EUGENICS….Can we get serious here? When Ross Douthat argues that “eugenics” is the right word to describe modern liberal attitudes toward abortion and gene therapy, he’s not being “unfair” or “weird.” He is, to use his own phrase, smearing people over a difference of opinion about bioethics.
Look: Ross is a smart guy. He knows perfectly well that modern liberals have no serious connection to eugenics advocates of the past. He knows perfectly well that abortion supporters aren’t motivated by eugenicist theories. He’s not using the word out of a dedication to scientific precision. Rather, he and his fellow conservatives are using the word “eugenics” because they also know perfectly well that it’s (quite rightly) associated with racism, pseudo-science, and Adolf Hitler. As far as they’re concerned, that’s a feature, not a bug.
This is highbrow Rush Limbaugh-ism, not serious argument. Back to the sandbox with it.
