The Hereditarian Left

Genetics, Psychology and the Welfare State

I have do mostly done book reviews. So I thought for a while to the same The Cult of Smart by Freddie DeBoer. Yet I thought it would be better to expand and make a more broad array of the “hereditarian left” a loose label that encompasses the late James Flynn, Robert Plomin, Steven Pinker, Kathryn Paige Harden, Scott Alexander and Tracing Woodgrains. The names I mentioned certainly have wide array of ideologies ranging from Marxism to libertarianism yet to some degree or less they in the particularly idiosyncratic American context stay opposed to conservatism.

To put it in simple terms in general the American left as well the left everywhere mostly has taken a position that could be considered blank-slatist that is basically affirming that students can reach with good education anything. This position in the nurture-nature debate takes the environmentalist position against the genetic position. Now this has an explanation post-World War II as hereditarian though rather a right-wing one like American philosopher Nathan Cofnas has argued it was difficult for scientists tough argue for a genetic position. Not only was not enough evidence back when the research in genetics was considerably less advanced than in the present but atrocities carried in Holocaust by the Nazi regime as well as some local collaborators elsewhere in Europe was so massive that there was a moment to say goodbye to eugenics and with that to most hereditarian thinking (exceptions were made in medicine where there was the belief that some diseases were genetically transmittable) .

Freddie DeBoer would may be the most known but basically the argument of the “hereditarian left” is that while acknowledging the atrocities done by discourses of eugenics, scientific research shows that human are not blank-slates that individual differences between individuals are due to genes including in issues like intelligence. Now people that haven’t read his book tend to argue that he is saying there are ethnic gaps in intelligence but nowhere in the book he made that statement.

Having said that what if there were ethnic gaps in intelligence if tests like PISA and World Bank Harmonized Test Scores are used as proxy for IQ it would make sense to think there are indeed. Now Peru scores better in PISA than Argentina and Kenya scores better than Albania at the World Bank Harmonized Test Scores. The idea of East Asians, Europeans, Latin American and Africans following a linear inmutable order of intelligence would be wrong. In fact I would argue true hereditarianism would prove “race realism” wrong.

If someone have put attention International Science Olympiads one of great stories is how Peru has risen particularly in the International Math Olympiad and European Girls Mathematical Olympiad particularly in this contest Peru ranks better than Israel, Japan and Germany. I remember a podcast hosted by Razib Khan when Gregory Cochran argued that contrary to David Reich is likely intelligence research likely would not find surprises. But broader range of IQs of Peru shows the contrary. Is really interesting it might have to early settlements gave rise to urbanization in Pre-Columbia cultures lead to a wider gaps in the Peruvian bell curve this might also explain why Iran does well in International Science Olympiads if ancient civilizations had cities does acted broadening the intelligence range within a population. Yet with few exceptions “race realists” never thought much of Peru and Iran they just try to bend science to justify their pernicious racism.

Another curious case is when “race realists” oppose high skilled immigration. If the “race realists” where serious about intelligence they would use the appeal of US to attract the best and brightest in the world yet given that lately a significant source of immigration is India they scream about “return to the means” arguing that offspring of smart Indian computer scientists would just have a standard Indian IQ which might not be particularly impressive. Yet this fails to acknowledge that India is heavily clustered genetically which due to assortative mating means some groups produce a smart offspring their standard IQ is not the average Indian.

But the issue with acknowledging hereditarianism is not just to own the “race realists” who take advantage of blank-slatist bias of many leftists to appear as “science-oriented”. One issue that Freddie DeBoer mentions in his book is charter schools they are destroying public education with closing schools everywhere and punishing bad students to drop out to do make up of their numbers. If we acknowledge that not all kids are going to succeed in the university pipeline then it would make sense to push for a radical reform. I’m not as against charter schools as Freddie DeBoer. I think charter schools dedicated to students with disabilities, adult students and technical schools work well but if something they are an exception rather than a rule.

Acknowledging hereditarianism doesn’t just mean intelligence is influenced by genes but also behavior. Homelessness is a big problem in Argentina, in Peru is difficult to actually seen homeless people. Argentina has the strongest welfare state and Peru has the weakest welfare state in Latin America. But the issue is alcoholism and drug addiction are bigger problems among populations of European descent than populations of Amerindian descent. Yet solving homelessness is not impossible, Finland did it. In a way, hereditarianism is the strongest case for funding a robust welfare state.

