I completely agree that race is a construct
and if you walk from any place on the planet to another, you will see a smooth variation in the characteristics of people. But I am also of the opinion that humans are built from genes that affect us just as much as any other creature that has genes (we are animals, not god's chosen ones) and no part of being human is excluded from that. We are, as you say, the results of a messy cum egg soup, for good and bad. As an extreme example of the effect of genes, if you got a fertilised human egg and selectively switched genes in it so that the creature grown was a starfish, then by any way of measuring, the creature grown would not be as smart (or able to hold a knife and fork) as a human. Simply by changing genes, whatever the social situation, you removed all ability to complete an IQ test, or get any score on emotional intelligence, talk, or pretty much anything that humans can do. Changing genes changes abilities.
That said, the society you are raised in matters a great deal for actual humans, as opposed to theoretical thought constructs. Gardeners know that however well you care for a low quality seed it will have limits on yield and quality, and you can get a good seed and get the same results by putting it in a low quality environment. It is far more complex than the situations proposed by most people who talk on the topic. Personal agendas on both sides tend to mean people push purely social or purely genetic reasons for observed data a lot of the time. To say that IQ has no hereditary component is just idiotic, likewise to say it has no social component is just as idiotic. This is complicated further by environment having a significant effect on gene expression. Anyone who stands firmly on one side or the other is very likely to be wrong IMO
To close, I am fully of the opinion that never talking about a topic just gives fuel to the bad actors who want to occupy the space where that conversation would be had and use it to promote shit ideas, like race, or to validate their racism.
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My Name was saying these words inside your head on, Tue 7 Apr 2026, 12:01,
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our brains, like everything else in our body, are built by our genes
picture a dog running across a lawn. How does your brain experience this image, how is it stored, how is it reproduced, which neurons are involved and how do they do it, how does it decide what the dog looks like and the perspective, how much is memory and how much is invention, how is it selected?
The answer is we don't fucking know.
And this is just one aspect out of hundreds we still just don't know when it comes to the brain. Out of everything we've encountered so far, the brain is the most complicated thing in the universe. Suns and planets are simple by comparison. It's had billions of years to evolve complication. And the genes that build it rely on a double or triple abstraction layers, where the dna encodes proteins which can then encode other proteins, which create cells and tell them what to be and exactly where to go, with the code not only transcribed by amino acid ordinal position but by the 3d shape of it's folding, that has different effects at different stages all through life and is responsive to environmental triggers. It's mind-boggling complex. It most likely involves the interplay of great clusters of different genes all performing various roles, rather than a few genes. And intelligence is a highly complex emergent property. So intelligence is heritable, we just have no idea how, what genes are involved apart from a tiny fraction that cause things to go really wrong, how those genes are distributed, what they do, and we dont know how the brain is networked, what memory is, what conciousness is, or even a general agreement about what intelligence is or what aspect of it are the most valuable. So I think there's still an awful lot of work to do before we start getting all eugenic about it. We're better but far from perfect at quantifying the enviromental effects, i.e. education, on intelligence
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cumquat may will not be commenting further on the allegations, Tue 7 Apr 2026, 13:17,
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