So, based on my individual observations, it is pretty clear to me that what is *toxic* is the nature of the discourse on this site. I haven’t said anything at all about any poster, leave alone anything insulting, but I’ve been called a neo-Nazi, racist, ignorant, jerk, prejudiced, unable to comprehend English, etc.
Why? Because a few people couldn’t accept the fact that scientific literature has not shown that there is or there isn’t any correlation between race and intelligence. I come from a school of thought where it’s easiest to prove someone wrong with mathematical arguments, the scientific method, and/or data. It would be fairly easy to prove me wrong with a scientific reference, especially from the certainly very pro-science people who are attacking me.
It’s not necessary for me to prove a position of agnosticism because the way science works is that agnosticism is the null hypothesis. If one does suspect that there is a correlation in one direction or the other, the null hypothesis would be to assume zero correlation and show data indicating otherwise.