L'affaire #JohnDerbyshire - Shockflation + Phase Transition

I assume you've heard about #JohnDerbyshire, a writer for National Review, and also the shmoe who penned an article for TakiMag on a "The Talk: Nonblack version".

If you haven't, go read it (warning.  Have a barf-bag handy). Its filled with handy tips like

(10d) Do not attend events likely to draw a lot of blacks.

(10e) If you are at some public event at which the number of blacks suddenly swells, leave as quickly as possible.

(10h) Do not act the Good Samaritan to blacks in apparent distress, e.g., on the highway.

(10i) If accosted by a strange black in the street, smile and say something polite but keep moving

Theres a lot more, just go read it (with barf-bag).  Anyhow, continuing on, first some definitions

Shockflation
The need to keep increasing the shock-value of a statement/position.  Punditroids - the ones who thrive on shock-value - have to keep pushing the edge.  Its not unlike morphine, eventually you get used to it, and need more and more.

Phase Transition
A situation where material change discontinuously from one form to another - think boiling water turning to steam.

So picture #JohnDerbyshire, who has made a living making (gradually) increasingly outrageous statements, each one an escalation on the previous.
But, he is always within social norms/bounds - think of it as the cognoscenti equivalent of "Not that there is anything wrong with that", or "Some of my best friends are …".
However, the inevitable happens - he drafts a screed which, as has been pointed out by others, looks fairly relevant as long as you put it in a social/class milieu (Any group approaching you at 3am in low-slung pants and hoodies is perceivable as a threat.  Its not a black/white/hispanic thing).
However, his evil genius has him push the edge, and then some.
The thing is, he doesn't perceive the edge as being pushed! So, for him, taking the general (3am, low-slung pants, hoodies) and making it specific (3am, low-slung pants, hoodies, on blacks) is basically the same thing (he has been de-sensitized, morphine-wise).

The result is his ridiculous screed, which ends up about a few klicks on the *wrong* side of the line, and a Phase Transition on the part of the audience - pretty much everyone looks at this and has about the same visceral/gut reaction along the lines of

"This *clown* (prize idiot? doofus?) was a writer for National Review? How? <sputter> #JohnDerbyshire is a *chump*…"

Mind you, there is an alternative, and much simpler explanation for all of this.  Hes just a racist bigot, and in the words of Greg Bledsoe

"(W)e should just put this guy in a museum as a historical curiosity, a misbegotten throwback to an era we best not forget lest we repeat it"