“Who wants to place a bet that this started when they started getting their asses kicked on global warming debates?”
My guess too!
I believe that l’affaire Richwine and that whole area of research contributed also. Wasn’t it Popular Science which had the article where the author called for the suppression of scientific research into the study of human intelligence in certain aspects? He was excoriated in the comments for saying that while he was “all for freedom of speech”, he didn’t think it should extend so far as this topic. After the drubbing he got in the comments, he tried to backtrack by (it was assumed) mockingly calling for punishments up to and including execution for those who broach this subject or do research into it. It’s not quite clear that he was being sarcastic though, you can never be sure with those types.
After all, it was Harvard students who started a petition calling for the defunding of research in this area after the Richwine brouhaha, and even the banning of research into this subject. Apparently they, and Popular Science types, are scared to death of what might-only might-be discovered.