I’m fascinated by powerful people who are incapable of accountability. Dawkins indefensibly advocated for eugenics. In the wake of that backlash, he is legit incapable of self-analysis. The focus immediately shifts to “Twitter nastiness” instead of WHY the backlash occurred.https://twitter.com/RichardDawkins/status/1229366421081247744 …
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The issue I take (and I think most take) is “it works.” Don’t you read that as advocacy? Also, it isn’t true. Eugenics in any form pretty much always has unforeseen consequences, often disastrous. We see this in agriculture, specialized pets, etc.
I also feel the need to note that eugenicist societies have not, in fact, generally been successful! Sparta, when viewed critically, underwhelms (see: https://acoup.blog/2019/08/16/collections-this-isnt-sparta-part-i-spartan-school/ … and following) and the German 'supermen,' you know...lost the war.
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No need. Totally agree. That's not what this is about. It's about people dunking on a strawman interpretation of Dawkins. Dunk all you want, but steelman his shit first.
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I did that. He clearly says 'it would work' - historical experience suggests that, in fact, societies that attempt such things weaken themselves. It does not work! And, I'd contend, suggesting that it does work is dangerous; not everyone will share moral qualms against it.
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Ah, but I don’t agree that Sparta was necessarily eugenicist (in comparison to the ancient general practice of infanticide). I believe this is Plutarch’s mythmaking inflated by laconophilia. It’s one of the major points I make in THE BRONZE LIE.
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That's a fair position to take. It boils down to an unanswerable question about the reliability of sources that we have few ways to check. Myself, I tend to see Plut.'s narrative as broadly consistent with the priorities in Xen., on the assumption the latter is white-washing.
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