NeoNote — Virtue is a choice
Thursday - 04Apr2019 Filed in: NeoNotes&Morality & Modern Life
❝❝Virtue isn't doing the right thing when there is no choice. Virtue is choosing and then doing it because it is the right thing.NeoNotes are the selected comments that I made on other boards, in email, or in response to articles where I could not respond directly.
That means the choice has to exist. It also means some people are going to make choices you don't like.
Without choice, it's not virtue. If you take the choice away, you're telling the person that you don't trust them and they aren't fully human.
Stuff happens, You can't change that. You can only try to make the World a little better than how you found it . Do you want people who can make the right choice? Or do you want ignorant children who don't know any better?❞❞
Comments
The most important phrases in human history
““Let me help.””
— as explained in The City on the Edge of Forever, Star Trek The Original Series
““I can do better than that!””
— some anonymous hominid far back in time
NeoNote — "Race," IQ, and savagery
❝❝That is a phenomenally inaccurate and simplistic view.NeoNotes are the selected comments that I made on other boards, in email, or in response to articles where I could not respond directly.
"Run by blacks…"
They are run by Democrats who have spent the last 50+ years telling minority groups that they are victims and don't have to be responsible.
Gods, the absolute last last thing you should do is blame skin color.
Do you want to make things worse?
Of course you're blaming skin color.
Those "heritable characteristics" vanish when you start adjusting for quality of education, early childhood environment, and family support.
Next time read the disclaimers andqualitificationsqualifications.
Yes, yes they do. Check the studies again. Better yet, follow it to the inevitable conclusion. If the "heritable characteristics" exist and are not modified by environmental factors, then by your logic "blacks" are inherently inferior.
Think about that very carefully.
The fact that you are relying on IQ tells me quite a bit.
The IQ tests are culturally biased. What's more, studies from the late 1970s forward have shown that the tests are sub-culturally biased. Those scores are significantly linked to quality of education, early childhood environment, and family support.
Yes, those things I mentioned earlier.
What's more, there's evidence of an inner-city sub-culture that is adamantly against doing well in school or on tests.
Look, here's the problem.
You're defining people by skin color, no matter what their individual accomplishments.
Benjamin Banneker, Frederick Douglass, George Washington Carver, Daniel Hale Williams , Booker T. Washington, James West, John J. Jasper, Daniel "Chappie" James Jr., Thomas Sowell, Huey P. Newton, Carter G. Woodson, W. E. B. Du Bois, Malcolm X, those are just some of the remarkable American men I remember off the top of my head.
Those averages only matter if you've allowed for all other factors.
For example, how manysub-Sararansub-Saharan nations have a free market based economy? How many recognize the rights of the individual?
I already told you a third theory. There are significant cultural and environmental differences. What's more, put any skin color in unfavorable circumstances and watch how fast the "average" drops.
Unless a government recognizes & defends individual rights, corruption follows as surely as night follows day.
Those white South Africans you mention had special privilege and exploited people because they had the power to do so. When things changed, there was no living memory of anything except special privileges. The corruption stayed and the exploited targets changed.
A version of the same problem is happening in those Democrat controlled cities that you incorrectly insist on labeling "black run." Recognized rights have long given way to special privilege, and no one remembers anything else.
I didn't say anything about it not being their fault. I specifically said Democrats "have spent the last 50+ years telling minority groups that they are victims and don't have to be responsible."
Not so long ago, the Republican idea of race relations was to get out of the way and tell people to take responsibility. That's no longer the case.
I don't care about blame. I just care about fixing the problem. And you are making things worse.
You're making the Democrat case for them. You're saying that "blacks" will fail if left to themselves.
You mean other than the examples I gave you?
If you are interested in statistics, try the upward mobility of "blacks" between 1900 and 1960, before government interfered. The welfare statistics and the rise of single mother families are particularly telling. These have been well documented.
On the whole, two parent households do better over time. When the immediate cost of having children is reduced by government intervention, then a single parent household is less likely to move up the economic ladder.
I told you some of what was necessary for a society's success. Recognition and protection of individual rights. A free market economy. Those things are rare.
Those things are also not dependent on skin color.
I don't recognize "black" societies, I recognize human societies. Almost every single time when someone talks about "black" societies or "black"nations or "black" cities, it's about racism.
There's one race and it's human.
I said no such thing.
