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Comment by maerF0x0 | Hacker News Reader

you never know. We might be able to hit a critical mass with Authoritarian regimes regulating reproduction, and through gene editing.

Perhaps when we finally translate "unintelligent people" into "vermin" we'll do what many previous iterations of society have done... genocide.

Part of this is literally possible. A big part of made stark to point out that we should be careful in the way our language dehumanizes people of below average intelligence. They're still part of our species, and biological history.

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Many things are true simultaneously. Genocide is a moral abomination, and we should be vigilant in guarding against it and its precursors. And folks with below average intelligence are just as human as everyone else, deserving of the same respect and the same rights. And there are many contemporary factors that would seem to make high IQ people less likely to procreate low IQ people--including the high cost (including trade-off costs) of children and the ready availability of contraceptives. And long term downward pressure on IQ would be a disaster for our civilization and a danger to our species.

We can't let the ghosts of eugenicists past scare us away from asking important questions. Avoiding the awful mistakes of the past will require care and diligence, and can be (must be!) done without embracing the easy path of reactionary "moral" ignorance.

> including the high cost (including trade-off costs) of children

I honestly think part of it is like Parkinson's law, but for resources to spend on children -- Children are expensive to rich people largely because rich people spend lots on their children. (too much?) Children mostly thrive in opportunity and resources (so long as it isn't pacifying their desire to achieve for themselves).

On the tradeoffs, this is pure psychology. Generations of people who have shirked social responsibility, and maximized selfishness. "Me" generation + "me me me" generation and all that. Time for people who see society, humanity, and duty as more beneficial than getting a bunch of likes on TikTok for doing something that inconveniences others (like dancing in a crosswalk or something) .

200 ok /Rant

Until we treat "unintelligent" people in our society with compassion and respect I think "intelligent" is a misnomer for the remaining demographic.

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