Just a few months ago, the National Review was forced to fire or distance themselves from not one, but two overt white nationalists who had been writing for the publication for years.

So it’s not really surprising to find editor Robert VerBruggen mounting a vociferous defense of Jason Richwine and “scientific racism” research; it’s what they do. (Notice that VerBruggen never mentions Richwine’s articles for the white nationalist website alternativeright.com.)

Heritage Was Wrong.

As you no doubt have already heard, on Friday the Heritage Foundation accepted the resignation of one Jason Richwine, who in 2009 had completed a Harvard dissertation in which he probed the nexus between immigration and IQ.

The decision revealed a shocking unwillingness on the part of Heritage to stand up to bullying and protect the academic freedom of its researchers. Perhaps the only good thing to emerge from all this has been the wide-scale distribution of the dissertation itself, a worthy if highly debatable document. It’s a pity that none of Richwine’s detractors seem to have seriously engaged the paper, because an actual discussion of the ideas therein would be fruitful.

VerBruggen is 100% on board with Richwine’s contention that Latinos are not as smart as white people — and he explicitly wants to use this research to drive US immigration policies:

It may be unseemly to ask what might happen with Hispanic IQ as Hispanics move from immigration to assimilation. But given the above facts, and given the reality of large-scale Hispanic immigration to the U.S., there is no denying that the answer is relevant to the future of this country.

Republicans have no trouble believing in the “science” of white racial superiority, and want to use it to disenfranchise people they consider less intelligent than themselves…

But climate change? That’s a hoax.