I _liked_ [reviewing the _last_ Charles Murray book](/2020/Apr/book-review-human-diversity/). That book did a _little_ bit of political positioning in opposition to the blank slate orthodoxy, but for the _most_ part, it was just a fun, clean Science book for Science nerds. Effect sizes! GWAS! Selection on standing variation! Additive genetic variance! No one can get (or stay) angry about these technical minutiæ. "[E]veryone should calm down," Murray wrote, and as your eyes glaze over the two-page table of "Differences in Target Allele Frequencies for Traits Related to Cognitive Repertoires", you can almost start to believe that they should.
-This book ... well. This is the Charles Murray book that's _actually_ about the thing that everyone assumes all of his previous books were about. You really have to feel sorry for the man. In previous works such as 1994's _The Bell Curve_ (with Richard J. Hernstein) and 2012's _Coming Apart_, Murray argues that American Society has developed an increasingly stratified class structure based on cognitive ability. All else being equal, smarter individuals attain higher-paying professions, perform better within a given profession, form stabler families, and commit fewer crimes. But sorting by cognitive ability has a dark side in the dissolution of community and undermining of the American way of life, as the richest and most educated increasingly live in their own bubbles and [...]
+This book ... well. This is the Charles Murray book that's _actually_ about the thing that everyone assumes all of his previous books were about.
+
+You really have to feel sorry for the man. In previous works such as 1994's _The Bell Curve_ (with Richard J. Hernstein) and 2012's _Coming Apart_, Murray argues that American Society has developed an increasingly stratified class structure based on cognitive ability. All else being equal, smarter individuals attain higher-paying professions, perform better within a given profession, form stabler families, and commit fewer crimes. But sorting by cognitive ability has a dark side in the dissolution of community and undermining of the American way of life, as the richest and most educated increasingly live in their own bubbles and [...]
None of that has _anything to do with race_.
+[alternate universe no natives no slaves, you could write the same book]
[Bell Curve had two chapters about race (oh, and a couple more about affirmative action), Coming Apart is specifically about White America, human diversity slow-played the race section]
[push bad memes onto their lessers]
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