Is it right to shut up this jerk?

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 Is it right to shut up this jerk?
by Ari Siletz
08-Sep-2011
 

Iranian.com has the moto, “Nothing is sacred,” Satoshi Kanazawa’s website says, “Prepare to be offended.” Same thing, almost. But Kanazawa is an evolutionary psychologist at the London School of Economics, so when he offends he sometimes gets world-class insulted commenters piling on him. Despite the elite source of these attacks, their texture is fundamentally more academic versions of what we see from IC users who just don’t like an idea, can’t properly explain why and often put their foot in their mouths trying. Here are some example attacks on Kanasawa.

1. In 2011 article in Psychology Today Kanazawa claimed to show that black women are less physically attractive than non-black women.  The article caused enough raucous that it apparently threatened funding for the study of evolutionary psychology; enough to cause 68 leading pros in the field to apologize in this way: “The principle of applying evolutionary theory to the study of human psychology and behaviour is sound, and there is a great deal of high-quality, nuanced, culturally-sensitive evolutionary research ongoing in the UK and elsewhere today." Nevermind the merits of Kanazawa’s article, but what’s this “culturally sensitive” business!? Which chapter in freshman science books is titled, “Cultural Sensitivity Corrections to Newton’s Laws of Motion?” By the way Kanazawa’ was banished from blogging on Psychology Today because of the article.

2. In 2007 Kanzawa published a book explaining why attractive people are inclined to have more daughters than sons. After showing that the theory of evolution predicts this, he presented data that showed attractive people are %26 less likely to have sons than daughters. His critics clobbered him with the fact that more careful data analysis shows that attractive people are only 8% more likely to have daughters, and so Kanzawa was wrong. Wait a minute! He may have been wrong about the numbers, but his prediction was essentially correct. Attractive people do have more daughters than sons, whether by 26% fewer sons or 8% more daughters. Rather than paying attention to what he got right—which was valuable new insight-- his critics went after what he got wrong in an attempt to squash this line of inquiry altogether.

3. Way back in the year 2000 Kanazawa coauthored a book titled, Order by Accident: The Origins and Consequences of Conformity in Contemporary Japan. 11 years later, just after the article about black women, an Amazon.com user decided to “review” this decade-old book. The user says, “Consider the source! The co-author of this book, Satoshi Kanazawa, is the very same Satoshi Kanazawa who writes in Psychology Today that Black Women are "less attractive" than other women (?!) because of evolutionary selection, that all women are prostitutes and that prostitution is a favored outcome of evolutionary selection…”

But what did the authors say in the specific book being reviewed? If there is an insidious attempt in the book to propagate a falsehood, that is what needs to be pointed out and challenged, not what the author has written elsewhere. Amazingly 2 out of 7 readers found this “review” useful!

Kanazawa is among the often-wrong sometimes-right intellectuals I oppose most. You can be sure that what he writes makes its way to the most agenda filled websites as supporting evidence. He describes himself as a "Scientific fundamentalist" and favors nuking all Muslims--seriously! Yet when this clever mind writes an article attempting to explain why suicide bombers are all Muslim, I read carefully. Hint, it has nothing directly to do with Islam. 

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more from Ari Siletz
 
bahmani

70% of Japanese are racists

by bahmani on

One can use statistics to prove anything.

//factsanddetails.com/japan.php?itemid=632&ca...

Doing it to make a point is where the malice comes in. Everyone knows that Japanese don't like foreigners, their press consistently refer to themselves as a mono-racial society and so on. Their traditional and institutionalized hatred of black people, merely epic and inarguable. To be considered rebellious, Japanese teens tell their parents they like Black music and film idols.

The research into the attractiveness of black women etc. definitely motivated, probably because most black women probably tend to be taller (and stronger in every way) than Japanese men.

However, if statistically there are more Asians on this planet, and if they tend to be more racist than not, especially towards black people, then the stats happen to prove that more people on this planet (Asians), find black women to be unattractive. Because they are racists. I wonder if US/European big business thinks about this at all when they trade negotiate their jobs away to them?

Retarded as all of this is, if you consider Halle Berry, Rhianna, or dare I suggest (Gulp!) Vanessa Williams... Uh where was I?... Oh yeah, retarded as this sounds, it can be argued by shits like Kanazawa, to be statistically accurate and proof of using stats to make an utterly retarded point.

The grin on Kanazawa's face is my main concern though, as to his motives and intent, and so I'd say, he definitely deserves a really good slap in the face, one that knocks him off his seat, just for his stupid grin, but that would be best delivered at a sake bar, one that you and I would most likely not be welcome at.

To read more bahmani posts visit: //brucebahmani.blogspot.com/


Ari Siletz

Pendar

by Ari Siletz on

'Cuz he is a jerk. Just because we evolved to be this way or that don't mean we have to act this way or that. Kanazawa consistently fails to clarify this important point for his readers.


Ari Siletz

Divaneh

by Ari Siletz on

The good news is that the rich and powerful tend to have more sons. This famous Trivers-Willard hypothesis has been documented across the globe and across time for both people and animals from wealthy German landowners of 17-18th centuries to US presidents, Vice presidents, and cabinet secretaries. Now what happens in the case of Hollywood celebs who are both beautiful and rich? I don't even want to think about it because it makes me jealous...but I think they have more daughters. So beauty trumps the Dollar.


پندارنیک

I dare to ask...

by پندارنیک on

Why do you call this man a jerk?

 

Nothing is sacred, even its nothingness............(??)


divaneh

Logical conclusions

by divaneh on

The logical conclusion is that ugly people are more likely to have sons. Looking at some of my mates, there is some truth in this theory.


hass

Bullshit

by hass on

Sorry but he's engaging in a very simplistic case of misleading. No one "dares" ask if an American black man is black first or American first? Really? Why not? Most of the Muslims in Europe are recent immigrant arrivals so naturally they would identify with their own commonalities - wait a generation and then ask them.


Tavana

Muslim or Non-Muslim?

by Tavana on

What difference does that make when your homeland is being occupied by the foreign invaders, your neighbors are being tortured in 'Abu Ghoraib' prison & the occupiers flag you as a 'terrorist' or as an 'insurgent' if you fight back???


Ari Siletz

You're welcome Abarmard

by Ari Siletz on

Thankfully, thought is not the exclusive property of those we agree with. That would be very boring.


Abarmard

Very interesting

by Abarmard on

Thanks Ari