LYC: I'm reading Pandora's Lab which is about the worst scientific discoveries. I just finished the section on eugenics which was eye opening in how
Posted by
JD (aka Jason Dean)
Jan 14 '21, 10:24
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messed up the USA has been and as well as provides background as to how screwed up we still are.
The USA passed laws enacting it. The Supreme Court upheld the decision on the one forced sterilization case that was brought to it.
Hitler was inspired by what he read from American eugenicists. Notable Americans and businesses sent congratulatory messages and wrote up articles along the lines that Hitler's program preceding the war were a good start. The book seems to put it that there were several that thought the ghettos were ok but once the war ended and the ovens were found, only then did they distance themselves.
The wording that Trump used to gain the Republican nomination is pretty much exactly what the eugenicists were claiming back in their day
FWIW, opiates was the first topic covered. All the way back to Egypt and then the havoc it caused as a cure all in the Roman times, the opium wars, the legal and then illegal status here in the states, and finally the pain treatment philosophy which paved the way for Oxy.
Second was Nitrogen fertilizers which was an example of unintended consequences. Like the German scientist who figured out the research method to make ammonia also went on to figure out chemical warfare for WW I. Also the current issue of excess N2 based fertilizers run off flowing to the ocean and lakes and killing off the original ecosystems.
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