Hereditarianism means acknowledging liberals/leftists are smarter than conservatives. The so called “college gap” is “psychometric gap” as research has shown university-ready students who for some reason didn’t attend higher education end up having similar positions on topics as peers who went to university. So rather than higher education being an indoctrination machine the free flow of ideas leans left.

The term “Elite Human Capital” coined by Russian dissident blogger Anatoly Karlin and popularized by American writer Richard Hanania might have some true to it. To put it bluntly it links high intelligence with liberal political attitudes like support for secularism, feminism, gay rights, ethnic minorities and immigration. While I have talked about the “hereditarian left” some this figures have clearly stark divisions on economics yet on social issues at least the once I mentioned largely agree.

The intersection of socialism and hereditarianism deserve a second look. In Aporia of all places the Canadian Anthropologist Peter Frost argued that socialism should be consider as a result of the process of human evolution if we take Friedrich Engels work seriously.

Hereditarian arguments could be use for poking hole at many arguments of the right. Javier Milei argued that it’s Peronists fault that the country is not Australia yet I think that as Anatoly Karlin has pointed out Chile has one of the most open economies in the world and is as develop as Argentina measures of human capital put in similar numbers in IQ. Since human capital drives economic growth variations in political economy is a secondary factor as productivity is tied to human capital. As such this type of comparisons are irrelevant.

Now I might acknowledge the importance of genetics but in poor countries and even in some unequal middle income countries there big problems like pollution and malnutrition that hinder the intelligence of the population now I not as idealist as saying this countries would score as high as Finland and Estonia in internationalized test scores given that are middle income countries in the Europe Union which due to regulations and strong welfare states lack these problems yet they have less surprising academic results. That is not saying that environmentalism doesn’t matter but it matters more outside of rich countries where with few exceptions lack of food and sanitation are not massive problems. The environment and genetic are tied. The environmental with time becomes genetic, the genetic with time becomes environmental. It needs to be a priority of international community to make sure poor and middle income countries have enough resources to combat pollution and malnutrition.

Human worth is not define by intelligence like with height this seems to vary by population. Any individual is unique and should be value as that even if might present some traits that were evolutionary selected in their population. Intelligence is just another variability.

We live in a world in fear. In which some extremists fear a world that would be less white, less male, less straight and less conservative. Conspiracy theories like The Great Replacement become popular. Now socialist Bolivia allowed Mennonites an ethno-religious group composed of Protestant ethnic-Germans to immigrate there are on path to become majority in a near future. This example shows that people just move where they think they have would have a better for future for themselves and their families. Immigrants from Latin America, Africa, Middle East and Asia are just doing what Mennonites in Bolivia are doing seeking a better future. Imperialists have a destabilized the Global South is difficult to blame them for not wanting to escape some dangerous situations.

I think the left should embrace the research on behavioral genetics that argues that individual traits are the result of the interaction of environment and genetics. That populations tend to cluster some traits as product of environmental adaptation. That the human value is independent of any trait or the belonging to a certain population. That eugenics has a cruel legacy and still represents a risk to world. That human differences are what makes people special. That things being more hereditarian means the need of welfare state is stronger than before.

I don’t know how many people I would convince if any. I think that not acknowledging scientific research on this topic is akin to creationism. In a way the blank-slate is the God of left. Like a scripture it cannot be challenged or any would dare to it would be attacked as an heretic. But unlike conservatives who denounce the left while not acknowledging that there side is pushing blank-slatist public policies like charter schools or outright embracing anti-scientific theories like creationism. I would speak against my camp. That being said I believe that opposing racism, xenophobia, homophobia and sexism should still be at the core of the values for the left but after the death of certain God the discussions around it would be more honest.

I believe that socialism is the highest form of politics because it is highest cognitive process to thrive as a society. Scandinavians do best than most countries not just in standardized tests they produce more music, literature, art and cinema than the small size and population would predict in a way their welfare states made their populations more productive. I remember a story about how anarchist employees at Spotify managed to offer a free plan which now in great part explains the dominance of Scandinavian tech giant of the music industry.

I consider myself an anti-Stalinist leftist but I respect that the countries in the Soviet Bloc gave the tools to students to thrive independent of their economic conditions. In many of the International Science Olympiads a significant number of medals are won not by fancy students from a posh school in the Anglosphere but by humble students from small countries like Romania and Bulgaria. I hope the Zohran Mamdanis of the future learn a lesson from that.