The most revealing social facts are the assumptions both sides take for granted

Evidence

This glaring lapse in the liberal defense is itself instructive. “The most important thing … that we can know about a man,” says Louis Wirth, “is what he takes for granted, and the most elemental and important facts about a society are those that are seldom debated and generally regarded as settled.” We are questioning here the undisputed assumption underlying both sides of the recently revived IQ controversy: that the distribution of IQ is a basic determinant of the structure of privilege. — Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, Schooling in Capitalist America, 1045

Categorization

• XREF: Links to how scientific controversies in the prior curated pool (economic-importance assumptions, e.g., Black-Scholes legitimacy claims) share unexamined premises among contending camps. — connects to: Ideologues pair extreme doubt toward disfavored facts with total credulity toward favored ones — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 48; False equivalence between sides is itself a hallmark of post-truth — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 15; Conspiratorial predispositions partition evenly across both parties — Joseph E. Uscinski and Joseph M. Parent, American Conspiracy Theories, 589 (+2 more)
• DEEPTHINKING: The Wirth dictum — that the elemental facts about a society are those seldom debated — is a genuinely reusable analytic lens that reframes what evidence matters in any field.

Broader Connections

• False equivalence between sides is itself a hallmark of post-truth #complicates (0.85) — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 15
• Prejudiced talk is woven into broad societal assumptions about who merits equal treatment #exemplifies (0.80) — Cristian Tileagă, The Nature of Prejudice, 514
• High dogmatism predicts resistance to evidence on both sides of any issue #exemplifies (0.80)
• Ideologues pair extreme doubt toward disfavored facts with total credulity toward favored ones #exemplifies (0.78) — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 48
• Conspiratorial predispositions partition evenly across both parties #exemplifies (0.78) — Joseph E. Uscinski and Joseph M. Parent, American Conspiracy Theories, 589