Youtube comments

DON'T. READ. THEM.

Every so often, I get a notification from an old comment thread I posted on long ago. This week, it was the assbutt who decided that eugenics was "totally cool" and a great way to go. I have read enough historical feminist literature to know that it is not. Eugenics as a movement is strongly rooted in white supremacy and general racism, as well as classism and ableism. It is not something I can support, nor will I ever. However, this issue is less touchy to me, so hopefully in this post I come across more thoughtful and less angry and bitter.

Eugenics bothers me because I like to speculate about the kind of social conditions it would create. There's enough discriminatory systems in place that privilege certain people and put others at a disadvantage, and I think that that's ridiculous and I don't want to add another one. Putting into place a system where only some people can have children and others can't is just going to create that. People with the ability will feel superior, people without it will inevitably get bitter and jaded.

Not to mention people who are deemed "OK to have kids" by the government or whatever, who don't want kids. Wouldn't they feel immense social pressure to "take advantage of this opportunity" or something? Or worse, "do it for the greater good"? Plus, just because someone's genes are sound doesn't mean they would be a good parent. "So let good parents who can't have kids adopt." Okay, but if you're really talking about limiting the gene pool, there might not be very many kids TO adopt. Depends on how many limits you place. Also, how do you determine who would make good parents? Does that factor in at all? Don't children deemed genetically OK deserve to have a good childhood, too?

Then there's the issue of sexual assault. Someone who isn't OKed who gets assaulted could easily face even more backlash than many survivors/victims (whatever they want to call themselves) already do. Plus, there could also be instances of the reverse, of getting people into horrible trouble by saying that they have gotten you pregnant not only against your will, but against the wishes of the government (cue the dramatic gasps and an old lady saying "heaven forbid!").

And of course, the big issue of science. I'm studying genetics, but I'm very very very early on, so I understand very little, But to the best of my knowledge, science is far from knowing how genes affect every disease. Plus, if you're aiming for a perfect human genome, what does that even LOOK like? And not to mention we don't know the full extent of the effects every single thing we're exposed to in our environment has on us. Random mutations happen! This is how skin cancer happens! This is how other cancers can happen! To quote my 100-level biology prof, "if you live long enough, at some point you will get cancer and die." The longer you're around, the greater the chance of a mutation. (This isn't meant to be insensitive to people who have cancer, have had cancer, or who have lost someone/know someone to/with cancer. Cancer is really devastating and I don't mean to trivialize it). My point is, though- how can you select for which people have the best genomes if you don't know what the best genomes might be? Plus, is there ANYONE out there who truly has a clean genome? I'm going to say that it's safe to assume that everyone has a genetic predisposition for SOMEthing, even if they/we don't know it (yet).

I also have selfish reasons, given the fact that if these policies had existed long before me, my parents probably wouldn't have even thought about kids at all, and if they were to be implemented now, I'm pretty sure I've got enough family history of Nope to disqualify myself. I don't even know that I want kids, but it's one thing to not have kids because you don't want them and to not have kids because you're not allowed to.

As for the history of eugenics, this is, as I said, a movement deeply rooted in racism. Especially in Canada, where there's a big history of forcibly sterilizing Native people and disabled people against their will, which is beyond morally wrong on so many levels.


For my general point: for this youtube commenter to say that "eugenics is a good idea, go ahead and hate all you want, you probably prove my point hahahahaha" (so hilarious you guys) shows a complete lack of contemplation of the moral issues behind eugenics, as well as its incredibly discriminatory history rooted in racism, classism, and ableism.

Eugenics is not a system that I support, and it never will be.

yer pal,
swegan