Last year, the evolutionary psychologist Diana Fleischman wrote a forum post that attracted a lot of (mostly measured, nuanced) comment, defending eugenics: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/PTCw5CJT7cE6Kx9ZR/most-people-endorse-some-form-of-eugenics
Recently, Fleischman has made a minor appearance in a long investigation by a British anti-fascist* organization. Apparently she hosts the podcast for a magazine run by far-right activists that seeks to promote ideas about race that appeal to far-right wing political parties, people interested in deporting non-white citizens of Western democracies and so forth.: ” Diana Fleischman, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of New Mexico, has a part-time role hosting Aporia’s podcast, and is the author of an article on the website headlined: “You’re probably a eugenicist.”” EDIT: To be clear, this is the same article by Fleischmann that was discussed on the forum.
I thought people should be warned about this, since Aporia’s tactic appears to be to pretend to be much more moderate on issues around race than they actually are. Note that I am NOT saying, this means that people have to reject anything Diana Fleischman has ever said, or even that I personally disagree with everything in her original forum article. Insofar as it argues just that liberal democracies usually permit some eugenic practices, and people are confused and hypocritical about this, I probably agree with a lot of it. And I think I am probably cautiously in favour of genetic enhancement in the long-term, though I am very unsure about this. But I do think that the walls between “a bit edgy, but well-intentioned high decoupler” and “neo-Nazi activist”** seem to get very thin when it comes to people actively involved in trying to push genetic enhancement, in a way that makes me very nervous of the whole area.
*I mean that term just as “they campaign against far-right”, I don’t think it necessarily has much to do with anti-fa in this sense: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antifa_(United_States)#:~:text=Antifa%20(%2F%C3%A6n%CB%88t,movement%20in%20the%20United%20States.
**My understanding is Fleischmann is Jewish, so it’s unlikely she is literally a Nazi. But obviously someone could be Jewish and still support other forms of white nationalism on which Jews are classed as white. Though I am not saying she 100% definitely is a white nationalist herself either.
That article (Aporia: You’re probably a eugenicist) seems to be the same article she has on her Substack (Dissentient: You’re probably a eugenicist) and that you refer to above (EA Forum: Most people endorse some form of ‘eugenics’), which was also initially titled the same.
Which is to say: don’t double-count, and don’t treat the non-linked “You’re probably a eugenicist” as if it has worse content than the linked “Most people endorse some form of ‘eugenics’”.
Ok, I’ll change to indicate it was the same article. Though note that writing an article for them was not her only connection.
Trigger warning on the linkposted article: contains a quotation from someone—who I emphasize is not D.F. -- which I would characterize as defending sexual violence against children.
Note: Diana Fleischman is the wife of Geoffrey Miller, another far-right effective altruist with a (much more prolific) account on this forum.
I was aware they are married. I find something slightly unsettling about your comment, but I am not sure quite what, or that I am right to.
As for Geoffrey Miller’s more political comments on here, I am not particularly a fan, but they mostly seem to fall within “normal” conservative bounds to me. (For an American anyway; it is an issue in deciding what is/isn’t far-right that mainstream US conservatism has become a bit fascist). That’s not to say he ISN’T “far-right”, I think it is reasonably likely he has views that I would characterise as such, only that it is not his main persona on here. At least as I define “far-right”, opinions on exactly what that means can differ.