What if the Great Filter is eugenics?
Maybe at the point a species gets it in their head to intentionally prune their species' genetic diversity is when they collapse because they become a fragile monoculture.
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#eugenics
5 posts5 participants1 post today
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@cstross @ardenthistorian.bsky.social I recommend reading "The #TESCREAL Bundle" to see the connections of these people and their fascist eugenic "scifi" ideologies: https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/13636
One author is on Mastodon: @timnitGebru (while @xriskology doesn't seem to be active anymore).
firstmonday.orgThe TESCREAL bundle: Eugenics and the promise of utopia through artificial general intelligence
| First Monday
So grateful to the incredible Prof. @anitachan.bsky.social for her tremendous lecture (& wonderful conversation) in MPLS "Predatory Data: Feminist Resistance to Eugenics in Big Tech," on Thursday!!! Hosted by CBI for Computing, Info. & Culture & HHH Ctr. on Women, Gender, & Public Policy. Held in conjunction with International Women's Day today.
If you've never been a target of #eugenics by government - you should be grateful. You should use your privileges to try to help those of us targeted by eugenicists.
Why are more of you privileged & not targeted by government eugenicis monsters not doing much to step up to speak up for us - facing erasure by eugenics, by the same governments holding power over us?
WE NEED BRAVE COMRADES!
WHERE ARE YOU?
Prior to Covid it was normal to mask in the NICU. People understood that premature babies are as vulnerable as they come and need to protected.
Now? Gowns & gloves but no masking.
The damage caused by anti mask rhetoric will be felt for years (possibly decades) to come.
Mask mandates belong in healthcare. We should be providing free respirators at the door & cleaning and ventilating the air.
If you’re a healthcare worker who doesn’t think you need to mask, please read my plea on behalf of vulnerable patients:
https://www.disabledginger.com/p/a-plea-to-maskless-healthcare-workers
We know masks in healthcare stop the spread of airborne disease. We know they reduce the risk of hospital acquired COVID (which has a 10% mortality rate).
We know respirators work even better.
So why aren’t we masking? Why are patients having to bear the brunt of infection control?
https://www.disabledginger.com/p/we-need-mandatory-masking-in-healthcare
The Disabled Ginger · A Plea to Maskless Healthcare Workers from Vulnerable Patients
There’s measles outbreaks in multiple States now, and every time a new cluster is announced there’s an exposure at an ER
Why? Because that’s where the sick people go
It’s one of the reasons disabled people often say they won’t go to the ER unless literally dying.
They’re not safe places for us:
https://www.disabledginger.com/p/i-wont-go-to-the-er-unless-im-literally
The Disabled Ginger · "I Won't Go to the ER Unless I'm Literally Dying"
In the Twin Cities, please join us TODAY at 5pm (Humphrey Room 105) for a free public lecture by U. of Illinois' standout Prof. of Information Sciences Anita Say Chan, her talk: "Predatory Data."
Co-hosted by UMN CBI for Computing, Information & Culture; & Ctr for Women, Gender & Public Policy. I will give a short framing talk.
@politicalscience
@histodons
@anthropology
@sociology
@commodon
#eugenics
#genderstudies
#womenshistory
#womenintech
#womeninstem
#tech #history
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@janhoglund It's time to wake up: This is exactly what people like #Musk *want*. In his #fascist bundle of #TESCREAL ideologies, #eugenics play a big part. He is deeply #racist and #eugenic. You can find that on all levels of what he does and says! https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/03/r-word-right-wing-rise
The Guardian · ‘The basis of eugenics’: Elon Musk and the menacing return of the R-word
There’s so much going on in the world that we can’t control.
The Covid pandemic gave way to rising fascism, just like the pandemics that have come before.
People are scared. Many lost loved ones. Society changed overnight. The loss of control that many felt allowed bad actors to rise up and capitalize on people’s fear.
No matter what our governments say or do, Covid isn’t over. It’s still killing and disabling people.
What’s worse, the pro infection crowd has become so loud and emboldened that vaccine uptake is down, masks are vilified and we’re seeing a resurgence of diseases like measles and tuberculosis.
Despite all the infectious disease threats out there, we still don’t have mandatory masks in healthcare.
