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Industrialists in the US advocated for (and implemented!) forced society-level eugenics as a way of creating a more "desirable" pool of employees for them to ex

by seiji 11y ago

Industrialists in the US advocated for (and implemented!) forced society-level eugenics as a way of creating a more "desirable" pool of employees for them to exploit. Germany just copied the US, then the robber barons had to distance themselves from the ideas of controlling humanity person-by-person. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenics_in_the_United_States#Influence_on_Nazi_Germany https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenics_in_the_United_States#... and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenics_in_the_United_States#Euthanasia_programs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenics_in_the_United_States#... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenics_in_the_United_States#/media/File:United_States_eugenics_advocacy_poster.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenics_in_the_United_States#... — "Every 7 1/2 minutes a high grade person is born in the US" almost sounds like modern tech/startup "some people are actually just better than others" rhetoric.

fit2rule 11y ago
Eugenics, and social darwinism, are alive and well in the elite realms of science and technology. Modern tech/startup rhetoric is not immune to association by osmosis in this regard, in my opinion. Fact is, one can observe heinous totalitarianism anywhere authorities are given power, and that is a lot of what our tech world is about, after all ..
vezzy-fnord 11y ago
The word "Untermensch" was also in fact adopted from a German translation of Lothrop Stoddard's "The Revolt Against Civilization: The Menace of the Under-man".
mseebach 11y ago
> Industrialists in the US advocated for (and implemented!) forced society-level eugenics That's a pretty revisionist phrasing. Eugenics had a much broader base in society than anyone, regardless of politics, should be comfortable with. From the wikipedia page you link to: "Eugenics was widely accepted in the U.S. academic community. By 1928 there were 376 separate university courses in some of the United States' leading schools, enrolling more than 20,000 students, which included eugenics in the curriculum." "By 1910, there was a large and dynamic network of scientists, reformers and professionals engaged in national eugenics projects and actively promoting eugenic legislation." "Public acceptance in the U.S. was the reason eugenic legislation was passed. Almost 19 million people attended the Panama–Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, open for 10 months from February 20 to December 4, 1915."
- seiji 11y ago
  But legislation and implementation was largely backed by the Rockefellers, Rothschilds, Carnegies, and the other shadowy economic 0.001% people of their day. (citations left as an exercise for the reader)

by seiji 11y ago

fit2rule 11y ago

Eugenics, and social darwinism, are alive and well in the elite realms of science and technology. Modern tech/startup rhetoric is not immune to association by osmosis in this regard, in my opinion. Fact is, one can observe heinous totalitarianism anywhere authorities are given power, and that is a lot of what our tech world is about, after all ..

vezzy-fnord 11y ago

The word "Untermensch" was also in fact adopted from a German translation of Lothrop Stoddard's "The Revolt Against Civilization: The Menace of the Under-man".

mseebach 11y ago

> Industrialists in the US advocated for (and implemented!) forced society-level eugenics That's a pretty revisionist phrasing. Eugenics had a much broader base in society than anyone, regardless of politics, should be comfortable with. From the wikipedia page you link to: "Eugenics was widely accepted in the U.S. academic community. By 1928 there were 376 separate university courses in some of the United States' leading schools, enrolling more than 20,000 students, which included eugenics in the curriculum." "By 1910, there was a large and dynamic network of scientists, reformers and professionals engaged in national eugenics projects and actively promoting eugenic legislation." "Public acceptance in the U.S. was the reason eugenic legislation was passed. Almost 19 million people attended the Panama–Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, open for 10 months from February 20 to December 4, 1915."

seiji 11y ago
But legislation and implementation was largely backed by the Rockefellers, Rothschilds, Carnegies, and the other shadowy economic 0.001% people of their day. (citations left as an exercise for the reader)