Are you rolling eyes extra hard at that guy? Weird thing, though: Eugenics used to be part of America’s scientific consensus. It was taught in colleges, it was espoused by high-profile figures like Teddy Roosevelt and Alexander Graham Bell, it led to forced sterilizations and marriage bans for the “feeble-minded.” The Supreme Court, backed by science, declared “it is better for all the world if … society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind” when ruling in favor of compulsory sterilization. Some German fellas you may have heard of studied up on America’s flirtation with Darwinism, and I doubt you’d call them credible, despite their pursuit of science.
Centuries of science “proved” that white people were inherently superior. That led us to bizarre conclusions like the “discovery” of drapetomania and dysaesthesia aethiopica, mental ailments that claimed to explain why slaves fled or resisted working despite slavery being part of the natural order of the cosmos. Science will take you to strange places if you’ll turn to it before you examine your own assumptions.
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We’re still grappling with the legacy of racial science today. White supremacists use racial science to justify their hate crimes. James Watson, one of history’s greatest scientists, is spending his golden years arguing that Black people are inherently less intelligent, among other specious claims.
Sam Harris, a poster boy for obnoxious people who pretend that they alone are objective and rational, got in hot water for dabbling with the idea that race and intellect are intrinsically linked. The full debacle is far too stupid to get into here, but Harris said he was resisting “political correctness,” as though embracing some particular science is rebellious and edgy. It’s an idea that’s starting to weasel its way back into society thanks to people like Harris, because otherwise intelligent people will believe stupid things as long as they’ve convinced themselves there’s a scientific backing.
Stop Telling People To Believe The Science
Source: Pinoy Daily News
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