[LudwigNagasena]

Does that assertion suppose to convey any information? It seems you can put any random nouns into your comparison and the meaning won’t change.

> as any other social construct like cheese, boat races or reading

> as any other social construct like HackerNews, children or milk

> as any other social construct like cars, transgenderism or pencils

> as any other social construct like social, construct or like

[kelseyfrog]

> Does that assertion suppose to convey any information?

Yes, I'm assuming you're familiar with the topic.

[LudwigNagasena]

I am not familiar enough to understand what information you are trying to convey using that term. Can you confirm that IQ is a social construct in exactly the same way all other things I listed are social constructs?

[kelseyfrog]

I'm using it in the same way as Berger and Luckmann.

[LudwigNagasena]

Then it seems extremely disingenuous that you only mention money, God and nationality as if you have an axe to grind. Why not say that it is a social construct like the Global Warming, the Holocaust and gender dysphoria?

[kelseyfrog]

I chose them because I know my audience.

HN members on average hold views on these topics that are more apt to view as socially constructed than other topics. By focusing on these topics, we can explore why they might be socially constructed and why those reasons are necessary and sufficient. Once establishing that, we can examine IQ to see if they apply as well.

Don't mistake me bringing them up as an endorsement or critique of them in and of themselves. Besides, bringing up global warning, the holocaust, and gender dysphoria will inevitably attract follow-ons who want to debate the validity of those topics.

I'm not here to do that. What I want to establish is what the salient aspects you think constitute a social construct by using these topics as an example. If you want to switch to a different set, by all means, go ahead and choose them instead. I personally think it will be a less productive discussion, but I'm willing to play along.

[LudwigNagasena]

> I chose them because I know my audience.

I don't know what you mean by that, but to me it gives an impression of run-off-the-mill bashing of "fake" and "bad" things like gender, race, religion, capitalism, nationality that we should re-think and re-make where "social construct" is used as an ambiguous slur by someone who learned about it on Reddit or BuzzFeed. I guess I wasn't the intended audience of that comparison.

> What I want to establish is what the salient aspects you think constitute a social construct by using these topics as an example.

I usually interpret "a social construct" in a way that ranges from being a synonym for "a social contract" to a synonym for something like Kantian appearance (insofar as conception of any object in mind is partly influenced by social institutions) depending on context. But many people seem to make it extremely hard to understand what they mean exactly. So providing examples helps understand what is being asserted. If someone starts talking that X is a social construct just like all that other bad stuff, asking them whether good stuff is a social construct helps ensure that they aren't engaged in agenda-posting or, at least, have far less wiggle room for pushing their rhetoric.