HBD Gaining Mainstream Acceptance

As blogged by Lion, an HBD (human bio-diversity) inspired comment was published in response to an op-ed by Nicholas Kristof and even got 13 up-votes:

From iSteve, Kristof Does Battle with His Commenters Again

As part of the post-2008 ‘intellectual Renaissance’, ideas on race, poverty and IQ that a decade ago were dismissed as ‘scientific racism’ are finding a captive audience, especially on sites like Reddit, 4chan, vice.com, The New Republic and even, as shown above, the New York Times. This is because the existing nurture/environment-centric explanations for poverty and wealth inequality have fallen short and, laymen and academics alike, overturning stones in search of explanations, are beginning to put more precedence on biological factors. After a nearly two-decade-long lull since the release of the controversial The Bell Curve, like a dormant volcano, it’s only a matter of time before it explodes, and that time has come. For example, a brilliant article about how welfare left are eschewing IQ and the meritocracy in favor of egalitarianism, originally published by The New Republic in 1995, has now been prominently re-published to much praise. The theory that millions of people are unable to participate in the economic recovery, not because of a lack of government programs or other environmental factors, but because they (the unemployed and under-employed) are simply not smart enough, has gained traction. Academics who mix socioeconomic theory with biology, such as Charles Murray, Nicolas Wade and Steven Pinker, have gained prominence in today’s raging debate on wealth inequality and economics of the post-2008 world. Curious people, especially the smartest generation, want explanations as to why there is so much poverty and wealth inequality and are growing skeptical of the politically correct, leftist chants that the government is not spending or doing enough. As Facebook, Uber, Tesla and Snapchat valuations enter escape velocity and the stock market keeps going up, the demarcation between the winners and losers of society, the haves and have-nots, has never been so obvious. Instead of saying, ‘We need to spread the wealth so the unfortunate can advance,’ now it’s, ‘Due to genetics, the poor are in an intractable situation and soaking the rich won’t help.’