I’m not as fascinated by ideas of innate intelligence as a lot of techie people seem to be. I also hold values of equality and human dignity somewhat more strongly than the “fairness” invoked by e.g. opponents of affirmative action–so even if a lot of the “general intelligence is meaningful, measurable, and genetically determined” stuff were to be shown true, it wouldn’t change my political commitments.

So even though it wouldn’t really matter, I recalled hearing that the science in this book was sketchy somehow, and that was about it.

Hoo boy.

This video patiently explains:

• just how much begging the question hides within both the concepts and the modes of analysis invoked by the authors
• the intellectual dishonesty evident in the misrepresentation of cited studies
• heritability doesn’t mean what the authors have come to say it means, nor what you probably think it means
• the connections between Nazi-era eugenics and the research the authors cite being not (just) a matter of shared ideology, but actual follow-the-money material support from their institutions

Overall, I would highly recommend checking it out, because the influence of this work and its weird little online devotees has been such that even if you know you are 100% opposed to its political conclusions, you may have unknowingly absorbed some of its false premises.