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| ▲ | _bin_ 4 days ago | parent [-] | | This is such a bad-faith reading man, I don’t know why you’re even bothering to respond. You can’t just say “well that’s eugenics” and act like that’s a sufficient reason to dismiss it. If you think it’s okay to eg have kids knowing they’ll have huntingtons or some other nasty way to die, why? I’m not arguing that the state should forcibly implement this, which is usually the common (and legitimate) argument against this line of thinking. | | |
| ▲ | tptacek 3 days ago | parent [-] | | Right, you're just making the moral case on which other people would build coercion, either formally through public policy interventions or socially. You yourself though are just interested in the ideas. | | |
| ▲ | _bin_ 3 days ago | parent [-] | | You can make a case for coercing people to do any good thing or not do any bad. We shouldn't approach this by denying right and wrong but rather by discussing what the state can or cannot do. Socially is another story which I'd be fine with or even encourage. Saying I'm "just interested in ideas" is a hell of a way to dismiss thinking about what's right and wrong for me personally to do, for others to do. Not all thought has to involve the damn government as the actor. | | |
| ▲ | akerl_ 3 days ago | parent [-] | | I think what you’re missing is that advocating for social pressure towards eugenics is also alarming. I’m not limited to only being concerned about advocates of government-mandated eugenics policies. Social efforts to encourage eugenics, like the idea that people with medical conditions or people with “low IQ” should not reproduce, are also concerning, much the same way that societal racism or sexism is concerning even when it occurs without government involvement. | | |
| ▲ | _bin_ 3 days ago | parent [-] | | Why are they concerning? I don’t see any benefit to societal sexism or racism; the same isn’t true of eugenics. | | |
| ▲ | tptacek 3 days ago | parent [-] | | If it helps, since the early 1800s one of the primary intellectual drivers of racism has been eugenics. | | |
| ▲ | _bin_ 3 days ago | parent [-] | | I’d say it’s better to class “scientific racism” as a motivator for eugenics, but again, why does the abuse of an idea mean the idea is bad? I agree it’s not something that should or could be safely implemented by the state. | | |
| ▲ | tptacek 3 days ago | parent [-] | | You have the causality reversed. Either way: it is the idea itself that is bad. You demonstrate it kind of beautifully on this thread. Is there moral complexity to conceiving children with a significant likelihood of inheriting Huntington's? Absolutely that's a complex question. But even you, doing your best to put the idea in its best light, couldn't keep yourself from sliding into questioning whether the "sickly" and the "low IQ" should exist. This idea chews up people's humanity. You've had an opportunity to play around with it harmlessly on this thread. Now recognize it for what it is and stomp it to death under the heel of your shoes, taking some satisfaction as you do. |
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