As I try to work a bit on a windy rainy Sunday, a glance at Twitter manages to rattle me. Seems the British fascination with eugenics is really deeply held.
1. This tweet from Dr. Richard Dawkins, saying how eugenics would 'work' in humans. https://twitter.com/RichardDawkins/status/1228943686953664512
1. This tweet from Dr. Richard Dawkins, saying how eugenics would 'work' in humans. https://twitter.com/RichardDawkins/status/1228943686953664512
2. A tweet from the @royalsociety, which is unbelievably uncritical. Sir Galton surely didn't study human physical traits as a passive hobby, now, did he? The man literally coined the term 'eugenics'. https://twitter.com/royalsociety/status/1228971033316687874
3. The same attitude goes here, where the video uncritically mentions the research of Alice Lee as 'measuring the ... skull in order to find out what's inside'.
That is definitely not true - Pearson's lab was dedicated to eugenics, not neuroscience. https://twitter.com/royalsociety/status/1227147829136805890
That is definitely not true - Pearson's lab was dedicated to eugenics, not neuroscience. https://twitter.com/royalsociety/status/1227147829136805890
4. And today, I read this. A speaker at the London Conference on Intelligence, attended by eugenicists and white supremacists, that @ucl is investigating, is now at 10 Downing Street. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/dominic-cummings-misfits-weirdos-boris-johnson-womens-sport-paralympics-a9337226.html
5. The @royalsociety apologised today, as quoted here, by saying 'Any discussion of Galton should acknowledge the historical wrongs of his enthusiasm for eugenics alongside his contributions to science', BUT ... https://twitter.com/royalsociety/status/1229303930213060609
... literally an hour after apologising, they post this about Dr. Ronald Fisher.
It's almost as if it's a deliberate 'f*ck you' to the critics.
Is the president of the @royalsociety, Dr. Venki Ramakrishnan, aware of this, I wonder? https://twitter.com/royalsociety/status/1229314597221552128
It's almost as if it's a deliberate 'f*ck you' to the critics.
Is the president of the @royalsociety, Dr. Venki Ramakrishnan, aware of this, I wonder? https://twitter.com/royalsociety/status/1229314597221552128