is common in Eurasians but rare in Africans" appears nowhere in the paper. It's a made up statement. In fact, the whole paragraph isn't in the paper that was accepted and published by the journal.

Wow @Kartoffel you are being so uncooperative with his/her efforts to get you to say that you are against knowing the truth. You Germans must be the huskies of the human world.

 

[Kartoffel]

I was curious as to your opinion. Do you think there is a possibility, however slight, that the ceiling for intelligence, or for various types of intelligence and behaviour is distributed differently amongst human groups just as physical traits are?

I guess i don't know, but can you define what exactely you mean by ceiling? I haven't seen any evidence that intelligence has a particular genetic component, and if anything I think that any sort of ceiling is rather set by the gestational environment and imprinting of the organism. How large your brain grows is mainly determined by the supply of nutritients in the womb. Consider Zamenhof and his glucose inejections for example.

 

[Sobieski]

To racially discrimination? Go on, pretend it is closed-minded to not be interested in research that seeks to make qualitative distinctions between the races. You and your methods are transparent to anybody who embraces RP: Perceive. Think. Act.

Nope, just genetic study of human variation. You're against it then?

 

[Kartoffel]

Wow @Kartoffel you are being so uncooperative with his/her efforts to get you to say that you are against knowing the truth. You Germans must be the huskies of the human world.

I already told you the only husky I know personally is the exact opposite of stubbornness.

 

[Sobieski]

I guess i don't know, but can you define what exactely you mean by ceiling? I haven't seen any evidence that intelligence has a particular genetic component, and if anything I think that any sort of ceiling is rather set by the gestational environment and imprinting of the organism. How large your brain grows is mainly determined by the supply of nutritients in the womb. Consider Zamenhof and his glucose inejections for example.

I largely agree on that as well. By ceiling, I mean whether certain genes that pertain to higher brain function in certain areas may be more or less prevalent amongst certain groups based on genetic ancestry.

 

[thomas00]

But he's not gonna shoot you or kidnap you if you don't obbey =)

Anti-union violence - Wikipedia

 

[managing]

Nope, just genetic study of human variation. You're against it then?

Nice try. This question, as attorney's like to say, has been "asked and answered". And found to be devoid of any merit whatsoever. I am against rehashing dead, lifeless lines of inquiry that could serve no purpose but discrimination.

So, let's just pretend for a moment, that you did find your coveted proof that white Europeans have a "higher intellectual ceiling"? How would you expect your "truth" to be used?

 

[managing]

I already told you the only husky I know personally is the exact opposite of stubbornness.

Just injecting some comic relief into what has otherwise taken a Fellini-esque turn .

 

[Sobieski]

Nice try. This question, as attorney's like to say, has been "asked and answered". And found to be devoid of any merit whatsoever. I am against rehashing dead, lifeless lines of inquiry that could serve no purpose but discrimination.

So, let's just pretend for a moment, that you did find your coveted proof that white Europeans have a "higher intellectual ceiling"? How would you expect your "truth" to be used?

You're making two assumptions, first about my racial make up (which you don't know) and second that I have ever stated anything to that degree (which I haven't - I welcome you to find evidence though). How could it result in discrimination if there is no genetic proof to be found of differences exactly?

 

[Kartoffel]

I largely agree on that as well. By ceiling, I mean whether certain genes that pertain to higher brain function in certain areas may be more or less prevalent amongst certain groups based on genetic ancestry.

As I said, I haven't seen any evidence for that, and this kind of theory of genetic determinism wouldn't really explain the high variability of intelligence within a given race.

 

[managing]

You're making two assumptions, first about my racial make up (which you don't know) and second that I have ever stated anything to that degree (which I haven't - I welcome you to find evidence though). How could it result in discrimination if there is no genetic proof to be found of differences exactly?

Sobieski: might or might not be your name. But if I encounter a screen name like that, i presume it to be the person's name. If not, its misleading. Of course, you might not be "racially pure" but, with what you are angling for, that seems unlikely to say the least.

But I'll play along with the make believe world where you are not principally white Eurasian. Now, answer the question. Pretend you did actually find some proof that any "race" was of inferior intelligence. What would you do with that info?

 

[Sobieski]

Sobieski: might or might not be your name. But if I encounter a screen name like that, i presume it to be the person's name. If not, its misleading. Of course, you might not be "racially pure" but, with what you are angling for, that seems unlikely to say the least.

But I'll play along with the make believe world where you are not principally white Eurasian. Now, answer the question. Pretend you did actually find some proof that any "race" was of inferior intelligence. What would you do with that info?

Personally I wouldn't do anything. I'm quite willing to accept that other groups may have higher prevalence of beneficial genes in certain areas than my own, and I'm completely comfortable with that. Are you against study in these areas? You haven't answered my question...

 

[managing]

Personally I wouldn't do anything. I'm quite willing to accept that other groups may have higher prevalence of beneficial genes in certain areas than my own, and I'm completely comfortable with that. Are you against study in these areas? You haven't answered my question...

Yes I have. Pursuing a thoroughly debunked theory is suspicious. Your motives are suspicious. Even if you came up with a new, previously unconsidered angle, I'd question your motives and to what use the knowledge could be put. Which you've not answered.

Your pure and untainted motives for wanting to know if some races are inferior are not even remotely believable.

 

[Sobieski]

Yes I have. Pursuing a thoroughly debunked theory is suspicious. Your motives are suspicious. Even if you came up with a new, previously unconsidered angle, I'd question your motives and to what use the knowledge could be put. Which you've not answered.

Your pure and untainted motives for wanting to know if some races are inferior are not even remotely believable.

You don't have to believe me, just curious as to why you wish to ban certain areas of science you don't like. As to motives, it's intellectual curiosity as human bio diversity is fascinating to me.

 

[Kartoffel]

I do not agree on free education, first because there's not free lunch and it's really that someone else's forced to pay your education

So you think it would be fair (yes, I think a society or any group of people has to agree on some concept of fairness) that some rich kid (that hasn't done anything to achieve this privilige) can go to a good school, get much better food (and therefore health), and attend a nice university later that costs a fortune just because his parents achieved a high socioeconomic status, while poor children will not get the same opportunities just because they were born into poor families? Saying there is no free lunch is always easy for people that only got deserts their entire life.