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Post a Comment On: Steve Sailer: iSteve

"(Some) journalists are finally starting to read Obama's autobiography"

14 Comments -

1 – 14 of 14
Blogger dobeln said...

A commenter at Yglesias claim that you have blown your entire credibilty by referring to Obama as "the first black editor of the Harvard Law Review". This is indeed incorrect - he was the first black president of the Harvard law review.

(see:)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama#Early_life_and_career

My guess is that you took the information from that most disreputable of sources, the Washing ton post:

"A Jan. 3 article incorrectly said that Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) was the first black editor of the Harvard Law Review. Obama was the first African American to be elected Law Review president by the publication's editors."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/02/AR2007010201359_pf.html

I assume a correction for this horrible error will be forthcoming shortly. ;)

3/17/07, 6:47 AM

Anonymous Taylor said...

I think it was Heinrich Heine who stressed that autobiographies should not be trusted, that writers would embroider on the way things really were.

That's why I'd be circumspect about placing too much emphasis on Obama's own self-analysis. His identification with his father's African heritage strikes one as psychic compensation for his Afro-Saxoness.

A white racist is someone who believes that white civilisation is superior to black civilisation, and is happy about it. A black racist is someone who believes white civilisation is superior to black civilisation, and is furious about it.

3/17/07, 7:36 AM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Taylor,

Best hope 1488 or Jupiter doesn't realize you just quoted a Jew.

Fred

3/17/07, 12:57 PM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Steve,

I defended you on Yglesias's blog, but I see where your general difficulty lies in defending yourself against charges of racism.

You wrote once that any claims that one race is superior to another are spurious because some races excel in one capability and others in another. The more I think about, this can come across as a little disingenuous.

Liberal anti-racists aren't as impressed with the distance running ability or sprinting ability as they are with intelligence. Outside of sports, which a statistically negligible number of Americans play professionally, our society in general values intelligence far more than running ability. So to say that whites aren't superior to blacks because blacks are more talented at running fast or keeping a beat can sound a little hollow.

That seems to be the crux of the impasse: Liberal anti-racists don't want to touch the tar baby of IQ and genetics out of fears that they will have to acknowledge the black-white IQ gap. They don't want to acknowledge this because, in their view, that would imply that blacks are inferior. You, on the other hand, are clear-eyed about the IQ gap, but feign ignorance about what it implies.

Fred

3/17/07, 2:43 PM

Anonymous Andy Wooster said...

They don't want to acknowledge this because, in their view, that would imply that blacks are inferior. You, on the other hand, are clear-eyed about the IQ gap, but feign ignorance about what it implies.

You've hit upon a real issue within Sailer's writings, Fred.

Sailer's writings can be almost nonsensical at times because he is either unwilling or unable to fully draw out the implications of the racial differences he writes about.

To the anti-racists' credit, they at least seem to realize how rickety the whole multiracial operation is, hence the use of coercion to enforce the system as well as their attacks on race-realism. Sailer seems to think that race-realism will actually *improve* multiracialism.

It all points to a general weakness in Sailer's thinking. The quality of Sailer's writing seems to be directly proportional to the narrowness of his focus. The wider the focus of his writing, the shoddier his work gets. At his most broad (see his theory of "Citizenism"), Sailer is joke-worthy.

3/17/07, 3:58 PM

Blogger Svigor said...

Andy, I think it's squid ink. His conclusions (sanguinity on biodiversity/superiority/supremacy, absurd Citizenism, etc.,) are just the price of doing business (race-realism in journalism).

Whether it's conscious or not is anybody's guess.

3/17/07, 9:11 PM

Blogger Svigor said...

Hell, full-blown WNs do it too - the temptation is just too great. I do it often, though for the purposes of argument only.

Meanwhile, back in cold reality:

http://www.amren.com/mtnews/archives/2007/01/is_there_a_supe.php

3/17/07, 9:15 PM

Anonymous AllanF said...

After reading this post it strikes me Obama maybe a typical case of young man/woman goes to college and gets indoctrinated in identity politics and grievence industry.

Perhaps being home-sick and depressed leaving Hawaii he was particularly open to racial blame gaming.

Except most people get over it once they graduate and get a real job. I don't know. Thoughts?

3/17/07, 11:00 PM

Anonymous joshrandall said...

Did Obama at any time listen to Don Ho? "Tiny bubbles...in the wine...make me happy...make me feel fine..."

3/18/07, 2:07 PM

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Due to his endearing occasional idiosyncrasy and his surname, people rarely dare to put Young Yglesias in his place.

Thank you for pimp-smacking the little ho. The dude should read primary materials before he offers critique. Admitting you're a lazy dipshit does not excuse his slothful, reflexively PC impulses.

His slavish adherence to the most mindless orthodoxy makes me want to vomit. He's too smart for that. If they've got him (and they do) we're still very badly effed.

3/18/07, 4:24 PM

Anonymous Lloyd said...

Obama is hard to classify. His father was Kenyan and he spent a large part of his youth outside of the US. He is not really an 'African American'. African Americans understand that, that's why they have been slow to warm up to him.
The impression he leaves is of an actor posing.
One wonders if his earlier attempt to identify himself -- complete with a nod to Malcolm X -- almost as a black revolutionary was a ploy to get a foothold in Illinois politics.

3/18/07, 7:21 PM

Blogger Audacious Epigone said...

Steve,

I wonder if other commenters have reported to you that their remarks on Yglesias' site have been inexplicably withheld?

Also, there are some pretty nasty accusations about commentary from iSteve readers, although I don't see it in these posts. You may want to call a few of these people out if they're being disingenious.

Incidentally, it wouldn't surprise me that if these comments are being made, they're being dropped by the same people who are pretending to 'discover' them in an effort to smear you. You may want to consider restricting comments to blogger users only so that you can pick this out easily (someone making an ignorant comment having just made his account today is obviously suspicious).

3/19/07, 10:05 PM

Anonymous albatross said...

It's a pretty common thing to see the past in terms of what came after, including your later ideas and beliefs. Try reading a journal entry or note you wrote many years ago, and you'll see this--it's very common for the emotions and beliefs that are expressed in your writing to be pretty different from what you remember of them.

I assume this happened with Obama. Adolescence is always kind of stormy, and he was looking for an identity in high school, but he probably reinterprets a lot of generic adolescent angst in terms of racial ideology he developed more thoroughly in college and as an adult.

3/20/07, 7:13 AM

Anonymous green mamba said...

Also, there are some pretty nasty accusations about commentary from iSteve readers

Let's face it: there's a lot of commentary from iSteve readers that fulfills every liberal's worst stereotype about race realists. As long as people like "1488", Jupiter and Svigor are filling up the comments section with their racist bile, this smear by association is inevitable.

3/20/07, 9:41 AM

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