Human Origins
John Derbyshire: A Useful Darwinian Racist
The racist online journal VDare hosts former National Review writer John Derbyshire. He is currently hitting out at so-called “creationism” again, including a post I wrote here. From “David Klinghoffer Responds To Derb, And It’s ‘Like Being Savaged By A Dead Sheep’”:
This response was from David Klinghoffer, whom I remember very dimly from across the editorial table at National Review. The gist of it is that I am a hatefully hateful person full of hate, and that this is the fault of Charles Darwin in some way I can’t be bothered to figure out.
His memory of sitting “across the editorial table” from me may be dim because we’ve never sat across an editorial table from each other. I don’t remember meeting him at all. As to his being “hateful,” in the article he links to I wrote that “I doubt [Derbyshire] or [Razib] Khan is a hateful person.” But since I don’t know Derbyshire, I couldn’t really say.
Encourage a Racist?
Dead sheep or not, I didn’t intend to “savage” Derbyshire. I wanted to encourage him in his writing. That’s right, because I don’t think anyone is turned to racism by VDare or The Unz Review. Bigots seek those places out to have their prejudices stroked.
But then why encourage him? Because he’s useful.
The point he “can’t be bothered” to grasp is that Darwinian evolution will never succeed in disentangling itself from racism because it must always have its “official subhuman.” That was Denyse O’Leary’s observation. Many Darwinists prefer not to admit as much to themselves. In their avoidance of the truth, some go to absurd lengths. You may recall the professor who decried me for reminding evolutionists of their theory’s ugly history. See, “According to Biologist Nathan Lents, It’s ‘Racist’ to Invite Condemnation of Racism.”
Derbyshire and others who populate racist websites with material on this theme — the link between evolution and racism — serve a helpful purpose in illustrating my point. It’s really Dr. Lents, not me, who should be savaging them.
Photo: John Derbyshire (center) discusses “6 Ways Race Realism Can Go Mainstream,” via YouTube (screen shot).