Thursday, March 26, 2015

Coming home

Photo by Shawn


Dear readers,

I have returned to my old website, after being expelled from The Unz Review. The immediate cause was my decision to close commenting on my last column. A catfight was developing between myself and Ron Unz in the comments, and I wanted to give the two of us time to cool off. I also needed time to write my next column, which would have replied in detail to two of his criticisms. Ron felt I was violating his freedom of speech and promptly blocked access to my author's account.

This may be all for the best. In the heat of anger, people say certain things they had previously kept quiet about. Ron was still resentful over my criticisms of his article "Race, IQ, and Wealth," which he had published some three years ago (Unz, 2012; Frost, 2012a, 2012b, 2012c). I thought his thinking had evolved since then, particularly with the latest findings by Piffer (2013, see also Frost, 2014). Apparently not. 

It's important not to lose sight of the big picture. The Unz Review is still doing good work by assisting writers like Steve Sailer and Razib Khan, and others may join them in the future. But it is very unlikely that I will return there.


Note 

I don't wish to be drawn into a tedious argument over "I say, he says." For what it's worth, I did not delete any comments that Ron made in reply to my criticisms of his 2012 article. He may be thinking of an email exchange between the two of us, which was partly reproduced in Frost (2012b). In the time I've known him, I've only deleted one of his comments, and that was the one he left after I had closed commenting on my last column.


References 

Frost, P. (2012a). Ron Unz on Race, IQ, and Wealth, Evo and Proud, July 21,
http://www.evoandproud.blogspot.ca/2012/07/ron-unz-on-race-iq-and-wealth.html 

Frost, P. (2012b). More on Race, IQ, and Wealth, Evo and Proud, July 28
http://www.evoandproud.blogspot.ca/2012/07/more-on-race-iq-and-wealth.html 

Frost, P. (2012c). He who pays the piper, Evo and Proud, August 18
http://www.evoandproud.blogspot.ca/2012/08/he-who-pays-piper.html 

Frost, P. (2014). Population differences in intellectual capacity: a new polygenic analysis, Evo and Proud, March 8
http://evoandproud.blogspot.ca/2014/03/population-differences-in-intellectual.html 

Piffer, D. (2013). Factor analysis of population allele frequencies as a simple, novel method of detecting signals of recent polygenic selection: The example of educational attainment and IQ, Interdisciplinary Bio Central, provisional manuscript
http://www.ibc7.org/article/journal_v.php?sid=312 

Unz, R. (2012). Race, IQ, and Wealth, The American Conservative, July 18.
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/race-iq-and-wealth/

8 comments:

Luke Lea said...

Too bad in a way. You probably got more readers over there, I'm guessing. But this site is more beautiful by far. Anyway, maturity was never Unz's long suit.

Anonymous said...

Welcome home, Peter.

JayMan said...

It's unfortunate, but I have to say, I did see it coming. Anyways, glad you're up and running again. I look forward to more posts!

Sean said...

I think Ron is busy being the logistical cornerstone of his site, not completely researching his every comment. But he is quite a figure now, and that entails being held to the fire with even casual remarks.

The evidence isn't necessarily the main determinant of what scientists say they believe. In 'Better Angels' Pinker says of biological (genetic) change ‘At least for the time being, we have no need for that hypothesis.’

Anonymous said...

Welcome back. I'm probably the odd-man out, usually am, but my impression of Unz is such that I've made the decision to avoid him and his ventures.

I'm thrilled to see you back and posting on a site that I will actually read.

Sean said...

I hope Ron Unz will come here to comment on anything that interests him. Chris Crawford too.

A lot of HBD community criticism is not really useful. An old fashioned taffy pull leads to a brutal mugging in the wider world. Ideas need to be hit with everything but the kitchen sink.

reiner Tor said...

I visit Ron's site often, so I might read posts here more sporadically. But probably I'll come later on, too.

reiner Tor said...

Are you back at Ron's site? That sounds great!