The one place people absolutely can’t avoid, the place they should have a reasonable expectation of safety, has become one of the least safe public spaces.
Patients are being infected trying to access basic healthcare, because staff refuse to mask. Refuse to test. Refuse to isolate.
It’s eugenics, and we need people to realize it before it’s too late.
We need mandatory masks in healthcare. We must protect patients AND staff. We must protect even the ones who refuse to protect themselves.
https://www.disabledginger.com/p/we-need-mandatory-masking-in-healthcare
The Disabled Ginger · We Need Mandatory Masking in Healthcare, and We Need it Now
“Take off your mask so I can see your pretty face”
“You won’t catch covid HERE! You can take off your mask”
“You seem anxious about Covid”
“Why are you masking? Are you sick?”
Lack of mask mandates in healthcare means patients are judged, mistreated & harmed when trying to access care.
Hospital acquired COVID has a 10% mortality rate. Patients are going in for necessary care and losing their lives or ending up disabled.
Healthcare workers are burned out, sick and exhausted.
The current situation is not sustainable.
We know how to reduce (if not eliminate) COVID and other hospital acquired infections.
So why aren’t we doing it?
My latest articles looks at masking in healthcare from the patient perspective. The challenges, the struggles, the avoidable infections and the trauma that comes from having healthcare workers abdicate their responsibility to “do no harm”
https://www.disabledginger.com/p/we-need-mandatory-masking-in-healthcare
The Disabled Ginger · We Need Mandatory Masking in Healthcare, and We Need it Now
Patients have been bearing the brunt of infection control in hospitals, having to go to great lengths to protect themselves and their loved ones.
They’re unfairly judged, psychologized and mistreated for masking and/or requesting staff mask.
Covid is still here. It’s still killing and disabling people. We’re also seeing outbreaks of tuberculosis, measles and the worst flu season in over a decade.
Public health is being systematically dismantled and gagged by the Trump administration, allowing misinformation and disinformation to flourish and putting even more lives at risk.
Why don’t we have mandatory masking in healthcare? Why are we killing and disabling patients who go there for help? Who can’t ‘just stay home’?
The second article in my Masks in Healthcare series looks at patient stories, retaliation, and what we can do to make hospitals safer for everyone.
https://www.disabledginger.com/p/we-need-mandatory-masking-in-healthcare
The Disabled Ginger · We Need Mandatory Masking in Healthcare, and We Need it Now
1 in 3 doctors in the NHS report being too tired to adequately care for their patients.
“Of the 69% who said extreme tiredness had or may have impaired their ability to treat patients, 1 in 4 said one of their patients had been harmed or a near miss had occurred”
I’ve learned to adapt to Covid risk in healthcare. I can wear a respirator and eye protection. I can monitor the CO2 levels. I can bring extra masks for healthcare workers. There are proactive things I can do to keep myself safe.
How can I protect myself against healthcare workers who are too tired or sick to do their jobs properly?
We need to talk about this more. Covid is known to cause cognitive damage. Many healthcare workers have been infected multiple times.
Those of us with complex chronic illness already know how hard it is to access safe, competent and timely care.
What will that care look like in another five years if we don’t start mitigating Covid?
The Guardian · One in three NHS doctors so tired their ability to treat patients is affected, survey finds
I don't really want to post this. But.
"A natalist conference featuring speakers including self-described eugenicists and promoters of race science, apparently including the man behind a previously pseudonymous race-science influencer account, and the founder of a startup offering IQ screening for IVF embryos, will be held at a hotel and conference venue operated by the public University of Texas, Austin."
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/03/natal-conference-austin-texas-eugenics
The Guardian · US natalist conference to host race-science promoters and eugenicists
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@arstechnica A good and important article! All this #AI hype is so anthropocentric! (And many #AGI people rely on fascist ideologies like #eugenics).
One of the hardest parts of navigating these difficult times is the fact that many of those fighting fascism & impending collapse are turning their back on the disabled.
We saw it years ago. We warned. We pleaded. We asked people to fight back. We asked them to wear a mask.
Now we’re in the thick of it and still being left behind.
Articles about collapse don’t factor us in. Resistance efforts ignore us. Activism isn’t accessible. People still aren’t masking.
Include us in resistance. We have a lot to offer. We were built for fighting back.
