[ExI] 'Survival of the fittest' ??

[William Flynn Wallace]

 SR Ballard> wrote:

> I’m sorry, but some people are genetically unfit to have children.
>

Yeah?  Agreed.  So what do you want to do about it?  Give governments a say
in who is born?

bill w






> For example: Fatal familial insomnia.
> https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatal_insomnia
>
> Unless/until their are treatments, knowingly dooming your children to die
> as you have died, miserably, is very cruel.
>
> SR Ballard
>
> On Jan 11, 2020, at 8:27 AM, BillK via extropy-chat <
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
> On Sat, 11 Jan 2020 at 07:16, Rafal Smigrodzki via extropy-chat
> <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
> ### Well, yes - real libertarianism is "live and let live", and this also
> implies "live and let die".
>
> I am not my brother's keeper. Removal of legal sanctions for using and
> selling dangerous drugs
>
> would certainly facilitate infliction of self-harm, and some people who
> are too timid to use drugs
>
> now might become victims of their own stupidity - well, so what? We may
> offer good advice in
>
> the spirit of the good Samaritan but if this advice is not heeded, I do
> not feel guilty for whatever
>
> happens. The only situation where this does not apply is of course
> children and other wards
>
> but that's a different story.
>
> _______________________________________________
>
>
> This interpretation is based on the now discredited Social Darwinism
> belief system.
> <https://www.history.com/topics/early-20th-century-us/social-darwinism>
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Darwinism>
>
> Quotes:
> Social Darwinists believe in “survival of the fittest”—the idea that
> certain people become powerful in society because they are innately
> better. Social Darwinism has been used to justify imperialism, racism,
> eugenics and social inequality at various times over the past century
> and a half.
> ----------
> Darwin rarely commented on the social implications of his theories.
> But to those who followed Spencer and Malthus, Darwin’s theory
> appeared to be confirming with science what they already believed to
> be true about human society—that the fit inherited qualities such as
> industriousness and the ability to accumulate wealth, while the unfit
> were innately lazy and stupid.
>
> Unlike Darwin, Spencer believed that people could genetically pass
> learned qualities, such as frugality and morality, on to their
> children.
> Spencer opposed any laws that helped workers, the poor, and those he
> deemed genetically weak. Such laws, he argued, would go against the
> evolution of civilization by delaying the extinction of the “unfit.”
> ----------
> Eugenics became a popular social movement in the United States that
> peaked in the 1920s and 1930s. Books and films promoted eugenics,
> while local fairs and exhibitions held “fitter family” and “better
> baby” competitions around the country.
> The eugenics movement in the United States focused on eliminating
> undesirable traits from the population. Proponents of the eugenics
> movement reasoned the best way to do this was by preventing “unfit”
> individuals from having children.
> During the first part of the twentieth century, 32 U.S. states passed
> laws that resulted in the forced sterilization of more than 64,000
> Americans including immigrants, people of color, unmarried mothers and
> the mentally ill.
> ----------------------------------------
>
> On the other hand, many great human projects involved large numbers of
> humans working together, assisting each other in tasks which required
> many different levels of ability and experience.
>
> BillK
>
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