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Yes I too was surprised to learn that many of Germany’s eugenicists were inspired by people and ideas in the United States. Eugenics used to be a very respecta

Yes I too was surprised to learn that many of Germany’s eugenicists were inspired by people and ideas in the United States. Eugenics used to be a very respectable field of study. Highly intelligent people believed that unless the “feeble minded” were stopped from reproducing it would lead to the decline of the human race. Institutes were established, Nobel prize winners wrote in its favor. It was seen as doing humanity a favor somewhat like how climate change is discussed today. Take any random figure of western history who is widely admired. I’m not taking any names but odds are they believed that the rest of the world needed the guiding hand of western civilization to attain modernity. Colonialism, Slavery and imperialism were seen as justified expressions of the natural order. Skulls were assembled from around the world and brain volumes meticulously noted down to “prove” this. From this was born the ideology of the Nazis that humanity is a collection biological races constantly struggling for evolutionary dominance. And the duty of the superior race was to help this along by vanquishing the weaker races and sterilizing the feeble minded. The under currents of this movement exist to this day. It has been rebranded as “Human bio diversity” to escape its Nazi past. Some writers hailed as truth telling heroes by people here have been recently revealed to have sympathies for these ideas. These days it’s couched in extremely vague sounding dog whistles that are very hard to decipher. “Welfare bums” etc By cutting our links with it we are not necessarily erasing the past but sending a message to those lurking beneath polite society that these ideas that have led to some of the most horrific massacres in history are unwelcome.

selimthegrim 6y ago
You could just say Scott Siskind's name, you know.
- dang 6y ago
  Would you please stop posting unsubstantive comments and flamebait to HN? You've unfortunately been doing a lot of that lately. It's not what this site is for. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
monoideism 6y ago
> Colonialism, Slavery and imperialism were seen as justified expressions of the natural order. Skulls were assembled from around the world and brain volumes meticulously noted down to “prove” this. And to expound a little more - most rational, intellligent people from those eras believed in these things as well. After all, they told themselves, most reasonable, compassionate people do. As such, it's interesting to ask yourself what we do today that will be held as barbaric by some future generation. Chances are, it'll be something that most of us believe to be normal and right. And if you're someone who doesn't have any opinion that your peers would find scandalous, or at least unorthodox, chances are you are participating in some act that a future generation will find appalling but that is entirely acceptable today. Abortion? Meat eating? Or some other practice that most of us take for granted. For the same reason, we shouldn't judge past generations by today's moral standards. It makes no sense.
- pseudalopex 6y ago
  > "It is fraught to judge individuals outside of their time, but it is clear from the documentation presented that Millikan lent his name and his prestige to a morally reprehensible eugenics movement that already had been discredited scientifically during his time," Rosenbaum said. Why should I have a problem with the idea future generations might take my name off a building?
  - aaron695 6y ago
    Why do anything. Why not just use whatever resources you can get your hands on and burn it all. The concept of some sort of future is why some people do more. You mightn't care, perhaps having kids is your thing, perhaps is extincting a species or designing a better ice cube, everyone's different, for some people it's buildings. I think a lot of people are realising giving money to universities instead of building a bigger boat is a bad idea. They are probably right.
- rayiner 6y ago
  As technology for saving premature babies continues to improve, I think elective second trimester abortions (mostly illegal in Europe, but constitutionally protected in the United States under Roe v. Wade) will come to be seen in a different light. It’s legal to abort a 22 week old fetus in about half of states (including the states where most of the population lives) even without any special emergency or medical condition: https://www.whattoexpect.com/pregnancy/week-by-week/week-22.aspx https://www.whattoexpect.com/pregnancy/week-by-week/week-22..... The record for saving a premature baby is a bit under 22 weeks: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/11/14/mom-delivers-earliest-premature-baby-ever-and-chooses-resuscitate-miracle-aughter-now-healthy-toddle/861386001/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/11/14/mo...

selimthegrim 6y ago

You could just say Scott Siskind's name, you know.

dang 6y ago
Would you please stop posting unsubstantive comments and flamebait to HN? You've unfortunately been doing a lot of that lately. It's not what this site is for. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

monoideism 6y ago

> Colonialism, Slavery and imperialism were seen as justified expressions of the natural order. Skulls were assembled from around the world and brain volumes meticulously noted down to “prove” this. And to expound a little more - most rational, intellligent people from those eras believed in these things as well. After all, they told themselves, most reasonable, compassionate people do. As such, it's interesting to ask yourself what we do today that will be held as barbaric by some future generation. Chances are, it'll be something that most of us believe to be normal and right. And if you're someone who doesn't have any opinion that your peers would find scandalous, or at least unorthodox, chances are you are participating in some act that a future generation will find appalling but that is entirely acceptable today. Abortion? Meat eating? Or some other practice that most of us take for granted. For the same reason, we shouldn't judge past generations by today's moral standards. It makes no sense.

pseudalopex 6y ago
> "It is fraught to judge individuals outside of their time, but it is clear from the documentation presented that Millikan lent his name and his prestige to a morally reprehensible eugenics movement that already had been discredited scientifically during his time," Rosenbaum said. Why should I have a problem with the idea future generations might take my name off a building?
- aaron695 6y ago
  Why do anything. Why not just use whatever resources you can get your hands on and burn it all. The concept of some sort of future is why some people do more. You mightn't care, perhaps having kids is your thing, perhaps is extincting a species or designing a better ice cube, everyone's different, for some people it's buildings. I think a lot of people are realising giving money to universities instead of building a bigger boat is a bad idea. They are probably right.
rayiner 6y ago
As technology for saving premature babies continues to improve, I think elective second trimester abortions (mostly illegal in Europe, but constitutionally protected in the United States under Roe v. Wade) will come to be seen in a different light. It’s legal to abort a 22 week old fetus in about half of states (including the states where most of the population lives) even without any special emergency or medical condition: https://www.whattoexpect.com/pregnancy/week-by-week/week-22.aspx https://www.whattoexpect.com/pregnancy/week-by-week/week-22..... The record for saving a premature baby is a bit under 22 weeks: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/11/14/mom-delivers-earliest-premature-baby-ever-and-chooses-resuscitate-miracle-aughter-now-healthy-toddle/861386001/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/11/14/mo...