Replies

All you say is true. But eugenics is explicitly what you get when a fascist ponders natural selection, just as inquisitions are what you get when a fascist ponders the evils of heresy. Some people talk about evolution; the fascist sincerely wants to do something about it.

That his idea of "fittest" always puts himself at the top of the heap is another issue--a psychological one...

I agree, but I think there is a mirror image than needs to be really seriously examined, for the purpose of preventing future socialist nastiness.

The combination fascism plus fondness of the idea of evolution leads to the idea that deadly government intervention is necessary and justified for furthering evolution.

The combination of fascism plus fear of evolution leads to the idea that deadly government intervention is necessary and justified for stopping evolution.

Both are insane, but the former has used up any marketing attractiveness it ever had. The latter is what socialism is now clinging to, and the ideological groundwork of it is currently being laid by people like Dawkins acting in concert with Singer-type government-worshiping Benthamite Utilitarians.

As far as who is at the top of the heap, socialism in general is an ideology fueled by jealousy. Socialism, in all forms, is technically absurd to someone of moderate intelligence who is thinking clearly. And, because of the fact that socialism is symbiotic with envy, the individual socialists who gain power will always tend to twist the definition of 'bottom of the heap' to those of whom they are envious. These will tend to be the people who garner the fruits of honest work (wealth through business sense, wealth through focused effort, and genuine artistic or scientific accomplishments), as socialists tend to spend their lives garnering different (and far less satisfying) fruits (various sorts of pats on the head, wealth through shady government deals, that sort of thing).

It is crazy to think that in an industrialized modern society, with all the wealth that creates, that you gain much anything by killing weak people instead of letting their relatives provide them with basic food, clothing, and shelter. Fascists aren't really targeting that power over life and death because they have an interest in "evolution", though they tell themselves and their followers that that is the reason. (They obviously don't have a genuine interest in evolution, because if they did, they'd bother learning enough about it that they'd be able to create political structures whose lifespans aren't best measured decades. Heck, if they had an honest interest in evolution, they might bother to notice the fact that the only species that builds cities and invents technology is also the only species that naturally cares for its sick and old, and buries its dead. And they might at least wonder about that.) It is really not in any core way about using government to further evolution. Instead, they target that power because they are seething with envy, and hate for the envied, and on some gut emotional level this leads them to desire the power to wipe out the envied. And they are thus drawn to ideologies that will give them that power. People are complex beings. Today, pleasure-pain utilitarianism combined with rabid anti-evolutionism looks like the best route they have to that power.

This socialism feeding off envy thing is the root of the problem, and the problem will surface again with a slightly different dress, unless it is recognized and fought. Fighting the marketing techniques it used 60 years ago is futile.

(I especially wonder why conservatives who believe evolution is bunk don't get this. Heck, if you think it is all bunk, why not recognize that the paper angel, in whose service nuts murdered millions last century, has now been refolded, that same paper, into a paper dragon that nuts intend to use to murder millions, again, if they can get away with it.)

The combination of fascism plus fear of evolution leads to the idea that deadly government intervention is necessary and justified for stopping evolution.

That's a bit of a non-sequitur: if you don't believe in evolution, then you don't believe there's a need to stop it.

I've already mentioned what happens when a fascist discovers christianity: he decides that heretics should be burned for their own good. That would probably include evolutionists, but they'd have to get in line with the wiccans, queers, low-church Anglicans...

It is crazy to think that in an industrialized modern society, with all the wealth that creates, that you gain much anything by killing weak people instead of letting their relatives provide them with basic food, clothing, and shelter.

I think even arguing that point means you're playing by the madman's rules. Feeding your sick parents isn't about whether it's cheaper to whack 'em--sometimes, it is. You feed them anyway.

....socialism in general is an ideology fueled by jealousy.

That's true at a high level, but deep down we're all wired for socialism because, in small tribal units, it confers a survival advantage. We haven't evolved the right instincts for social structures larger than a dozen or so. That's why even freepers, in a pinch, usually turn out to be statists.

The combination fascism plus fondness of the idea of evolution leads to the idea that deadly government intervention is necessary and justified for furthering evolution.
The combination of fascism plus fear of evolution leads to the idea that deadly government intervention is necessary and justified for stopping evolution.

There's a third possibility: REVERSING evolution. This is really what the Nazis were all about. They were attempting to undo "race mixing" and restore the "purity of the blood". They were creationists (of a mystical sort) who believed that each race had been created with a distinct "soul". The race "soul" was carried in the "blood".