Can there be eugenics without racism?

[Politruk]

Eugenics was a very powerful idea in the early 20th Century. The U.S. had actual mandatory-sterilization laws in many states, applied to persons of low intelligence. But a close study of the subject will reveal that eugenics was always closely bound up with the widely believed racial pseudoscience of the same period. Take that away, and what's left?

 

[Politruk]

This will become more and more relevant as the technology of genetic engineering advances. No such thing was possible in the early 20th Century.

 

[Politruk]

Of course, we must be careful not to Godwinize here.

Because of eugenics' association with Nazi Germany, a common bullshitting tactic is to declare some historical figure that endorsed eugenics a Nazi or Nazi sympathizer (see, e.g., Margaret Sanger). This is ahistorical, as not every eugenics proponent supported the measures of Nazi Germany (or were even around to see it). Indeed, if this were the case, that would make Teddy and Silent Cal Nazis as well.

Galton divided eugenic practice into "positive" and "negative eugenics". The positive variety consisted of political and economic incentives (such as tax breaks and sex education) for the "fit" to reproduce, and the negative type consisted of disincentives such as birth control or forced sterilization. "Dysgenics" refers to the deterioration of the human stock — many eugenicists concentrated on "improvement" of the human race by reversing alleged dysgenic forces. There is also a split between "liberal eugenics" and "authoritarian eugenics".[25] Liberal eugenics promotes consensual eugenic practice while authoritarian eugenics promotes state-mandated and enforced programs. Proponents personally emphasized different aspects of eugenics, positive, negative, dysgenic forces, etc. Thus, they often disagreed on matters of policy, much less were they all Nazis.

 

[Philthy_Phil]

Seriously, shut the fuck, retard.

 

[Politruk]

This is also relevant because we now have a president-elect who speaks of immigrants "poisoning the blood" of the country. That's eugenics talk.

 

[Politruk]

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