random_pr

probably more fun to read a book on cognitive biases than it would be to read wikipedia pages: https://intelligence.org/2015/03/12/rationality-ai-zombies/

our best guess is that homosexuality is partly explained by genetics, not fully. there's lots of headlines saying "genetic link for homosexuality found", which is ambiguous, so it's an understandable mistake.

by partly, I mean that we've found larger genetic links between 'propensity to work hard', and for IQ, than we have for homosexuality.

in the say way, I think we have indeed found some manner of link between genetics and depression, but again, it's sort of a tenuous thing.

because it isn't obviously racist. you can't just say "more african americans and hispanics are arrested than whites or asians, therefore, police are targeting african americans and hispanics unfairly." that's not how it works.

wrt. drug-related crimes, sure, there seems to be a weird disparity (does it take into account 'casual' drug users vs. 'hardcore' drug users?).

wrt. violent crime, however, the percent of arrestees who are black matches very closely with the percent of victims who say their assailant was black. and this has been constant throughout thirty years of crime victimization surveys. see here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_crime_in_the_United_St... and https://www.ncjrs.gov/App/Publications/abstract.aspx?ID=2560...

you can't say that african americans are arrested at unfair rates. it's more nuanced than that: african americans are probably arrested unfairly for drug-related crimes, but they probably aren't for violent crimes.

unfortunately, I think this is a compounding problem: more african american men in prison means more single-parent households (that are probably also in poverty), which means more crime, which means more african american men in prison.

you should always write under a pseudonym: http://cypherpunks.venona.com/date/1993/10/msg00759.html

people know that it refers to the chinese government, rather than the people.

you can be more specific if you'd like, but it is unnecessary.

The name sounds more like a rehabilitation centre than a school. I think the average person is going to mistake it for 'Recourse Centre' (which probably is a rehabilitation centre somewhere).

Well I'm glad that you seem totally qualified to be our great arbiter of racism. What would we do without you?

The word is separate from the political beliefs of the person who happened to come up with it (or popularize it) first.

Your post is very politicized. There is no use arguing politics.

http://lesswrong.com/lw/gw/politics_is_the_mindkiller/

An issue with problems like this, that are obviously bad, is that only positive examples are tested, or only examples that would increase the estimate of the scope of the problem. I doubt the 'Walk Free Foundation' has tested equally for negative examples, and would look for ways to lower their estimates (as one has to do to fit reality).

This is a good related article on the early days of WotC: http://www.salon.com/2001/03/23/wizards/