Gender is a social construct that somehow persisted across nearly every human society for millennia which doesn't actually exist and was created as a mechanism for oppressing the imaginary gender of women unjustly.
Race is a social construct that somehow persisted across nearly every human society for millennia that doesn't actually exist and was created as a mechanism for oppressing certain imaginary races unjustly.
Groups of people lived in, and were forced to adapt to vastly different environments throughout history. Often they were geographically isolated for many thousands of years. Certain environments were particularly harsh, creating bottlenecks where only small portions of a population survived to reproduce. Human groups would expand to the limits of the food capacity of their environment, and begin to wage war with each other, pushing technological innovation.
Human history is the story of vastly diverse groups of people settling into vastly different climates, elevations, and geographies, battling all kinds of formidable predators and conquering their landscape.
From the earliest studies of biological evolution, Charles Darwin was able to observe within a single generation, that finches who possessed a certain beak were able to subsist on seeds during a time of food shortage, while a significant portion of the finch population died off. The next generation exhibited the beak shape of the successful portion of the population, showing that evolution through environmental adaption can take place within such a small time span as a single generation.
Given the dramatically different environments that humanity has expanded outward, it's not a stretch of the imagination to see that a similar might apply to us.
Human species have colonized the deepest valleys, the tallest mountains, the arctic tundra and the arid desserts. We've triumphed over the elements, over all predators. We've crossed oceans, we've set foot on our moon, and we've sent our technologies out into the cosmos.
What is the danger in admitting our differences?
Human groups have been forced to adapt to such drastically different climates, geographies, and social environments for thousands of years at a time. When taking the theory of environmental adaption to it's logical conclusion, it's clear that differences will develop.
The simple fact is, we're all successful. The fact that we're all here, alive, today, after billions of years of the trials of nature, suggests that we are the pinnacle of successful survival.
I am not threatened by the idea that I might be different than some of you. The problem arises when we begin to assign moral value to certain values like IQ, brain capacity, and so on.
As far as evolution goes, history seems to suggest that many adaptions are zero sum. As a society, we seem to elevate intelligence, but that may not be as beneficial a trait as we think it is. If intelligence were such an adaptive trait, we'd all have massive brains with IQ levels of 160, but that's simply not the case. Neanderthals, who had higher cranial capacity than biologically modern humans, are now extinct. High IQ individuals are directly inversely correlated with sexual partners (the more intelligent they are, the less they have sex) and are more likely to develop neurological disorders.
Ashkenazi Jews, despite being a population of very high IQ individuals, have failed to reach a population of over 20 million, while many countries of much lower IQ have reached much higher reproductive success.
I will never be able to sprint as fast as a Kenyan Olympian. I will never be able to swim as fast as a Swedish highlander. I will never win a polymath competition against a Singaporean. I will never outclimb a Nepalese Sherpa or out strength train a Bulgarian. I am different, with my own set of strengths and weakness, and I'm OK with that.
I think there are differences between different peoples and cultures, and that doesn't bother me. Rather, I see it as an opportunity to ponder what defines us as individuals, and appreciate the cultural nuances that make us who we are. Frankly, the concept that we are bland, interchangeable and indiscernible drones on a global scale seems much more boring to me.
Race is a social construct that somehow persisted across nearly every human society for millennia that doesn't actually exist and was created as a mechanism for oppressing certain imaginary races unjustly.
Groups of people lived in, and were forced to adapt to vastly different environments throughout history. Often they were geographically isolated for many thousands of years. Certain environments were particularly harsh, creating bottlenecks where only small portions of a population survived to reproduce. Human groups would expand to the limits of the food capacity of their environment, and begin to wage war with each other, pushing technological innovation.
Human history is the story of vastly diverse groups of people settling into vastly different climates, elevations, and geographies, battling all kinds of formidable predators and conquering their landscape.
From the earliest studies of biological evolution, Charles Darwin was able to observe within a single generation, that finches who possessed a certain beak were able to subsist on seeds during a time of food shortage, while a significant portion of the finch population died off. The next generation exhibited the beak shape of the successful portion of the population, showing that evolution through environmental adaption can take place within such a small time span as a single generation.
Given the dramatically different environments that humanity has expanded outward, it's not a stretch of the imagination to see that a similar might apply to us.
Human species have colonized the deepest valleys, the tallest mountains, the arctic tundra and the arid desserts. We've triumphed over the elements, over all predators. We've crossed oceans, we've set foot on our moon, and we've sent our technologies out into the cosmos.
What is the danger in admitting our differences?
Human groups have been forced to adapt to such drastically different climates, geographies, and social environments for thousands of years at a time. When taking the theory of environmental adaption to it's logical conclusion, it's clear that differences will develop.
The simple fact is, we're all successful. The fact that we're all here, alive, today, after billions of years of the trials of nature, suggests that we are the pinnacle of successful survival.
I am not threatened by the idea that I might be different than some of you. The problem arises when we begin to assign moral value to certain values like IQ, brain capacity, and so on.
As far as evolution goes, history seems to suggest that many adaptions are zero sum. As a society, we seem to elevate intelligence, but that may not be as beneficial a trait as we think it is. If intelligence were such an adaptive trait, we'd all have massive brains with IQ levels of 160, but that's simply not the case. Neanderthals, who had higher cranial capacity than biologically modern humans, are now extinct. High IQ individuals are directly inversely correlated with sexual partners (the more intelligent they are, the less they have sex) and are more likely to develop neurological disorders.
Ashkenazi Jews, despite being a population of very high IQ individuals, have failed to reach a population of over 20 million, while many countries of much lower IQ have reached much higher reproductive success.
I will never be able to sprint as fast as a Kenyan Olympian. I will never be able to swim as fast as a Swedish highlander. I will never win a polymath competition against a Singaporean. I will never outclimb a Nepalese Sherpa or out strength train a Bulgarian. I am different, with my own set of strengths and weakness, and I'm OK with that.
I think there are differences between different peoples and cultures, and that doesn't bother me. Rather, I see it as an opportunity to ponder what defines us as individuals, and appreciate the cultural nuances that make us who we are. Frankly, the concept that we are bland, interchangeable and indiscernible drones on a global scale seems much more boring to me.