I talked about political systems designed to exploit victimhood and grant privilege.
That has almost nothing to do with skin color and everything to do with denying rights.
People designed those systems. Generations of people over centuries, trading, interacting, arguing, fighting, failing, and trying again. It wasn't because of one skin color even if you could define "white."
Because I said that people designed the systems, for good or ill?
Because I pointed out that it took generations?
Because I pointed out that you can't define "white" anymore than you can define "black?"
You lost this one the second you used skin color as a substitute for individual merit.
You haven't managed to identify any significant differences that aren't environmental in nature.
Instead, you keep focusing on skin color, a poor indicator under the best of circumstances.
There are hundreds of other factors, starting with how many parents the child has and if the child is raised in a loving environment. That doesn't even include the social factors I've already touched on.
As long as you focus on skin color, you're just perpetuating the problems.
The only way the question is reduced to a binary condition is by focusing on insignificant measurements such as skin color.
We've already established that IQ is culturally biased. There are also strong indications that IQ is sub-culturally biased as well. That means that part of what IQ measures is cultural conformity.
That's assuming that IQ is a relevant measure of intelligence to begin with. There are theories that one measurement of intelligence isn't nearly enough.
Like it or not, you have to allow for environmental and cultural factors in IQ scores.
Me and about two thirds of the researchers studying the possibility.
I suggest you do a web search for IQ cultural bias.
First, it's not the "warrior gene." A variant is popularly (and inaccurately) referred to as the "warrior gene." Technically the variant produces lessMAMOMAOA .
Second, the evidences seems to show that the people with a low level ofMAMOMAOA show higher levels of aggression when faced with social stressors such as ostracism, exclusion, or overwhelming loss.
You know, environmental factors.
ETA: Sorry about that, spell check fixed something I didn't want fixed.
With environmental factors, yes.
Would you like a list of genetic variations that are activated by environmental stressors?
I don't lie.
You keep stressing differences that derive from environmental factors.
Yet you keep blaming skin color.
Remember when I mentioned "family support?" Have you accounted for the incredible cultural pressure to succeed at schools and testing?
Yep, Obama was all about skin color. And his solutions worked out just so well for everyone, right?
There's a line I've been throwing around for a couple years now.❝There were so many patting themselves on the back and proud that a black man had been elected President that no one bothered to ask if a good man had been elected President.❞
The politics are a much bigger part of the problem than the skin color.
It's the politics I blame.
And there's your problem.
You think it's about America.
It's about freedom.
Who said anything about pretending it's not there?
I'm disputing why it is there.
Actually I did. I talked briefly about incentivizing single parenthood and telling minorities that they are perpetual victims and how they don't have to take responsibility.
No, it wasn't the same environment.
I specified "telling minorities."
Politics are bad enough, but the politics are of victimhood are just despicable.
Because they don't have the same incentives.
Do you have any idea how much has been written and spoken about this over the last sixty years?
You might start with Goldwater's objections to the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
I believe they are indoctrinated to believe that they could only be victims no matter what.
Talked with more than a few. Slept with a couple.
I'm a bilagáana born on the res. I grew up next to the Diné, the Hopi, and the Havasupai. Spent a lot of time in Phoenix, Tucson, San Diego, and Albuquerque.
Still want to lecture me on the "races?"
Gods, you really are so ignorant that you can't be bothered to do a web search.
Roughly translated, bilagáana means "white man." There's more to it than that, especially for one born on the reservation. I'm what happens when Louisiana farming stock takes root in the Four Corners region.
Check again.
I never denied cultural differences, I just pointed out that they alone don't determine IQ or aggression.
I don't think I've done it in this thread, but I have pointed out that there is one race and it's human.
"Peoples" is a completely different concept and doesn't usually rest on minor genetic differences. The term is slightly more accurate than tribes.
Go back and reread what I wrote on this thread. I started by pointing out that what was being passed off as racial and genetic differences were actually due to environmental and cultural factors.
Ah, someone is making the right points.
First, IQ is not an objective measurement. One of my favorite examples is the Diné, their culture doesn't recognize time and distance as linear. With the possibility of multiple intelligences, things get more complicated. Gross motor coordination doesn't translate to spatial mathematical. Yes, I know the theory has problems like leaving out fine motor control, but this isn't the place.
