MAOA Genes and Violence: What My Critics Get Wrong About Genetics & Race
Responding to the curious about the genetics of violence...
Don’t worry, my fellow nerds. I will never leave you behind!
I recently weighed in on the nontroversy around my 2015 remarks with Joe Rogan about genetics and race. For what it’s worth I favor shutting down Rogan’s show and shutting down Spotify altogether.
I’m against Chinese-funded radicalization technology being deployed in America. That includes TikTok, Facebook, and, yes Spotify. I’ve called for my friend Peter Thiel to leave the Facebook board… for years.
Unfortunately the matter continues and I am pursuing legal action against Joe Rogan and Spotify in the not so distant future. Stay tuned. I am currently in a lawsuit with the Huffington Post/BuzzFeed. It’s before the 5th Circuit on appeal.
My generalized views on genetics are available elsewhere and no, unlike Joe, I’m not some jabroni.
I have invested and continue to invest in genetics company. I’m the CEO of Traitwell.com, the only non-foreign funded genetics company in America.
But some in the professional black commentariat has decided I deserve crucifixion and responded to the clip by essentially calling me a racist. OK then.
Among them was Thomas Chatterton Williams of the Atlantic and Ibrahim X. Kendi of Boston University, both of whom use my 2015 30 second clip to make me say something I didn’t say.
You can watch that clip here.
The original is posted by Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs fame.
By way of background Charles and I share the same name but little else and he’s been more than a little bit obsessed with me over the years. Whenever there’s a controversy out there in the world he harps upon things I’ve said, takes them out of context, and tries to get other people riled up. He knows that I can’t respond on Twitter so he gets a free shot. OK then. In the past I’ve been a little mean to Charles, who like me, has made the transition from the right-wing world to the more rational one.
In any event, now that you’ve gotten the background.
Here’s Thomas Chatterton Williams, a writer at the Atlantic.
Personally, I wouldn’t write for a publication whose proprietor — Laurene Powell Jobs — vacationed with Ghislaine Maxwell.
Nor would I, if I were Mr. Kendi and funded to the tune of $10M by Jack Dorsey who, is, in turn, funded by the Chinese, be making a big deal about “racist logic.”
Logic is by its own definition anti-racist. If you believe, like our former First Lady did — that the Socratic Method is racist — come out and stay so.
Promoting division isn’t my thing.
Admittedly that’s not my most artful 30 some odd seconds but I’m sure you could take 30 seconds out of anyone’s 3-hour long discussion and you can make them look foolish.
The purpose of the show is to be informal and not to be rigorous. Honestly I wouldn’t go on it again and I’ve asked for them to pull down my video and post an explanation by me.
But some friends of mine have asked me to respond to the charges MAOA. I’m a science fan and supporter.
Even Joe Rogan asked for things like that back in the day.
The MAOA gene controls production of the MAOA enzyme, which is thought to impact impulse control, attention span and the production of hormones like dopamine and serotonin. Individuals who have alternative forms of the gene may not manufacture adequate amounts of the enzyme. The gene was first linked to impulsive violence by the Dutch doctor Han Brunner in the late 1970s, based on a pedigree study of a family with high prevalence of domestic abuse and aggression. Completely knocking out the gene in mice provided further evidence: the mice became ferocious (Shih, 1995). A landmark longitudinal study of 1,000 children from New Zealand by Moffat and Caspi (2002), known as the "Dunedin Study" confirmed Brunner's findings in humans. This suggested an interaction between the alternative MAOA gene alleles and childhood domestic abuse. Subsequently other studies have been done. When combined in a meta-analysis the association was confirmed by Byrd and Manuck (2014). Further studies may always change this — that’s science for you — but that is evidence to date.
The MAOA alleles are not evenly distributed among population groups. The allele most strongly linked to impulsive aggression contains two repeats (2R) and has been found in 5.5% of Black men, 0.1\% of Caucasian men, and 0.00067% of Asian men (see Beaver et. al 2012, 2014). This means the gene may help us to understand differing levels of the associated behaviour among those populations, though other factors must certainly be taken into account.
In the future, the MAOA gene may provide an effective target for treatment of certain pathological behaviours using targeted medication. Further study is required. Trust, but verify, the science.
Selected References
Beaver KM, Wright JP, Boutwell BB, Barnes JC, DeLisi M, Vaughn MG (2012). "Exploring the association between the 2-repeat allele of the MAOA gene promoter polymorphism and psychopathic personality traits, arrests, incarceration, and lifetime antisocial behavior". Personality and Individual Differences. 54 (2): 164–168.
Beaver KM, Barnes JC, Boutwell BB (September 2014). "The 2-repeat allele of the MAOA gene confers an increased risk for shooting and stabbing behaviors". The Psychiatric Quarterly. 85 (3): 257–65.
Byrd, A. L., and Manuck, S. B. (2014). MAOA, childhood maltreatment, and antisocial behavior: Meta-analysis of a gene-environment interaction. Biological Psychiatry, 75(1), 9–17.
Plomin R. et al. Behavioral Genetics (2018).
Raine, Adrian. The Anatomy of Violence: the Biological Roots of Crime (2013)
I'm still laughing and processing that a Scotsman talked me into getting a DNA test and the results say I'm 27% Scotsman; what! I had no idea my tribe extended this direction and very excited I found this out. 35% England, 27% Scotland, 19% Ireland, 10% Sweden, 9% Wales. Guess I have even more reason to have affinity for the writer; and learn my history. Also uploaded my ancestry ged data to traitwell for the inbred jed calculation and other insightful info I look forward to gleaning.