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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   31623 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of January 9, 2023

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Very serious people discuss that link, and Peter Singer for one is an utilitarian ethicist who uses it for arguments that seem to me to justify policies wrt mentally handicapped that have actually been implemented by the good old nazis 1.0.

I hope that linking intelligence <-> moral worth or human status is minoritarian here, but I wouldn't assume this to be the case for neither cognitive and professional elites, nor the general population. Generally, I would have the same tendency to see that link as being the implied default unless explicitly denied.

"Everyone has equal moral worth" is an often-held background assumption for much of the 'professional elites' - e.g. the richest billionares are donating to AIDS charities for africa,' and not the 'clone john von neumann foundation'. Same for the general population.

That seems to me to be one of those skin-deep beliefs doglatine talked about last week - easily contradicted by actions.

The Nazis did many bad things but that doesn't mean everything they did was bad. If your only argument against a policy is that the Nazis did it too you might need to rethink drinking water and breathing

Not everything the nazis did was bad, but knowledge and know-how gathered in killing the mentally handicapped came in handy for organizing the Holocaust.

The issue is not "Singer defending arbitrary thing that Nazis did (and normal people do as well)" but "Singer defending something that established the nazis' reputation for being uniquely evil".

The Nazis did many bad things but that doesn't mean everything they did was bad.

Please do not try to steelman Nazi eugenics programmes. Please. Otherwise you will make yourself sound like "Yeah, Hitler went a bit too far, but he was basically right about the Jewish Question".

The Nazis were not doing nice respectable quiet science. They were doing bad shit. They wanted to kill off people, and they did. And depending on your circumstances, to them you might be one of the 'lives undeserving of life' or 'natural slave race meant to serve us'.

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