Closing the Office of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity sends a very strong message about how marginalized and disabled people will be treated going forward.
Civil rights were hard won through long battles by those facing discrimination & abuse. We can’t go back.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/02/28/doge-trump-civil-rights-office-closing-eeoc/
The Washington Post · Trump officials start dismantling civil rights offices, as part of DOGE’s secret plan
Continued thread
Disability is a minority group that you can join at any time. It often happens in an instant and without warning.
You can’t plan for it. Most of us didn’t plan for it.
Everyone believes they will be the exception, but the truth is we’re all one accident, illness or catastrophic event from life changing disability
Cuts to social security will be devastating for disabled people. Delays in approval and funding will cost lives.
https://www.npr.org/2025/02/28/nx-s1-5296986/trump-worker-cuts-social-security-administration
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I'm sure he isn't the only one... Just the only one to get caught!
Staffer for #Musk’s DOGE resigns over #racist social media posts that advocated for #eugenics
#MarkoElez was one of two top #DOGE staffers granted access to the #TreasuryDepartment’s payment system
by Andrew Feinberg, Friday 07 February 2025
"One of the two staffers for Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency who was granted access to the U.S. Treasury’s sensitive payment system has quit his post after the White House was asked about his history of racist social media posts, including those supporting eugenics and repealing of the 1964 #CivilRightsAct.
"The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that Marko Elez, a 25-year-old programmer who was brought into government service by the world’s wealthiest man had a profile on #ElonMusk’s social media site X featuring posts in which he said he supported a 'eugenic immigration policy,' and made other racist statements. Eugenics supports 'racial improvement' through 'selective breeding' to improve the human race.
"In one September post reviewed by The Journal, Elez reportedly wrote: 'You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity.'"
Read more:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/elon-musk-doge-staff-quit-b2693784.html
#USPol #reproductiverights #Fascism #BodilyAutomony #USHistory #WhiteNationalism #Genocide #BadDOGE
The Independent · DOGE staffer quits after exposure of racist social media posts
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America’s Forgotten History of #ForcedSterilization
By Sanjana Manjeshwar on November 4, 2020
"In early September, a nurse working at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (#ICE) detention center in #Georgia came forward with shocking allegations of medical neglect and abuse, claiming that numerous involuntary #hysterectomies (uterus removal surgeries) were performed on detained #ImmigrantWomen. This allegation understandably evoked fury and outrage among the general public, with numerous people denouncing it as a #HumanRights violation and yet another example of the current administration’s cruelty towards women and immigrants. Many people, including prominent liberal politicians and public figures, viewed it as something distinctly un-American and at odds with our country’s values — a common refrain that echoed in response to the allegation was 'This isn’t the America I know.' There were countless comparisons to #NaziGermany and other #totalitarian, human rights-abusing regimes, as well as a pervasive sense that the United States was engaging in a uniquely cruel and unprecedented act. Unfortunately, this is a misleading impression.
"While the allegations against ICE are undoubtedly horrific and must be investigated, they are not at all unprecedented or un-American — in fact, they are very American. The United States has a long, egregious, and largely unknown history of eugenics and forced #sterilization, primarily directed towards #PoorWomen, #DisabledWomen, and #WomenOfColor.
"The American #eugenics movement originated in the late 1800s and has always been undeniably based in #racism and #nativism. The word 'eugenics' originally referred to the biological improvement of human genes, but was used as a pseudoscience to justify discriminatory and destructive acts against supposedly undesirable people, such as extremely restrictive #ImmigrationLaws, #AntiMiscegenationLaws, and forced sterilization. The ultimate goal of the eugenics movement was to 'breed out' undesirable traits in order to create a society with a 'superior' genetic makeup, which essentially meant reducing the population of the #NonWhite and the mentally ill. The eugenics movement was widely accepted in American society well into the 20th century, and was not at all relegated to the fringes of society like one might expect. In fact, most states had federally funded eugenics boards, and state-ordered sterilization was a common occurrence. Sterilization was seen as one of the most effective ways to stem the growth of an 'undesirable' population, since ending a woman’s reproductive capabilities meant that she would no longer be able to contribute to the population.
