Author of Much-Discussed Forum Piece Defending Eugenics Works for a Magazine with Far-Right Links

By David Mathers🔸 @ 2024-10-22T12:52 (–3)

This is a linkpost to https://investigations.hopenothate.org.uk/race-science-inc/?utm_source=main_website&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=hub_page

Last year, the evolutionary psychologist Diana Fleischman wrote a forum post that attracted a lot of (mostly measured, nuanced) comment, defending eugenics: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/PTCw5CJT7cE6Kx9ZR/most-people-endorse-some-form-of-eugenics
 

Recently, Fleischman has made a minor appearance in a long investigation by a British anti-fascist* organization. Apparently she hosts the podcast for a magazine run by far-right activists that seeks to promote ideas about race that appeal to far-right wing political parties, people interested in deporting non-white citizens of Western democracies and so forth.: " Diana Fleischman, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of New Mexico, has a part-time role hosting Aporia’s podcast, and is the author of an article on the website headlined: “You’re probably a eugenicist.”" EDIT: To be clear, this is the same article by Fleischmann that was discussed on the forum. 

I thought people should be warned about this, since Aporia's tactic appears to be to pretend to be much more moderate on issues around race than they actually are. Note that I am NOT saying, this means that people have to reject anything Diana Fleischman has ever said, or even that I personally disagree with everything in her original forum article. Insofar as it argues just that liberal democracies usually permit some eugenic practices, and people are confused and hypocritical about this, I probably agree with a lot of it. And I think I am probably cautiously in favour of genetic enhancement in the long-term, though I am very unsure about this. But I do think that the walls between "a bit edgy, but well-intentioned high decoupler" and "neo-Nazi activist"** seem to get very thin when it comes to people actively involved in trying to push genetic enhancement, in a way that makes me very nervous of the whole area. 

*I mean that term just as "they campaign against far-right", I don't think it necessarily has much to do with anti-fa in this sense: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antifa_(United_States)#:~:text=Antifa%20(%2F%C3%A6n%CB%88t,movement%20in%20the%20United%20States.

**My understanding is Fleischmann is Jewish, so it's unlikely she is literally a Nazi. But obviously someone could be Jewish and still support other forms of white nationalism on which Jews are classed as white. Though I am not saying she 100% definitely is a white nationalist herself either.