That is, opposed to people with disabilities! Or anyway, as progressives — running out of new targets — turn on unaccustomed ones, that’s their latest claim.
From the Daily Wire:
The paper argues that concepts like “fitness” and “natural selection” — foundational to the field of evolutionary biology, which studies the diversification and adaptation of life forms over time — are “harmful” and have been “weaponized against marginalized communities in the modern day.” And the authors’ thesis is that evolutionary biology’s use of purportedly “ableist” terms and concepts discourages disabled people from studying the field, and is therefore more discriminatory of the disabled than other areas of study. But instead of sampling from other academic disciplines, the authors claim that “the proportion of disabled evolutionary biologists is far below the population average.”
The authors compared a National Center for Science and Engineering Studies (NCSES) statistic that found 8.1% of disabled doctorate recipients in the life sciences with a CDC statistic that found 26% of the US population was disabled. But upon closer inspection, this 26% CDC statistic was determined through self-reporting, based on a six-question set, and included participants 65 and over who have considerably higher rates of age-related disabilities.
Christina Buttons, “New Paper Claims Evolutionary Biology Is ‘Ableist.’ Here’s How It Misrepresented The Data.” at Daily Wire (January 16, 2023)
The paper requires a fee or subscription.
The topic is complex in this case. True, the evolutionary biology field is totally dominated by Darwinism, a survival-of-the-fittest cult which is supposed to explain the history of life on Earth. Hence the “ablist” terms employed.
But, in fairness to the Darwinists, they probably aren’t intentionally discriminating against people with disabilities. They are used to destroying the careers of doubters, able or otherwise. They have never before been called to account for that.
Will the apparent pixie dust that has protected them even from evaluation of the popularity of Darwinism among white supremacists continue to protect them today? We shall see.
You may also wish to read: Michael Shermer is complaining about the Cancel Culture Darwinians like himself helped create. Now that it is attacking the revered Darwinian E. O. Wilson (1929–2021).
and When scholars simply don’t want to believe something obvious … they are very good at developing clever arguments to avoid seeing it.The relationship between white supremacy theories and pop science mag evolutionary theory is quite clear but also very embarrassing to acknowledge.
Evolutionary biology, via eugenics, is, and has been, far more discriminatory against disabled people than, supposedly, just discouraging “disabled people from studying the field”. Evolutionary biology, via eugenics, led to nothing less than the mass extermination of disabled people in Nazi Germany.
Shoot besides discriminating against the disabled, there is also discrimination against women, discrimination between races, and also discouragement of charity to the poor, which also follow from Darwin’s theory,
Shoot, systemic racism is literally built into the museum exhibits that purport to show man evolving from some ape-like creature
Of note: We have far more reason to doubt the scientific accuracy of these ‘systemically racist’ museum ‘artistic reconstructions’, purporting to show man evolved from some ape-like creature,, than is generally believed.
Shoot, besides the engendering discrimination against the disabled, racism, and misogyny, Darwin’s theory also engenders discrimination against mankind as a whole by denying that man is created in ‘God’s image’.
In fact, to view man as somehow being superior to other species is, in a Darwinian view of things, to commit the sin of “Speciesism”.
The results of trying to equate man with other animals are, to put it mildly, not good. As Peter Singer put the Darwinian position on speciesism, “On what basis, then, could they hold that the life of a profoundly intellectually disabled human being with intellectual capacities inferior to those of a dog or a pig is of equal value to the life of a normal human being? This sounds like speciesism to me,”
All true, bornagain, and thanks! The reason Darwinism survived various purges is that it was a useful weapon in Cancel Culture. Now, it seems no longer to be needed so the Darwinians and their icons are expendable.
Do readers have hunches as to why Darwinism is not longer needed, hence those who attack it are not Canceled in principle?
Here’s one hunch: When everything is racist (or sexist, or ableist), nothing is – or anyway, not in particular. Targets become a question of: Which target is most convenient to hit just now? Bases for attacks can be determined later, assuming they are even needed or sought.
“why Darwinism is not longer needed”
News,
The shine on it came off, due to it being obviously flawed. But… as long as the Grand Narrative can be retold with different euphemisms, nothing really has changed. Most of the people who would go to war for Evolution don’t care what the details of it are, anyway.
Andrew
The Montagnards always destroy the Girondins when they become unnecessary.
Remember that Robespierre went to the guillotine. It’s amazing that the malcontents who come here and elsewhere who spout nonsense don’t understand this simple concept.
What a horrible, horrible article. As a working editor, I would have had a long talk with the writer about journalism, ethics and bias. Sickening.
There’s no need to point to the Nazis. Besides, too many have a distorted image of the situation in Europe at the time. Aside from purging the untermensch/sub-human peoples from Europe, there were those involved in slave labor and forced labor.
Meanwhile, in the United States, a group of Total Strangers released the Birth Control Pill in 1960 in an attempt to stop the flow of babies. It was only available by prescription but most women did not want or need it. A marketing and propaganda campaign began in 1967 with a Time magazine cover story about The Pill. And at the top of the page: ‘Freedom from Fear.’ Fear of what? Babies. That bundle of joy, that gift from God was now to be feared. Really? In 1968, the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws set out to lie to the American people and the Media. In truth, most Americans did not want permissive abortion but they promoted a different and false scenario:
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/resource/55401/an-ex-abortionist-speaks
Let’s skip ahead to the present and laws that promote Assisted Suicide. It’s legal in ten states and the District of Columbia.
Oh, this is ‘progress’ alright. Progress toward barbarism.
“The topic is complex in this case.” No, it’s not.