Those things were not done by awful people though - they all thought they were serving the public good. We only judge it as awful now because of the results. Nearly of these ideas (Lysenkoism I think was always fringe) were embraced by the educated elites of the time.

You are absolutely right. Another interesting example: The man who invented the lobotomy won a Nobel Prize for it.

Lysenkoism! That's the one. Thank you for reminding me of the name (and for knowing what I was grasping at).

I think some "bad people" used eugenics and phrenology to justify prior hate, but they were also effective tools at convincing otherwise "good people" to join them.