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Simon_Whitten's profile
Simon Whitten
Simon Whitten
Simon Whitten
@Simon_Whitten

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Simon Whitten

@Simon_Whitten

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youtube.com/channel/UCC6Y2…
Joined November 2010

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    Simon Whitten‏ @Simon_Whitten 16 Feb 2020

    Simon Whitten Retweeted Richard Dawkins

    The view that eugenics is simply the application of selective breeding principles to humans and that it was abandoned solely for ideological reasons is entirely ahistoric.https://twitter.com/RichardDawkins/status/1228943686953664512 …

    Simon Whitten added,

    Richard DawkinsVerified account @RichardDawkins
    It’s one thing to deplore eugenics on ideological, political, moral grounds. It’s quite another to conclude that it wouldn’t work in practice. Of course it would. It works for cows, horses, pigs, dogs & roses. Why on earth wouldn’t it work for humans? Facts ignore ideology.
    Show this thread
    2:35 AM - 16 Feb 2020
    • 1,443 Retweets
    • 8,004 Likes
    • Mouglas Durray Chrysi Cat (no, Karen is STILL my sister!) 🏳️‍⚧️ salvage Cleve Hicks efro Enceledust 🚀 Ben Hutchings Aksel Braanen Sterri Lasse Berglund
    64 replies 1,443 retweets 8,004 likes
      1. New conversation
      2. Simon Whitten‏ @Simon_Whitten 16 Feb 2020

        The historical field of Eugenics, as it was understood by its practitioners and advocates at the time, was rooted in a teleological view of evolution. One in which some kinds may be said to be more “evolved” than another.

        3 replies 87 retweets 1,054 likes
        Show this thread
      3. Simon Whitten‏ @Simon_Whitten 16 Feb 2020

        The central thesis of eugenics was based on erroneous thinking about natural selection. Eugenicists viewed their job as increasing fitness – or preventing a decline in fitness – something that was no longer happening due to the survival and prolificness of the poor.

        5 replies 88 retweets 979 likes
        Show this thread
      4. Simon Whitten‏ @Simon_Whitten 16 Feb 2020

        The eugenics movement took place at the height of a moral panic about dysgenics: the view that there were objectively inferior kinds which were out-breeding the superior kinds.

        2 replies 87 retweets 892 likes
        Show this thread
      5. Simon Whitten‏ @Simon_Whitten 16 Feb 2020

        They viewed “fitness” as something other than the ability to pass on genes, otherwise there would have been no need for eugenics and no fear of dysgenics: the most fit organisms are, by definition, those that are more likely to pass on their genes.

        2 replies 71 retweets 843 likes
        Show this thread
      6. Simon Whitten‏ @Simon_Whitten 16 Feb 2020

        What was objectively inferior about the breeding poor? Mutation load. They believed (incorrectly) that most mutations were deleterious and therefore good breeding stock had low heterozygosity while defective characteristics were caused by build up of mutations.

        3 replies 53 retweets 760 likes
        Show this thread
      7. Simon Whitten‏ @Simon_Whitten 16 Feb 2020

        Eventually it was discovered that heterozygosity was far from rare (or bad) and that most mutations were neutral. Meanwhile the emergence of the modern synthesis drove out the teleological approaches to evolution. This all happened around 1940-60, and eugenics died shortly after

        5 replies 51 retweets 808 likes
        Show this thread
      8. Simon Whitten‏ @Simon_Whitten 16 Feb 2020

        Key points: 1) Eugenicists were trying to create objectively better humans, not select for subjectively-valued traits. 2) Eugenics died when the emergence of modern evolutionary genetics showed it to be impossible (not just unethical).

        10 replies 182 retweets 1,195 likes
        Show this thread
      9. Simon Whitten‏ @Simon_Whitten 16 Feb 2020

        Simon Whitten Retweeted Arthur Chu

        Quote tweeting this because it's worth noting this "all good traits are correlated" assumption more explicitly. Legacies of this kind of reasoning are common in modern "Hereditarian" arguments.https://twitter.com/arthur_affect/status/1229006460773756928 …

        Simon Whitten added,

        Arthur ChuVerified account @arthur_affect
        In fact the key prejudice that drives eugenics is something now Juan to be definitively false (that all "positive" traits are correlated, that physically healthy and beautiful people are also competent, virtuous and wise) https://twitter.com/Simon_Whitten/status/1228991252106039302 …
        Show this thread
        3 replies 63 retweets 706 likes
        Show this thread
      10. Simon Whitten‏ @Simon_Whitten 16 Feb 2020

        It's also present in the pro-eugenics comments made by Boris Johnson's new advisor (opposition to which seems to have inspired @RichardDawkins tweet in the first place). https://schoolsweek.co.uk/andrew-sabisky-political-forecaster/ …pic.twitter.com/2zKYjDavbk

        5 replies 43 retweets 508 likes
        Show this thread
      11. Simon Whitten‏ @Simon_Whitten 16 Feb 2020

        Unfortunately due to my recent low productivity I have nothing new/relevant to promote, but those who liked this thread may also enjoy this tangentially relevant Youtube video:https://youtu.be/2FcpNZ2BEgY 

        10 replies 30 retweets 388 likes
        Show this thread
      12. End of conversation

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