Why Thomas Sowell is wrong about IQ
(www.jollyheretic.com)
You're viewing a single comment thread. View all comments, or full comment thread.
Comments (53)
sorted by:
This video is just, well bad… considering that the majority of black orphans are genetically fucked because mom was a drug addict/ alcoholic/ etc during pregnancy them being able to achieve an average iq of 89 from an average far lower than 85 does indeed show that IQ is more environmentally malleable. The Asian IQ myth is another one that is almost entirely environmental, that’s why the Asian iq variance is hilariously dependent on what culture they come from despite having near identical dna (north versus South Korea for example). There are instances where genetics highly determine iq and there are instances where brain trauma from an injury actually spike the persons iq by 30 points.
He’s essentially claiming that genetics are the end all be all of IQ, which is vastly wrong. The variance in environment can raise iq by at least 10 points and in some cases 15-20.
He makes no such claim in this video. Around 1:30 he says "IQ...is partly genetic in nature." I've never seen or read him make such claims elsewhere either. As I said in my other post, genetics is a very strong predictor of IQ, no more no less.
I'm not familiar with any evidence of general population IQ jumps that large between the same genetic groups in different environments. The difference in American blacks IQ and sub-Saharan blacks is accounted for by the rather large European genetic admixture that blacks Americans have (that sub-Saharan blacks lack) combined with moderate increases that the Flynn Effect can cause in more industrialized nations, in other words blacks living in the US.
Caribbean and African black US immigrants regularly outpace the native US black population in IQ and that gap GROWS by every generation.