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Originally Posted by spanktehbadwookie
Isn't that version of eugenics passive, like it's just gonna happen because of freedom and property, so let it?
Ideas such as eugenics, which support things like the holocaust are not very meaningfully rated on the passive/active scale. Eventually over time, if ideas are widely believed, they are acted upon. It's more important to consider the fallacious nature of the idea and how it has been used historically.
Eugenics is always about enforcing a particular social order. The same things Goodman is saying about "dullards" proxy was what was said about Jews in Germany. The obvious fact that Jews thrived in Germany was no detraction from the eugenics campaign because it was always about pseudo scientific rationalizations towards instituting a particular social order, and that was understood.