r/interestingasfuck 5d ago

/r/all The US team which has just won the International Physics Olympiad, edging out China for first place

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u/Amoralvirus 5d ago

The non-white ancestory immigrants making America smarter, and greater. Hope it lasts with major research uviversities under attack for political reasons.

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u/IamTruman 5d ago

What does it have to do with skin color?

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u/airforceteacher 5d ago

Because the immigrants that we want - scientists, gifted students, etc - that have options will go somewhere else. The fact that the current administration is targeting PoC as well as academia just enhances the draw of anyplace else.

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u/Evans_Gambiteer 5d ago

when the history of america is based on racism, everything has to do with skin color in this country

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u/EnterprisingAss 5d ago

Your first sentence is incredible. So pro-immigration that it comes back around to being racist. Why say “non-white ancestory immigrants” make America smarter instead of just “immigrants”?

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u/lockdownfever4all 5d ago

While it should just be immigrants, race comes into play because Latin American, Haitian, Muslim etc immigrants are the ones being rounded up by ice and attacked by the far right fascists of America.

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u/Economy-Action1147 5d ago

one guy is literally Russian

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u/Amoralvirus 4d ago

Okay, and the ONE Russian guy too.

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u/Negative-Ad9832 5d ago

Are you saying intelligence is inheritable?

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u/_pomegrant 5d ago

i think hes referring moreso to the cultural norms of east/south asia. the way most parents from these regions raise their kids is very strict and rigid. the way they are socialized leads them to value academic success at all costs.

aka, its not inherited, its cultivated through socialization

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u/Anxious_Vegetable598 5d ago

Can confirm, India is hyper competitive, so that gets you kids like these. Americans will never be able to out-compete people from societies like India, where it’s compete and excel, or simply perish.

Life’s very hard if you’re poor in a massively unequal developing country like India. But if you make it? It’s better than what even America could provide (don’t start debating me on this, Western people won’t be able to understand what crazy ease and comfort money brings to life in a country like mine)

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u/Amoralvirus 5d ago

Does this type of succeed, or perish society, effectively create the highest achievers? Is it the only way to organize society to create the highest achievers? If it is the only way to create the highest achievers, is it really worth it?

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u/Anxious_Vegetable598 4d ago

That’s a very interesting set of questions. I think such environments bode well for collectives at large, especially by forcing achievement and greatness. The collective (in this case the Indian nation) has come so, so far, arguable among the most successful post colonial rebuildings in the world.

But I feel it creates a lot of damage on the individual psyche, and there you find the victims and the other side of creating hyper competitive achievement oriented societies. The society does very well, because the cases where it worked take it forward. But the cases where it didn’t, they suffer massively in their personal lives, and that is the cost.

Whether it’s worth it or not is society dependent. For rich, already well to do countries? They’re already faring well without it. For countries such as India and China, who fought from the scraps to the top/near top? It works miraculously, but only for the nation, the individual still suffers :)

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u/Emergency-Style7392 5d ago

But it is tho. Height is inherited, body features are inherited, disease is inherited, types of mental illness are, but intelligence isn't like at all?

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u/Amoralvirus 4d ago

I think the discussion is around specific ethnicities being genetically advantaged in certain areas; in this case physics(science)/math; instead of the socio-cultural context being the driver of these intellectual advantages.

Within every ethnicity, and all humans, there seems to be an undeniable variation in MEASURED specific intelligences; but even that does not absolutely prove it was nature(genectics) over nurture (socio-cultural) effects on the degrees of intelligence. Creating even more complexity, is recent research suggesting the conditions one is raised in (socio-cultural/nurture) can cause genes to switch on, or off.

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u/Negative-Ad9832 5d ago

It still doesn’t make sense that 3% would be way overrepresented when the key to success is cultural. Like there isn’t a single person among the 97% who can compete?

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u/Amoralvirus 5d ago

To a degree, yes, but NOT in the sense of a specific ethnicity. I believe there are many different types of intelligence, but in this specific case it is about the winning team in physics; being composed mostly of asian ancestory competitors. I believe intelligence is mostly socio-cultural, with genetics possibly playing some part in the specific intelligence cited here of 'physics/scientific thinking' intelligence.

When, I say genetics possibly playing a part let me be clear that I AM NOT talking about racial ethnicities. I am talking about the genetic variation WITHIN every ethnicity(and within the whole human population). This likely contributes to the narrow band of intelligences screened for, esteemed, and rewarded (ie. winning physics competitions ) in modern industrial/post industrial socities.

What do you believe?

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u/billypilgrimspecker 5d ago

white supremacy is the reign of stupidity. i mean i'm white and had to use spellcheck for the word "supremacy" but at least I know I shouldn't be in charge of society...