| Thanks for taking the time to respond. Just a point: I try to be very careful to not generalize about groups of people with with charged language like "the left has demonized that approach", "despite academia's wishes", "supporting progressive cosmopolitan perspectives", and "victimhood culture". That actively separates people into for/against camps that I find very detrimental to effective discussion. If there's something in my post that smells that I'm doing so, I'd appreciate you pointing it out to me, because I actively work against it, not because I'm trying to hide anything, but because I don't think it accurately describes my beliefs. You mention "the left has … suggested that if a demographic underperforms, it's inherently because of oppression rather than culture or biology." I agree, there are issues there. I've also seen a lot of arguments from just the other side as well: there can't be any oppression because any difference can be accounted for due to culture or biology. I think it's both, and when either side isn't willing to talk about both sides objectively, I'm very hesitant to get both of my arms cut off when I reach out. One phrase that I used that I think may be construed as such would be "tribalism bias", which I believe I'm using in a neutral manner. To be honest, at this point I'm hesitant to even bring up things I've read because I'm afraid you'll consider it part of some suspicious academic agenda. I don't consider myself on the side of the left or the right, though I have a visceral, negative response when I see people generalizing about either, even if there's some justification for it, as it poisons any discussion that might be had to bridge the two. I'm sorry if this comes off as defensive. It definitely is. As I expressed in my initial comment, I think there are a lot of people who are gun-shy about talking about this. Perhaps you consider me too weak or sensitive in reacting this way. It's more of being incredibly reluctant to getting piled on from every side. |