science

19891 readers

1168 users here now

A community to post scientific articles, news, and civil discussion.

rule #1: be kind

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

m3t00@lemmy.world

Joleee@lemmy.world

laverabe@lemmy.world

DeadPand@midwest.social

laverabe@lemmy.zip

148

Harvard author Steven Pinker appears on podcast linked to scientific racism (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 3 weeks ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/science@lemmy.world

35 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Psychologist and writer’s appearance on Aporia condemned for helping to normalise ‘dangerous, discredited ideas’

The Harvard psychologist and bestselling author Steven Pinker appeared on the podcast of Aporia, an outlet whose owners advocate for a revival of race science and have spoken of seeking “legitimation by association” by platforming more mainstream figures.

The appearance underlines past incidents in which Pinker has encountered criticism for his association with advocates of so-called “human biodiversity”, which other academics have called a “rebranding” of racial genetic essentialism and scientific racism.

Pinker’s appearance marks another milestone in the efforts of many in Silicon Valley and rightwing media and at the fringes of science to rehabilitate previously discredited models of a biologically determined racial hierarchy.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] Libra@lemmy.ml 19 points 3 weeks ago (12 children)

Hm, I generally had a decently positive opinion of Pinker. Is this a case of him not knowing what this was and getting ambushed? Or did he know what was up going in?

[–] athairmor@lemmy.world -3 points 3 weeks ago (11 children)

This is who he is. Check out evolutionary psychology. He’s a proponent of this theory that has strong tendency towards racial biases.

[–] jwiggler@sh.itjust.works 12 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (4 children)

Idk, I mean I'm not a fan of Pinker (his whole book on why violence has declined seems to ignore structural violence all around us, especially lower classes, and heavily supports capitalism) but evolutionary psychology seems pretty legit to me?

Geographically isolated groups of a single species will show variations of behavior and psychology that is affected by their environment and genetic predispositions -- that seems like a pretty reasonable take.

Yeah, when people take that to racist extremes, its problematic. You can't assume a person's quality because, when it comes to individuals in a particular, geographically originated group, you don't know where they landed on the spectrum re: genetic predisposition, and then you don't know their current environment either. It all comes out in the wash. I don't really think that means evolutionary psychology is total bunk, though. Its useful to put humans along with other animals when we think about their how their behavior and psychology are affected by evolution.

[–] ABCDE@lemmy.world -3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

genetic predispositions

I mean, that sounds pretty off.

[–] jwiggler@sh.itjust.works 9 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

How do you mean? A person can be genetically predisposed to be tall, but grow up to be short due to environmental circumstances (eg lack of nutrition during childhood)

Edit: I figured this would go without saying, but maybe not: this idea, I think logically, extends to things like dopamine thresholds in the brain, and other, erhm, neurotransmittal (word?) aspects of the body. Really, all aspects of the body start with genetic predisposition and then do or do not undergo changes corresponding with the environment. To be completely clear, I am not a scientist. If the science doesnt support this, then Id happily stand corrected

load more comments (2 replies)

load more comments (8 replies)