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Used Tesla prices tumble as embarrassed owners look to sell (arstechnica.com)
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[-] LustyArgonianMana@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/nikola-tesla-the-eugenicist-eliminating-undesirables-by-2100-130299355/

The year 2100 will see eugenics universally established. In past ages, the law governing the survival of the fittest roughly weeded out the less desirable strains. Then man’s new sense of pity began to interfere with the ruthless workings of nature. As a result, we continue to keep alive and to breed the unfit. The only method compatible with our notions of civilization and the race is to prevent the breeding of the unfit by sterilization and the deliberate guidance of the mating instinct. Several European countries and a number of states of the American Union sterilize the criminal and the insane. This is not sufficient. The trend of opinion among eugenists is that we must make marriage more difficult. Certainly no one who is not a desirable parent should be permitted to produce progeny. A century from now it will no more occur to a normal person to mate with a person eugenically unfit than to marry a habitual criminal.

Oof, that's a tough read.

[-] Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee 0 points 2 weeks ago

I have read a number of comments from people with illnesses or other issues that are genetic, saying they don't want to pass their problems onto the next generation.

So, bizarrely enough, there is a certain amount of eugenics happening, it's just purely voluntary.

[-] futatorius@lemm.ee 3 points 2 weeks ago

It's the top-down nature of the eugenics movement that made it so morally repugnant. "We decide who's fit to have kids."

[-] Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee 1 points 2 weeks ago

Fair enough.

[-] futatorius@lemm.ee 0 points 2 weeks ago

It was a common view, especially among progressives, from the late 1890s to the start of WW2. The temperance movement embraced eugenics, so did the family-planning movement, and through it, early feminism.

[-] LustyArgonianMana@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

Eh, I don't buy this. There were always dissenters and weirdos and people knew differently. There were trans pioneers. There were vegans. There were abolitionists. Not everyone was like that.

Tesla wasn't a biologist, let's leave it at that. Humanity's greatest biological strength is their adaptability, which requires variety. Eugenicism is inherently disadvantageous to humanity because it reduces their ability to adapt and respond to environmental threats. A counter to that would be E.O. Wilson, see Half Earth, a short read that emphasizes biodiversity.

Eugenics only makes sense to cowardly people who are afraid of being treated how they would treat others. It's a bad idea to Cavendish Banana Hapsberg people (oh and btw eugenics is deeply tied to incest kinks, see Elon and Trump).

Again, this is thinking that is pretty intuitive if you aren't bloodthirsty and pathetic

this post was submitted on 14 Mar 2025
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