This entry is in the category of entries I wish I didn’t have to write. This should not have to be a thing that is delineated. But nevertheless, here we go. Please note examples used in any links on this matter are only the ones readily available and where they are there are many others underreported or unexamined.
I am trying to process a bit of the crud that crept into another entry and made it nonsensical. It’s possible that this entry will also be full of palpable, white hot rage. But that’s okay. An entry like this is supposed to be full of well-channeled anger. We shouldn’t live in a society where I have to write entries like this.
I am trying to process a bit of the crud that crept into another entry and made it nonsensical. It’s possible that this entry will also be full of palpable, white hot rage. But that’s okay. An entry like this is supposed to be full of well-channeled anger. We shouldn’t live in a society where I have to write entries like this.
The truth is that eugenic thought has powered society possibly since time out of mind. Creation of categories, shoving people into them and making one category better than the other category is all the basis for eugenic thought. Eugenics itself is the theory that with better breeding practices we can eliminate undesirable people. And that is bad enough, as it is the origin of the prison system in the United States as well as the mental health system, draconic as it still is. There are a lot of very obvious examples, the most obvious of them being Autism Speaks, a 24/7 eugenics propaganda machine actively encouraging parents of autistic kids to hate, harm, and kill them. There are other examples too, though.
If you think of your disabled child, any disabled child, as less than your other children, congratulations, you’re engaging in eugenic thought. If you think your disabled kid should come to more harm than your other kids, you’re engaging in eugenic thought. If you think of your disabled kid as a burden, too annoying, too hard to handle, bingo. And it is the position of this blog that if you don't even bother to treat your kids equally on any level, if you abuse one kid more than the other kids, you've officially gone around the bend. Go ahead. Ask me how I know.
But eugenics is really everywhere in pretty much every way. Just look at the way the way the law applies disproportionately to people of color, to women, to disabled people and people with mental health issues. (As someone profiled by police on the basis of disability I can tell you this is a real thing as well.) We don’t even have to apply cut-and-dried eugenics to any of these situations because the system is now so air-tight it permeates every aspect of society. Racism is eugenic. Classism is eugenic. Sexism is eugenic. Subjugation of an underclass is eugenic. So how many times in society does eugenic thought really come into play? We play into it every single day. Eugenic thought spawned the first articulation of eugenics as a social movement. Society is preoccupied with it at the deepest levels of its institutions and how they are oppressive. It had to come from somewhere, and it was there and systemic enough already to spawn the first eugenics movements in the world. (America, I'm looking at you.)
Try to be mindful. You’ll start seeing it everywhere.
If you think of your disabled child, any disabled child, as less than your other children, congratulations, you’re engaging in eugenic thought. If you think your disabled kid should come to more harm than your other kids, you’re engaging in eugenic thought. If you think of your disabled kid as a burden, too annoying, too hard to handle, bingo. And it is the position of this blog that if you don't even bother to treat your kids equally on any level, if you abuse one kid more than the other kids, you've officially gone around the bend. Go ahead. Ask me how I know.
But eugenics is really everywhere in pretty much every way. Just look at the way the way the law applies disproportionately to people of color, to women, to disabled people and people with mental health issues. (As someone profiled by police on the basis of disability I can tell you this is a real thing as well.) We don’t even have to apply cut-and-dried eugenics to any of these situations because the system is now so air-tight it permeates every aspect of society. Racism is eugenic. Classism is eugenic. Sexism is eugenic. Subjugation of an underclass is eugenic. So how many times in society does eugenic thought really come into play? We play into it every single day. Eugenic thought spawned the first articulation of eugenics as a social movement. Society is preoccupied with it at the deepest levels of its institutions and how they are oppressive. It had to come from somewhere, and it was there and systemic enough already to spawn the first eugenics movements in the world. (America, I'm looking at you.)
Try to be mindful. You’ll start seeing it everywhere.
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