How Can This Be ?

[lizbud]

Maybe he didn't realize how widely his comments would be heard.
Maybe it's his advancing age? Who knows, but they repeated some of
his earlier public statements which were also controversial, to say the
least. Like these,,,,,


"Watson had made controversial remarks in the past. In 1997, Britain's Sunday Telegraph quoted Watson as saying that if a gene for homosexuality were isolated, women who find that their unborn child has the gene should be allowed to have an abortion.

During a lecture tour in 2000, he suggested there might be links between skin color and sexual prowess, and between a person's weight and their level of ambition.

And in a British TV documentary that aired in 2003, Watson suggested that stupidity was a genetic disease that should be treated."
__________________

[IRescue452]

Maybe he has the genetic disease for stupidity.

[sweetpatata6]

um idk what to say. He's a jerk.

[Karen]

Hey, as much as we'd like all the genius scientists in this world to all be perfect people, we have to admit they are flawed human beings as well.

These statements don't take away from the amazing and hard work he has done, but in this odd, celebrity-obsessed culture, anything anyone famous says is immediately pounced on as news, even if it's a dumb remark.

[Catty1]

Not to mention that most, if not all, intelligence tests are based on a middle-class white American norm.

Heck - with some personality tests up here that come from the USA, it's always mentioned that there can be a bias...and with two cultures so much alike in so many ways...

James Watson - one has to look at the generation he comes from, I think. He learned a lot of attitudes as a kid - we all do - and his research didn't change that completely.

JMO

[Catlady711]

in this odd, celebrity-obsessed culture, anything anyone famous says is immediately pounced on as news, even if it's a dumb remark.

Exactly. Think about how WE would be portrayed by the media if they hounded and highly publicized every dumb or misspoken remark we made daily. I shudder to think of it. I certainly don't envy people having to live a fishbowl existence surrounded by media people every day of your life.

[lizbud]

Hey, as much as we'd like all the genius scientists in this world to all be perfect people, we have to admit they are flawed human beings as well.

Perhaps you're right Karen. I just think an intelligent person has no excuse
for ignorant statements.

[Suki Wingy]

People have different types of intellegence. I, for one, love genetics and will swallow a college level book, but faced with the prospect of large equations and many numbers I often loose it. That doesn't neccisarily mean I agree with anything he said.
I see it that his brain is wired such that he can comprehend very complicated aspects of once science, but another, such as brain studdies is a mystery.

[Lady's Human]

The history of the world, especially science, is littered with people who were brilliant in one discipline but absolute dolts in others.

[Cincy'sMom]

And in a British TV documentary that aired in 2003, Watson suggested that stupidity was a genetic disease that should be treated."
__________________

But Ron White says, "You can't fix stupid"

Sorry, first thing I thought of. Too much Blue Color Radio!