I hear you saying that women and men are measurably different in their political and social views; and that whites, blacks, Hispanics, and Asians are likewise different in their views.
(I broadly agree, although I think you exaggerate on the political-party issue specifically — and indeed to the point of logical inconsistency. You note that 45% of men voted for a center-left candidate, and then say that “women support the left and men do not”. These statements are logical contraries) and cannot both be true.)
However then I hear you saying that there is more intellectual diversity among “an exclusively middle class white male group” than among a demographically diverse group. This statement is a direct contradiction of your (correct) point that different demographic groups are measurably different in their views.
Of course, you’ve read my above comment and so you already know that I think there is a good reason that reasonable people from different backgrounds can arrive at different views; namely that they are in possession of different information about the world.
There would likely be more intellectual diversity among a demographically diverse group randomly selected from the general population than there would be among a homogenous group randomly selected from one demographic within that population. However, if the demographically homogenous group was comprised of specialists of diverse fields of study, they would likely be more intellectually diverse than the demographically diverse group selected from the general population.
What I said was, “There is likely to be more intellectual diversity between an exclusively middle class white male group comprising a physicist, a lawyer, a mathematician, a programmer, a chemist, a politician, an economist, and a businessman than there is between a demographically diverse group of eight people randomly selected from the general population.” Please pay attention to the bits in bold.
And the qualities of supporting the left or right are not binaries, they are things that come in degrees, like a thing being hot or cold. When I say, “women support the left and men do not,” I mean that more women than men support the left and more men than women support the right. Taken completely out of context, I suppose “women support the left and men do not” could indicate that I meant every woman supports the left and every man supports the right, but that is obvious nonsense. You are twisting my words to fit the most absurd possible interpretation.
I hear you saying that women and men are measurably different in their political and social views; and that whites, blacks, Hispanics, and Asians are likewise different in their views.
(I broadly agree, although I think you exaggerate on the political-party issue specifically — and indeed to the point of logical inconsistency. You note that 45% of men voted for a center-left candidate, and then say that “women support the left and men do not”. These statements are logical contraries) and cannot both be true.)
However then I hear you saying that there is more intellectual diversity among “an exclusively middle class white male group” than among a demographically diverse group. This statement is a direct contradiction of your (correct) point that different demographic groups are measurably different in their views.
Of course, you’ve read my above comment and so you already know that I think there is a good reason that reasonable people from different backgrounds can arrive at different views; namely that they are in possession of different information about the world.
With a bit more charitable interpretation, I think what we are talking about here is within-group variability vs between-group differences.
There would likely be more intellectual diversity among a demographically diverse group randomly selected from the general population than there would be among a homogenous group randomly selected from one demographic within that population. However, if the demographically homogenous group was comprised of specialists of diverse fields of study, they would likely be more intellectually diverse than the demographically diverse group selected from the general population.
What I said was, “There is likely to be more intellectual diversity between an exclusively middle class white male group comprising a physicist, a lawyer, a mathematician, a programmer, a chemist, a politician, an economist, and a businessman than there is between a demographically diverse group of eight people randomly selected from the general population.” Please pay attention to the bits in bold.
And the qualities of supporting the left or right are not binaries, they are things that come in degrees, like a thing being hot or cold. When I say, “women support the left and men do not,” I mean that more women than men support the left and more men than women support the right. Taken completely out of context, I suppose “women support the left and men do not” could indicate that I meant every woman supports the left and every man supports the right, but that is obvious nonsense. You are twisting my words to fit the most absurd possible interpretation.