this post was submitted on 10 Sep 2023
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Clever Comebacks
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Though I don't have all day to devote to determining if these sources line up with your claims and if they're worth a darn but I did attempt to skim.
Number 1. I dropped my subscription so I can't view the article. Can you share?
Source 2. "The Saviorism of Melinda Gates: Eugenics, Philanthrocapitalism, and the Perils of ‘Western’ Feminisms" . This is a senior honors thesis with some pretty big claims and I'm not sure the paper presents a strong enough argument.
Mind you, Eugenics is evil dog shit steeped in racism, classism and so on. Fuck that shit.
Anyway, the author attempts to draw a line between making birth control / family planning available (to third world countries) and eugenics via population control of certain groups.
Their argument traces a very long and winding path of rather tenuous links along the way and I don't find it very convincing. It seems more like a student grasping for straws to write a paper.
They seem to be suggesting that forced sterilization, forced sexual segregation, and similar despicable things are equivalent to ultimately voluntary family planning.
I see the point. If these programs are intended to control certain populations at a national level driven by eugenics, yeah that's fucked.
They may have shown it is plausible that this is what the Gates Foundation has been doing but I don't think they successfully proved it.
Source 3. Hush money... "Jeffrey Epstein allegedly tried to extort Bill Gates over extramarital affair" ... yeah that's not awesome.
Appreciate the reply. I will dig more. I am usually more glad to be wrong and learn something new than merely being right.
PS: if I may prod a bit on this...
Is overpopulation a legit issue separate from bullshit eugenics?
Do you think access to contraception improves health and economic outcomes for individual families? Also separated from bullshit eugenics.
I've only done a little looking into things.
I can't believe you actually would say this. I could, maybe, see someone thinking it isn't the biggest issue or that our technological advancements will keep ahead of population growth ... but with this categorical statement you're essentially saying the world can support infinite population.
I don't dispute we have plenty of food for the time being (until impacts of climate change on food supply become more pronounced over the next century. Meanwhile, right now, resources are becoming scarce. The western US hasn't enough water for the people it already has and is just one of many such places. Fishing populations continue to be depleted by overfishing in numerous locations as another example, and so on.
I'm well aware of forced sterilization and it is absolutely horrifying.
But it sounds like you're unable to distinguish between forced sterilization and availability of contraception to be chosen (or not) by individuals voluntarily. These are not the same thing.
The undergrad paper made the same mistake.
Furthermore, though I don't disagree billionaires interested in the birth rates of brown people could be seen as suspicious by you and others, suspicion is not evidence.
Another possible interpretation is that Gates is interested in making contraception available because, as I stated in a prior comment, voluntary family planning reduces poverty, reduces mortality rates for moms and babies, and so on, and I even linked a few studies in a prior comment.
I don't disagree that imperialism is a major issue for many countries and I don't dispute that US foreign policy has royally fucked a number of countries around the globe. I agree that these countries should enjoy liberation and self determination.
But that is all a non sequitur with regard to whether family planning is an evil eugenics plot. Bill Gates isn't the US government or CIA or any of that. It may all feel like it proves something but it doesn't. In a few years we can look at studies of red vs blue states to see what impacts banning abortion has without brining any eugenics into it.
If contraception results in less poverty, lower mortality rates, (it does, as supported by studies, as previously mentioned) and a better economy in these countries it seems to me that it is one of the things poorer, developing nations could benefit from to gain self determination and get the boot off their collective necks.
Finally, in my brief research this far, I've come to find that this whole eugenics thing with Gates is basically Facebook conspiracy nonsense.
Gates is a favorite target of conspiracy nuts aka people with poor epistemological skills.
I will believe whatever theory is best supported by the best evidence. But so far I haven't seen any even minimally acceptable evidence support such claims about Gates.
Contrast to the mountain of good evidence supporting that he is a total asshole in terms of relationships, business, stuff like that.
I'm certainly open to being wrong at any time as I have demonstrated many times in my life.
You don't get to the truth by bending logic and searching for any scrap to support your pet theory. That's conspiratorial, superstitious baloney you see in the movies.
You get to truth by following logic, selecting the best evidence and considering multiple explanations, being self aware about many cognitive biases, and arriving at the explanation that fits best. That is what is required to be "intellectually honest".
I didn't say I can't recognize colonialism / imperialism of west and east or bullshit Nestle and other giant corps pull or the myriad ways the US fucked all these countries.
I'm saying you're supporting evidence and arguments for Gates doing eugenics is lacking. And now you're pissed and have to resort to "you should sit down shut the fuck up and learn something". This is the same type of reaction as trying to have a discussion with a religious nut (used to be one, now atheist) or a cryptobro. That's hardly being open to being wrong or being intellectually honest. I'm out. I hold no hard feelings on my end. Plus I intend to continue to look into the topic but life is way too short and I don't care to "debate" further here. Thanks and peace to you.