What are some good readings about why eugenics is harmful, specifically targeting younger or less-educated people? (Serious-posting)

Submitted by twovests in just_post

A lot of fascist thinking has some appeal to it that is easy to dismiss with some critical thinking.

But eugenics is not so simple to dismiss! You have to know a lot of things to dismiss it! In the early 1900s, prominent progressive thinkers thought eugenics might have potential. Even W. E. B. Du Bois (who otherwise kicked ass, especially challenging pseudoscience racism) thought eugenics had a lot of potential, despite it being promoted primarily by racists.

I can't criticize Du Bois here, because I'm living 100 years in the future, where we have a pretty strong understanding that eugenics is evil. Some human traits and diseases and weaknesses are genetic! It took decades of empirical research and decades of thought to realize, yeah, eugenics does not work at all, there are no benefits to it, and there's no such thing as ethical eugenics.

I know eugenics is bad. But I'm a doctorate-educated leftie with partnered to a clinical scientist who specifically studies genetics. I have an immense amount of privilege backing the education that helps me deeply understand that eugenics is shit, all shit, and nothing but shit.

I can't blame someone suffering from an inherited condition who thinks, "Yeah, maybe we should be doing a little eugenics?" Or some middleschooler learning about evolution who thinks, "Genetic conditions are bad, I bet we can get rid of those safely, we don't need the racism."

Everything I look for are paywalled opinion pieces, print books, or scholarly articles for an academic audience. I can't even find, like, an "Hbomberguy Eugenics" video or an "Adam Ruins Everything: Eugenics" video. I even asked ChatGPT for good videos, and it made up a title to a CrashCourse video that doesn't exist, and then said "lol try Wikipedia". Then I got a eugenics "pros and cons" list from it, which is super concerning!

I don't think anyone who thinks eugenics might be a good thing this is a hopeless far-right goon. They might just be misled or uneducated. But I think someone who is open to eugenics would be very ripe to fall down the alt-right rabbithole. And I think it should be easier to find an article saying "Eugenics is as bad as you think it is, and here's why."

So, in tldr: I'm specifically looking for digestible (or even "fun") content which can explain why eugenics is bad to people who do not have a lot of education. Does anyone have sources like that which come to mind?

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neku wrote

idk if theres easily digestible youtube video essay type content out there talking about why eugenics is bad. maybe you could show them a phrenology skull or eugenicist literature https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/vaughts-phrenology-book/ but i feel like you could probably just use the socratic method, ask questions, and see where you end up. like:

  • "why do you think this is a good idea?"
  • "what happens to people who you want to remove from the gene pool?"

maybe that could be a good point for you to link it back to genetics and the evolutionary advantage of genetic diversity https://kids.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frym.2021.656168 if theyre trying to portray this as though its for the benefit of the human race

  • if you believe in sterilising undesirables, who will do the sterilising? if you believe in killing undesirables, who will do the killing?
  • who will classify people as undesirables?
  • if people are classified as undesirables based on supposedly objective measures, who developed these objective measures? how do you know that they're objective? if this is based on criminal conviction, how do you know the courts have ruled correctly and fairly?
  • what happens when a non-undesirable person is misidentified as an undesirable? is that a tragedy?
  • do you think that undesirable behaviour is the result of nature or nurture? is undesirable behaviour the genetic destiny of undesirable genes?
  • what happens when The Party That You Don't Like comes into power over this program?
  • is this program democratically controlled? would democratic control of this program be a good thing? how else should it be controlled?
  • are you an undesirable? could you become an undesirable?
  • how do you feel about the way eugenics has gone in the past (i.e. a justification for imperialism and mass death)? what will be different about your ideal program?
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twovests OP wrote

i've gotta say, this comment alone is really good resource. i appreciate this

i'm a big fan of the socratic method but i don't think i would have come up with all these questions like this

(your comment also reminds me of this SMBC comic, which is essentially a socratic dialogue, and also presents one good argument)

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flabberghaster wrote

I understand that what you're looking for is more along the lines of like a feature length YouTube or a book or something but sadly I don't have that. What I do have is a web comic that sums it up pretty well I think:

https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/eugenics-is-a-great-idea

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twovests OP wrote

oh yeah! thank you, this is one of my fave comics in this matter. i think it captures one of the easiest-to-understand-points very succinctly. (specifically, a point that doesn't require A Lot Of Science Knowledge to fully understand)

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