Current Events > "Can progressives be convinced that genetics matters?"

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/09/13/can-progressives-be-convinced-that-genetics-matters/

Harden works in the field of behavior genetics, which investigates the influence of genes on character traits (neuroticism, agreeableness) and life outcomes (educational attainment, income, criminality). Such research has historically relied upon twin studies, which compare identical twins with fraternal ones to differentiate genetic from environmental effects. As a new professor, she co-founded the Texas Twin Project, the first registry engineered to maximize representation of low-income families from ethnically diverse backgrounds. In a recent paper, Harden asked, You only have one life to live, but if you rewound the tape and started anew from the exact same genetic and environmental starting point, how differently could your life go? She continued, Overall, twin research suggests that, in your alternate life, you might not have gotten divorced, you might have made more money, you might be more extraverted or organizedbut you are unlikely to be substantially different in your cognitive ability, education, or mental disease. In the past few years, Harden noted, new molecular techniques have begun to shore up the basic finding that our personal trajectories owe a considerable debt to our genes.

On sabbatical for the 2015-16 academic year, Harden and Elliot Tucker-Drob, a colleague to whom she was married at the time, were invited to New York City with their two young childrena three-year-old boy and a nine-month-old girlas visiting scholars-in-residence at the Russell Sage Foundation. Russell Sage, which occupies a handsome Philip Johnson building in Manhattan, primarily supports sociologists, journalists, and economists, but it had recently launched an initiative to integrate the biological sciences. Harden felt almost immediately unwelcome at the regular fellows lunches. Many of the left-leaning social scientists seemed certain that behavior-genetics research, no matter how well intentioned, was likely to lead us down the garden path to eugenics. The world would be better, Harden was told, if she quit. When their cohort went to see Hamilton, the others professed surprise that Harden and Tucker-Drob had enjoyed it, as if their work could be done only by people uncomfortable with an inclusive vision of American history.
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Interesting piece. I usually regard the whole "people on the left deny genetics" as a gaslighting from right-wing sect that pushes simplistic ideas to about genetics to "subtly" imply racist ideas (and to be clear here, I still think this is usually the case), so interesting to see this side of things.

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Cpt_Pineapple posted...

There are certainty people out there that shouldn't reproduce

Shut the fuck up.

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WeeWeiWiiWie posted...

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/09/13/can-progressives-be-convinced-that-genetics-matters/

Interesting piece. I usually regard the whole "people on the left deny genetics" as a gaslighting from right-wing sect that pushes simplistic ideas to about genetics to "subtly" imply racist ideas (and to be clear here, I still think this is usually the case), so interesting to see this side of things.

It's currently in vogue with liberals to hate research into genetics, especially from people in the social sciences, but those right wing "You can work hard enough to achieve anything," types have reason to hate it too.

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"You know they just aren't as smart as us. It's in in their genetics."

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billcom6 posted...

"You know they just aren't as smart as us. It's in in their genetics."

It's helpful to read the article. It does a good job laying out the real arguments.

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Cpt_Pineapple posted...

There are certainty people out there that shouldn't reproduce

Proving their point in post 3 lmao

WeeWeiWiiWie posted...

Many of the left-leaning social scientists seemed certain that behavior-genetics research, no matter how well intentioned, was likely to lead us down the garden path to eugenics.

Lots of people on the left are all for eugenics as long as it's worded differently, so I don't know who these scientists with their outcry against it are trying to fool.

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