Henry Farrell and Matt Yglesias cringe when they hear certain pundits described as bold for saying majoritarian but ultimately probably incorrect things about race and IQ:
In particular, [Will] Saletan [and Ross Douthat and Andrew Sullivan] seem to have convinced themselves that there's overwhelming opposition in public opinion to the view that whites are intrinsically smarter than blacks and also that there's strong scientific consensus in favor of that hypothesis. As best I can tell, however, neither is true. The "black genes make you dumb" crowd is siding with widely-held popular prejudice against what most researchers believe.
Annoying indeed. But of course, they don't feel courageous for taking a position that flies in the face of public opinion. They feel courageous because what their saying flies in the face of scientific consensus and because their friends, colleagues, and peers generally don't regard brash - if counterintuitive - foolishness as particularly redeeming or particularly seemly, especially when the conclusions are deeply racist in effect.