We've not defined intelligence very well. There's a difference between following a recipe and walking in a kitchen just to whip up amazing food. IQ tests look for proven solutions, not for that creative spark. Sometimes that mostly works, sometimes not.
One set of parents can produce a musical genius, a good accountant, and a total slacker. It's impossible to say if a specific genetic line might produce. We know from domesticated animals that some traits will probably breed true, but we have to allow for environment and chance. We can't say that this family always produces good Rotarians and never any gamers. We can't say that every puppy from that Labrador will be good with kids. If you expand it to a group, the uncertainty grows too.
Interesting. You get to keep your preconceptions but I have to give mine up.
Okay, let's go back to basics. Part of science is eliminating variables.
The people we're comparing, are they on the same economic level? Did they have the same number of parents? Did they attend the same or comparable schools? Are they married? Do they have the same number of kids? Is their debt level the same? Is their education level the same? Do they live in the same or comparable neighborhoods?
We know that every single one of these environmental factors can influence someone's mental abilities, their tastes, their chosen activities, and their obligations.
And these are just the big ones.
Otherwise you're comparing apples from last year to next year's bananas. There's no way to establish a baseline.
There's no real comparison until you can account for most of the major variables.
I'm telling you (again) that until you can account for environmental differences, your measurements are useless.
There's a difference between a Walmart special and a finely made bookshelf. You can't just say that the one that is forty-one inches wide is better than the thirty-five inch one. You don't have enough information to judge.
It's a trick question.
It presupposes that there aren't any other variables that matter.
At the very least, acknowledge that the quality of schools makes a difference.Mona Lisa Vito: It's a bullshit question.
D.A. Jim Trotter: Does that mean that you can't answer it?
Mona Lisa Vito: It's a bullshit question, it's impossible to answer.
D.A. Jim Trotter: Impossible because you don't know the answer!
Mona Lisa Vito: Nobody could answer that question!
D.A. Jim Trotter: Your Honor, I move to disqualify Ms. Vito as a "expert witness"!
Judge Chamberlain Haller: Can you answer the question?
Mona Lisa Vito: No, it is a trick question!
— My Cousin Vinny
From my second response to you on this thread, I've pointed out again and again that you can not eliminate cultural and environmental factors.
The differences that you chose to highlight directly resulted in part from the culture and environment.
These are facts that we know and can easily be verified through a web search.
Children from single parent households tend to do worse at school and hold lower paying jobs.
Children from abusive households tend to do worse at school and hold lower paying jobs.
Single parent households tend to stay at lower income levels.
Some schools fail so much that most of their students can't read, write, or do basic math.
If children don't have enough to eat, they don't do well in school.
If people don't have shelter, they tend to have more health problems.
How much did environment and culture play a part? There is no way to know unless you can eliminate variables.
There's no comparison unless you can account for most of the major variables. This is true in science. This is true in statistics. This is true in life.
Your question makes no sense because there can be no comparison.
But you haven't presented evidence.
You've gone out of your way to dismiss the very idea that the culture and environment can have any possible influence on the differences you chose to highlight.
All you've done is lay out a premise that presupposes that no other factors can change what you choose to measure.
It's not science. It's not statistics. It's not even logically verifiable.
It's just prejudice.
You don't have evidence. You have observation, but you haven't shown cause or correlation because you have not allowed for environmental and cultural factors.
It's not even a matter of "interpretation." You've deliberately chosen one measurement and claimed that it defines the whole discussion. Can you say selection bias?
You can put tomato seeds in a salt shaker for nine months. That doesn't mean you'll be harvesting.
But I don't blame skin color at all. That's when I talk about this at all. Most people don't want to deal with uncomfortable truths.
I talk about politics, history, and the lies of government. Also basic economics and self-ownership.
Self-ownership and responsibility are a big part of what I write and talk about.
I also talk about strategy that exploits the politics of victimhood. I point out that the people who don't accept those lies from politicos and technocrats do better over time. Usually better than their parents. Which used to be a measurement of success in this nation.
A significant number of politicos (easily more than half) use the message that people are victims and their friend, the government, can help.
I tell people that government is not your friend, no matter how much the politicos say that it is.
That's not making excuses. That's showing that most politicos want problems they can stage manage. The politicos can't do that by solving problems.
It's a loaded question.
The premise is insufficient.
