All right, not every NRO contributor likes Steve Sailer. I persist in

maintaining, though, that Steve is, as I have advertised many times

before on The Corner (using the words Warren Harding used about Herbert

Hoover) “the smartest gink I know.” Today Steve is in self-revelatory mode:

“The Internet has allowed me to become a near recluse, which suits me,
because in company I’m such a nice guy I can’t stand myself. When I’m
looking at people in person, I can’t help worrying about their feelings.
And I’m not terribly quick-witted in conversation, so I get pushed
around by other people because I’m spending so much brainpower worrying
about whether I’m hurting their feelings, while they are using their
full brainpower to manipulate me into doing or agreeing with whatever
they want. This wouldn’t be so bad if the other person was typically
smarter or more civic-minded than I am, but that’s not always the case,
so a part of me deep inside is yelling, ‘This is a waste’ while I’m
nodding and agreeing.
“Nor would face-to-face interactions be so bad for me if I had much
talent for charming people in person, but I don’t. My big talent is for
asking awkward, potentially disturbing questions about fundamental
issues that other folks would rather not think about.”

[Derb] Having spent several hours in Steve’s company (he’s slept over

in my attic a couple of times) I should like to tell the world that he

is, in fact, charming as all get out, and quite sufficiently

quick-witted to keep me (and on one occasion, me and Noah Millman

both) fully occupied.

So far as “asking awkward, potentially disturbing questions,” though,

Steve is dead right about himself.