Dude, calm the fuck down. First up, you're entitled to your opinion, but your opinion (in this case) goes against the point of the site. Downvoting is an integral part of the sift.

Second, no-one is "covering up racism". It's not racism to say that those two dudes look alike. They do, and not because "they all look the same", but because they're both about the same age, with similiar skin tone, hair, facial hair and features.

Is it racist to say that these two people look alike? What about these two? or these two?

You're reading waaay too much into this and creating a storm in a teacup.

Hey! There went my great aunt separated at birth! (My grams would've probably laughed at a handicapped neighbor rapping with a boner, too!)

I found my twin and we are totally cute pool cleaners separated from birth by the orange curtain -- one of us went to a family in like Santa Ana and the other went to a family in Santa Monica. Totally weird, huh?

And like way too far away. How will we be able to raise money and see each other? Can I just be like Kobe and fly a helicopter to see her... him? I hate driving. Raise money for my helicopter.

Shelley Duvall and the Mouth of Sauron from the deleted scenes of The Return of the King... separated at birth? You decide!

I thought I was the only one who noticed the "twins separated at birth!"

>> ^E_Nygma:

^ volumptuous

David Johansen and Mick Jagger: Separated at birth? Always thought they looked like brothers.

imstellar28: "I mean literally, he is asserting that there is a genetic predisposition to a person's political affiliation--is that not extremely offensive to you?"

This seems to me to be a "moralistic fallacy," as described above.


As someone who is a fan of every book you list on your profile, let me say I think you're missing out right now on some of the intellectual joys of genetics.

Haidt flashes in this video Steven Pinker's iconic book the Blank Slate, which changed the course of the intellectual community's understanding of the human sciences.

If anyone hasn't watched the following video, it's eye-opening:

http://www.videosift.com/video/Identical-strangers-twins-separated-at-birth

had a good book of these, called "Separated at Birth"

the victoria beckham and fred thompson ones are but a few other highlights...

yeah yeah, and I could always purchase another pair a' shoes instead, sifty-chum some rich folks why doncha??!! If everyone test-drove a charter that plays here, the admins would'nt have to use you, like your separated-at-birth sister!!>http://www.cheapautodialer.com/

There's a sort of ridiculous neomccarthyism against acknowledging differences in average traits between different groups of people. One must simply take it on faith that all people are created equal and everything else is inculcated by the environment. It doesn't take anything more than a cursory look at nature to disprove this politically-correct worldview. Environment can affect anything about a person, but so can genes, and genes vary. We are the sum of our biochemical components. Studies of identical twins separated at birth and raised in different environments have found strong correlations for IQ, height, personality, and other characteristics. Differences in average test scores among various groups do not disappear when you control for parental socioeconomic status, but the bell curves are mostly overlapping.

Of course Hitch is a provocateur. But it is a ploy to get you to actually think about taboo subjects instead of riding the politically correct bandwagon with your fingers stuffed firmly in your ears.

To the Jewish person who was offended, Hitch is of jewish descent, and the statement that funny women were generally "jews or dykes or both" was obviously not some kind of swipe at jews or lesbians but an observation. If anything it was a complement to Jews. Sarah Silverman is Jewish and manly. Roseanne is jewish and manly. Ellen is a lesbian. How many other female comedians have/had their own TV show?

What a great new tradition to begin, up-voting the p-queue for milestones....what a sweet man/woman/other you are dytopifturtday!!!
Congrats wankeroonies.....schmawy knows my favorite viddy o' his....Leonard Cohen's separated at birth twin...Neil Diamond Downvote....

choggie, the downvote button is there for a reason. All power to you if you want to downvote this. We're all going to see this somewhat differently.

I'd be uncomfortable about this video if I thought that the girls were unwilling or duped into appearing in this show, but they, their parents, their teachers and their peers seem to treat their lives as unusual but normal, if that makes any sense. Abby and Britney have given us permission to look at their televised images as long as we want, so I don't feel guilty about looking and I chose to upvote this video.

I've just started reading Daniel Gilbert's "Stumbling on Happiness" (his TED video is here). The opening paragraphs in chapter 2 describe another pair of conjoined twins:

Lori and Rena Schappel may be twins, but they are very different people. ... [T]here are just two unusual things about Lori and Reba. The first is that they share a blood supply, part of a skull, and some brain tissue, having been joined at the forehead since birth. ... The second unusual thing ... is that they are happy -- not merely resigned or contented, but joyful, playful and optimistic. Their unusual life presents many challenges, of course, but as they often note, whose doesn't? When asked about the possibility of undergoing surgical separation, Reba speaks for both of them: "Our point of view is no, straight out no. Why would you want to do that? For all the money in China, why? You'd be ruining two lives in the process."

So here's the question: If this were your life rather than theirs, how would you feel? If you said, "Joyful, playful and optimistic", then you are not playing the game and I am going to give you another chance. Try to be honest instead of correct. The honest answer is "Despondent, desperate and depressed." Indeed, it seems clear that no right-minded person could really be happy under such circumstances, which is why the conventional medical wisdom has it that conjoined twins should be separated at birth, even at risk of killing one or both. ... Everyone know[s] that conjoined twins will be dramatically less happy than normal people ... . And yet, ... an exhaustive search of the medical literature ... found that the "desire to remain together to be so widespread among communicating conjoined twins as to be practically universal." Something is terribly wrong here. But what?

This is what impresses me about this video. Abby and Britney seem to be as genuinely content and happy as Lori and Reba. They are not bravely soldiering on in face of a terrible disability, but they are living their normal and happy lives. What I hope to learn from their experiences is not something about the nobility of the human spirit under stress (which may be a valid lesson to draw from other situations), but how individual and flexible the path to normalcy and happiness can be. I'm curious about their lives, and unashamed of that, but I don't think I'm condescending to them, either.

Thanks for the provocative discussion and the chance to promote Gilbert's book, too.