You'd think I'd learn not to read the comments...

[tiamatschild]

I am not going to write an exasperated treatise on the historical realities of the eugenics movement in the United States in someone else's blog. I am not, I am not, I am not...

*breaks* Socialism and eugenics were not seen as incompatible in period. Yes, Margaret Sanger was a eugenicist.

There. Now I've said it and I don't need to have a stupid argument in someone else's comments.

Comments

[holyschist]

Socialism and eugenics were not seen as incompatible in period.

What. Why would someone think they were?

[holyschist]

In period, I mean.

[tiamatschild]

I don't knoooooooooooow. Maybe they've only ever read people like Kropotkin, who hated the idea? ...

Unlikely as that is.

...No. I don't know. But you see it a lot in somewhat nonsensical defenses of Sanger.

[aldanise]

*cry* The entire Japanese birth control movement (which started off as a socialist movement) was mixed in with the idea of eugenics. In particular, we give peasant women birth control because we don't need them birthing more peasants. (Which, stupid idea anyway, but they had Issues with poor farmers.)

...Okay, yes, "entire movement" is a slight exaggeration, but still really intimately linked.

[tiamatschild]

I didn't know that, but I'm not surprised! (I need to learn more about eugenics in Japan - my knowledge at the moment is really superficial.) After all, both socialism and eugenics tended to be utopian. It makes sense that people who were attracted to the one would find the other appealing, especially since there were so many strands of eugenics that engaged in some degree of class analysis, even if it did tend to be superficial and essentializing.

(Actually, one of the most interesting documents I've read and been unable to use this semester is a pamphlet book by a socialist, anti-racist eugencist, arguing against anti-miscegenation statutes on eugenic and socialist grounds.)