Reply to Re: Let's talk terrorism
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Compared to their number in society, yes. Without more information, I expect 50% women in every job, and 13% blacks, for example. Because I have no reason to believe that there is a structural bias in ability or preference to do certain things.
But women are clearly different from men. They've got boobs, they're usually smaller, with less muscle mass. If there are large physical differences, why would you assume there probably aren't any mental differences? That's illogical.
Same applies to races. For instance, white and black people not only have different skin colours, their facial structure is different as well, and we've lived in very different kinds of habitats for a hundred thousand years. The question in my mind isn't IF genetics affect the abilities of different races, it's what/how significant the differences are, compared to the effects of nurture.
But that doesn't mean it isn't there. I agree that especially something like nursing may well be a thing that more women want to do (but that may not be true either; it may just be a cultural thing and not a genetic thing). But in many other fields, including science and politics (and leadership in general), I don't believe this to be the case.
Why not? If you agree there are (genetic) differences between how men and women think, it seems weird to dismiss the idea that those differences extend to the desire/ability to attain leadership positions as well. In my experience, women are generally much less ambitious than men when it comes to work.
For nursing, I can believe that women may be genetically more likely to want that job. But garbage truck drivers? Why would men want that job, but not women? I don't see any reason for that.
I don't know why, but I'm sure that 95% of garbage truck drivers are men (no, I haven't looked that statistic up
). There's just something about heavy machinery that women seem to find unappealing; I think it's the same reason why boys usually like to play with toy cars and girls like to play with dolls, which, I'm personally convinced through anecdotal evidence, is a natural rather than learned inclination. (I've got a daughter and a half-brother who are the same age, and they've clearly gravitated towards very boyish/girlish activities since they were a few months old, despite receiving as gender-neutral parenting as it could be.)
And I have proof. Neil Degrasse Tyson, a famous black scientist explained that he faced an enormous amount of obstacles that white people did not. As he puts it at the end: Before we start talking about genetic differences, you've got to come up with a system where there's equal opportunity; then we can have that conversation.
He doesn't really cite any specific examples of what kind of obstacles he's faced. Everyone has hardships and meets people who try to deter them from the path they want to take; I'm not at all convinced he's actually had a much harder time than someone else. Instead, since he IS black, he might be unduly attributing the bad experiences he's had to his race.
DISCLAIMER: I'm docking this reply here (at least for the time being). It's already too damn long, and I'm getting too damn drunk. Ducking quotefests long quotefests aggggh
But women are clearly different from men. They've got boobs, they're usually smaller, with less muscle mass. If there are large physical differences, why would you assume there probably aren't any mental differences? That's illogical.
Same applies to races. For instance, white and black people not only have different skin colours, their facial structure is different as well, and we've lived in very different kinds of habitats for a hundred thousand years. The question in my mind isn't IF genetics affect the abilities of different races, it's what/how significant the differences are, compared to the effects of nurture.
But that doesn't mean it isn't there. I agree that especially something like nursing may well be a thing that more women want to do (but that may not be true either; it may just be a cultural thing and not a genetic thing). But in many other fields, including science and politics (and leadership in general), I don't believe this to be the case.
Why not? If you agree there are (genetic) differences between how men and women think, it seems weird to dismiss the idea that those differences extend to the desire/ability to attain leadership positions as well. In my experience, women are generally much less ambitious than men when it comes to work.
For nursing, I can believe that women may be genetically more likely to want that job. But garbage truck drivers? Why would men want that job, but not women? I don't see any reason for that.
I don't know why, but I'm sure that 95% of garbage truck drivers are men (no, I haven't looked that statistic up
). There's just something about heavy machinery that women seem to find unappealing; I think it's the same reason why boys usually like to play with toy cars and girls like to play with dolls, which, I'm personally convinced through anecdotal evidence, is a natural rather than learned inclination. (I've got a daughter and a half-brother who are the same age, and they've clearly gravitated towards very boyish/girlish activities since they were a few months old, despite receiving as gender-neutral parenting as it could be.)And I have proof. Neil Degrasse Tyson, a famous black scientist explained that he faced an enormous amount of obstacles that white people did not. As he puts it at the end: Before we start talking about genetic differences, you've got to come up with a system where there's equal opportunity; then we can have that conversation.
He doesn't really cite any specific examples of what kind of obstacles he's faced. Everyone has hardships and meets people who try to deter them from the path they want to take; I'm not at all convinced he's actually had a much harder time than someone else. Instead, since he IS black, he might be unduly attributing the bad experiences he's had to his race.
DISCLAIMER: I'm docking this reply here (at least for the time being). It's already too damn long, and I'm getting too damn drunk. Ducking quotefests long quotefests aggggh