"The Supreme Court case Buck v. Bell (1927) decided that a Virginia law authorizing the mandatory sterilization of inmates in mental institutions was constitutional. #CarrieBuck, a 'feeble minded woman' whose mental illness had been in her family for the past three generations, was committed to a state mental institution and was set to undergo a sterilization procedure which required a hearing. The Supreme Court found that the Virginia law was valuable and did not violate the Constitution, and would prevent the United States from 'being swamped with incompetence…Three generations of imbeciles is enough.' The Court has never explicitly overturned #BuckVersusBell.
"California’s '#AsexualizationActs' in the 1910s and 1920s led to the sterilization of 20,000 disproportionately #Black and #Mexican people who were deemed to be mentally ill. #Hitler and the #Nazis were reportedly inspired by #California’s laws when formulating their own #genocidal eugenics policies in the 1930s. When discussing the Asexualization Acts of California, Hitler wrote, 'There is today one state in which at least weak beginnings toward a better conception [of citizenship] are noticeable. Of course, it is not our model German Republic, but the #UnitedStates.'
"Throughout the 20th century, nearly 70,0000 people (overwhelmingly working-class women of color) were sterilized in over 30 states. #Black women, #Latina women, and #NativeAmerican women were specifically targeted. From the 1930s to the 1970s, nearly one-third of the women in #PuertoRico, a U.S. territory, were coerced into sterilization when government officials claimed that Puerto Rico’s economy would benefit from a reduced population. Sterilization was so common that it became known as '#LaOperación (The Operation)' among Puerto Ricans.
"Black women were also disproportionately and forcibly sterilized and subjected to reproductive abuse. In #NorthCarolina in the 1960s, Black women made up 65 percent of all sterilizations of women, although they were only 25 percent of the population. One Black woman who was subjected to a forced hysterectomy during this time was #FannieLouHamer, a renowned #CivilRights activist. Hamer described how nonconsensual sterilizations of working-class Black women in the South were so common that they were colloquially known as a '#MississippiAppendectomy'.
"Additionally, many Native American women were sterilized against their will. According to a report by historian Jane Lawrence, the Indian Health Service was accused of sterilizing nearly 25% of #Indigenous women during the 1960s and 1970s. In 1973, the year that Roe v. Wade was decided by the Supreme Court, supposedly ensuring reproductive rights for all American women, the reproductive rights of thousands of Indigenous women were entirely ignored as they were forcibly sterilized.
"Forced sterilization, especially in exchange for a sentence reduction, occurs often in the criminal #LegalSystem today. Government-sanctioned efforts to prevent incarcerated people from reproducing were widespread in the 20th century, and still continue today. In 2017, a judge in #Tennessee offered to reduce the jail sentences of convicted people who appeared before him in court if they
'volunteered' to undergo sterilization. In 2009, a 21-year-old woman in #WestVirginia convicted of #marijuana possession underwent sterilization as part of her probation. In 2018, an #Oklahoma woman convicted of cashing a counterfeit check received a reduced sentence after undergoing sterilization at the suggestion of the judge. According to a report by the Center for Investigative Reporting, almost 150 women considered likely to return to prison were sterilized in California prisons between 2004 and 2003. Although they had to sign 'consent' forms, the procedure, when posed as an incentive for a reduced sentence, generates an ongoing debate about whether or not consent actually exists in these situations. Proponents of the sterilization of incarcerated individuals often cite a lack of 'personal responsibility,' when in reality, many of these individuals face a lack of support and resources. Even if incarceration was somehow the singular determinant of one’s morals and character, sterilization as part of a prison sentence is still a fundamental violation of the right to #ReproductiveAutonomy — something judges and prison officials choose to ignore."
Read more:
https://bpr.studentorg.berkeley.edu/2020/11/04/americas-forgotten-history-of-forced-sterilization/
#USPol #reproductiverights #Fascism #BodilyAutomony #USHistory #WhiteNationalism #Genocide
Berkeley Political Review - UC Berkeley's only nonpartisan political magazine · America’s Forgotten History of Forced Sterilization - Berkeley Political ReviewIn early September, a nurse working at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in Georgia came forward with shocking allegations of medical neglect and abuse, claiming that numerous involuntary hysterectomies (uterus removal surgeries) were performed on detained immigrant women. This allegation understandably evoked fury and outrage among the general public, with numerous people