No, they don’t. It is akin to saying “most people endorse some form of ‘communism’.” We can point to a lot of overlap between theoretical communism and values that most people endorse; this doesn’t mean that people endorse communism. That’s because communism covers a lot more stuff, including a lot of historical examples and some related atrocities. Eugenics similarly covers a lot of historical examples, including some atrocities (not only in fascist countries), and this is what the term means to most people—and hence, in practice, what the term means.
Many people endorse screening embryos for genetic abnormalities. The same people would respond angrily if you said they endorsed eugenics; the same way that people who endorse minimum wages would respond angrily if you said they endorsed communism. Eugenics is evil because it descriptively describes something evil; trying to force it into some other technical meaning is incorrect.
That seems pretty dis-analogous to me—while exact definitions vary, communism does have a fairly precise thing its referring to—the state or collective worker ownership of the means of production, abolition of free markets etc. Supporting a minimum wage doesn’t make someone a communist because 1) they probably don’t support the nationalisation of all industry and 2) many communist countries didn’t actually have a minimum wage. I think it’s fair to say that, all else equal, a minimum wage supporter is probably closer to the communist side of the spectrum than someone who opposes them, but they’re still a long way away.
The first definition I get from google for ‘eugenics’ is
the study of how to arrange reproduction within a human population to increase the occurrence of heritable characteristics regarded as desirable.
which seems like it includes a lot of the things described in this post that normal people support like incest avoidance and your example of embryo screening?
In contrast the first definition I get for ‘communism’ is very narrow and makes it clear that necessary components include things most people don’t believe (class war, public ownership):
a political theory derived from Karl Marx, advocating class war and leading to a society in which all property is publicly owned and each person works and is paid according to their abilities and needs.
In the current zeitgeist, and even for the past couple of decades, “that’s eugenics” has shut down conversations among intelligent people about important topics like behavioral genetics, reproductive technology and subsidized contraception. “Eugenicist” has been leveled against everyone from Darwin to EO Wilson, to Margaret Sanger, to Bill Gates to Nick Bostrom as a way of signaling that we should ignore everything that person has to say and see everything they do or think as evil and illegitimate. Communist or communism isn’t used in this way and communism doesn’t have this sting. Maybe during the McCarthy era an essay like this could have also been necessary.
And of course people respond angrily if called a eugenicist- it’s a term, as you said, that means “evil” in the current Western zeitgeist (but not in much of the rest of the world, as one commenter noted). This essay isn’t meant to be dispassionate, it’s meant to provoke the reader into rethinking how this term shuts down conversations about ideas and people.
>Most people endorse some form of ‘eugenics’
No, they don’t. It is akin to saying “most people endorse some form of ‘communism’.” We can point to a lot of overlap between theoretical communism and values that most people endorse; this doesn’t mean that people endorse communism. That’s because communism covers a lot more stuff, including a lot of historical examples and some related atrocities. Eugenics similarly covers a lot of historical examples, including some atrocities (not only in fascist countries), and this is what the term means to most people—and hence, in practice, what the term means.
Many people endorse screening embryos for genetic abnormalities. The same people would respond angrily if you said they endorsed eugenics; the same way that people who endorse minimum wages would respond angrily if you said they endorsed communism. Eugenics is evil because it descriptively describes something evil; trying to force it into some other technical meaning is incorrect.
That seems pretty dis-analogous to me—while exact definitions vary, communism does have a fairly precise thing its referring to—the state or collective worker ownership of the means of production, abolition of free markets etc. Supporting a minimum wage doesn’t make someone a communist because 1) they probably don’t support the nationalisation of all industry and 2) many communist countries didn’t actually have a minimum wage. I think it’s fair to say that, all else equal, a minimum wage supporter is probably closer to the communist side of the spectrum than someone who opposes them, but they’re still a long way away.
Precisely. And supporting subsidized contraception is a long way away from both the formal definition of eugenics and its common understanding.
The first definition I get from google for ‘eugenics’ is
which seems like it includes a lot of the things described in this post that normal people support like incest avoidance and your example of embryo screening?
In contrast the first definition I get for ‘communism’ is very narrow and makes it clear that necessary components include things most people don’t believe (class war, public ownership):
In the current zeitgeist, and even for the past couple of decades, “that’s eugenics” has shut down conversations among intelligent people about important topics like behavioral genetics, reproductive technology and subsidized contraception. “Eugenicist” has been leveled against everyone from Darwin to EO Wilson, to Margaret Sanger, to Bill Gates to Nick Bostrom as a way of signaling that we should ignore everything that person has to say and see everything they do or think as evil and illegitimate. Communist or communism isn’t used in this way and communism doesn’t have this sting. Maybe during the McCarthy era an essay like this could have also been necessary.
And of course people respond angrily if called a eugenicist- it’s a term, as you said, that means “evil” in the current Western zeitgeist (but not in much of the rest of the world, as one commenter noted). This essay isn’t meant to be dispassionate, it’s meant to provoke the reader into rethinking how this term shuts down conversations about ideas and people.
I feel that saying “subsidized contraception is not eugenics” is rhetorically better and more accurate than this approach.
Saying “subsidized contraception is not eugenics” is a lie.
I argue that it’s entirely the truth, the way that the term is used and understood.