Neighbor, you're telling me that I am dealing in absolutes when I just listed seven major variables that we know affect intelligence and ability. These variables change everybody no matter what their skin color, nationality, sex, or ice cream preference.
I can stop you with nothing more than a few words.
Think about it. You're taking offense at what I write on a website when all I am really saying is "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights…"
You would deny that?
I'm not defending today's mess.
I've written against it.
But (and this is the important bit), you're still defining people by skin color instead of what they are individually.
There's a phrase about "content of their character" that comes to mind.
I know, you keep defining people by skin color.
Tell me, what nationality are "blacks?"
If a "Chinese" has been granted American citizenship, when does he stop being "Chinese?" Three seconds after? Three generations? When he changes his name to Jones?
If Jesus Fernandez was born in Michigan and barely speaks Spanish, is he "Mexican?"
Or American?
I didn't say anything about stopping the Left with words.
I said I could stop you.
And I have.
Think you so?
Look at what's happened.
I've held my own against you and your "friend." Along the way, we've discussed history, psychology, morality, biology, and ethics. We've done it in real time for a few hours, and right now you are focused on taking me down, not in proving that "blacks" are inferior.
And all you can do is tell me that I don't deserve my citizenship.
You got stopped.
"The fact that blacks are not us."
Pretty sure my neighbors would disagree. Pretty sure your neighbors would too.
"Wait until your neighbors are Hindus, Muslims, Mexicans, or Asians."
Um, they are.
I could ask my across-the-street neighbor, but I'm pretty sure she's happy with her husband. I don't know their kids that well.
Because they are us.
The commonalities outweigh the differences.
These barriers, these labels that people like you keep using, they separate us. The labels keep us apart.❝Those are the same stars, and that is the same moon, that look down upon your brothers and sisters, and which they see as they look up to them, though they are ever so far away from us, and each other.❞
— Sojourner Truth
The Hopi are surrounded by all sides by the Diné. Can you tell me the genetic differences between the Hopi and the Diné? Good luck, because they've been intermarrying for a long time.
So what are their national characteristics?
As I said, I'm an American. I'm a mix. Part of my ancestry is Irish, part of it is English, part of it is Creole, part of it is German, part of it is Russian, and there's probably stuff on both sides of the bed that isn't officially acknowledged.
What are my national genetic characteristics?
I'm pretty sure I could father a child with any fertile human female if we tried hard enough. That's sort of how the species works.
And that's the important thing. We're one species, one "race." Throw us together and those distinctions fade. We get down and funky. We rut. We mix our genes.
It doesn't stop there. Ideas mix too. We argue with each other. We try to one up each other. We try. We look at what the other guy is doing. We borrow what works and tweak it a bit.
Synchronicity and syncretism happen, no matter how much you want "purity."
I'm not trying to change the labels.
I'm pointing out the truths.
Those labels are controlling your life."Truth and lies don't miscegenate."
Miscegenation has nothing to do with truth and lies and everything to do with sex and children.
Truth is subject to change. There was a time when people thought the speed of light was infinite. Now we know it's about 186,000 miles per second. In a vacuum. Put it through an atmosphere or water and it's something else.
We're human. That humanity matters more than any "racial" difference. It's why there are children of "mixed race." As time and people go on, the differences fade.
Until we meet a new population and it starts all over again.
I don't lie. I serve veritas.❞❞
Conditions
❝❝There's a vast difference between a character who happens to be X and a X character.
The emphasis should be on character, not the label. Character is about the human condition, the label is about the labeled condition.
Next, it's acting. Fictional. If the actor is good enough, they can play the heavy and the hero. They can play the pauper and the prince. And they can play whatever sexual orientation is necessary.❞❞
— NeoWayland
Law is not moral
KYFHO now & forever
Saturday - 23Jun2018 Filed in: Quotes & Thinkums&Liberty
❝❝You are perfectly capable of making your own decisions. That is your right, that is what makes you human, and fuck all to anyone who tells you different.
KYFHO now and forever. The only protection you should get is the certainty that NO ONE ELSE can use government to control you.
But, if you expect that right for yourself, you’d better damn well defend if for others. Even if you don’t like them. Even if you don’t trust them. Especially if you don’t trust them. Otherwise you will lose your choice.❞❞
— NeoWayland
Fighting for
Thursday - 15Mar2018 Filed in: Quotes & Thinkums