Citation Needed - Eugenics

Episode Date: August 23, 2017

Eugenics (/juːˈdʒɛnɪks/; from Greek εὐγενής eugenes "well-born" from εὖ eu, "good, well" and γένος genos, "race, stock, kin")[2][3] is a set of beliefs and practices that aims at improving the genetic quality of a group of individuals.[4][5] The exact definition of eugenics has been a matter of debate since the term was coined. --- Our theme song was written and performed by Anna Bosnick. If you’d like to support the show on a per episode basis, you can find our Patreon page here.  Be sure to check our website for more details. --- Music credit: "Daily Beetle" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Absolutely not let me go. Tom keep a grip on him. He lie. He lie. Don't do this. Don't do this. I had charts. I had graphs. I even had the whole madras of dishes. You can do it when it's your turn. Eli, I think you're overreacting, bro. And I mean, it's not like we're going to come up. Bro, you genics this episode. Okay, well, just no spoilers. Let's let the audience be the judge, Cecil. No, we will not be doing that. No, he even stole my idea for the cliffhanger ending, guys. He's wriggling.

He's wriggling. What, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, it. Well, see, okay, this brings up an interesting point. Actually, right now, he's stronger skulls don't squish. Just look at the dimples. Just saying. Just asking questions. Hello! And welcome to Citation Needed. The podcast where we choose a subject, read a single article about it on Wikipedia and pretend we're experts.

Because this is the internet, and that's how it works now. I'm Tom and I'll be your host this week for a discussion that's almost certain to include verbal hate crimes. The following people had a reason why. First up, please welcome two men with, okay, fat, they're just, they're both fat. Ethan Eli. Thanks Tom, appreciate it. First up, please welcome two men with. I'll get fat. They're just, they're both.

Heath and Eli. Thanks Tom. Appreciate it. Been told we look like a before and before picture for just, just most things. Most things were before and before. I like the clever word play we do in these introductions guys. It's a nice. Joining us tonight are the after and after picture for the castaway diet. Okay, they get a metaphor and no one sees all way. I mean, I feel like seashell shaped less like Tom Hanks and more like will.

That's fair. I'm after Tom gets back and he re-enchooses carbs. It's nice. They got some more play. That's cool. Whatever. On the head one, they deserved it. But before we begin this regrettable journey, we want to take a moment and thank all of

you who have donated to the show via Patreon. Look, it shows like this. Don't just write, record, edit themselves. I'm told. It takes a hard work and dedication of four or five of us to produce this malevolent maelstrom of mad capyrie. These guys don't work for free and drugs are really expensive. Yeah.

Well, no, good drugs are expensive to do. Anyway, our patrons keep most of us off the street and that's good for the streets. So if you'd like to learn how to join the ranks of those who care enough to send to the very best, be sure to stick around to the end of the show. That out of the way. Tell us Cecil, what person plays thing, concept, phenomenon, or event? Well, we'll be talking about today. Well, today we're going to be talking about eugenics because he's a god damn monster.

Hey, fun long-form jokes today, everybody. Long-form. Deep, long, everybody. Long for long. Deep, long, long. Listen to the end before that email. Start at the first episode. And if this is your introduction to citation needed, you know, this should not be your first introduction.

No, go back, delete this, destroy your phone, whatever needs. You guys are ruining my momentum before it even starts? Whatever. Well, you are indeed a monster and very much goddamn. You obviously didn't need to read the article given your pre-existing body of obviously racist knowledge, but are you ready to get started? I was born ready, Tom. Born with good top of the pyramid DNA, ready to get started. I was born ready, Tom. Born with good top of the pyramid DNA, ready

to go. You sprained your eye the other day. That's irrelevant. That's irrelevant. What a terrible overweight foul smelling pyramid of DNA is whatever. Who cares? Let's just get this over with. Tell us, Heath, why are we letting him do this again? I do. Okay. Fuck. All right. Tell us. What is eugenics? There we go. I asked it like I'm supposed to. So glad. Yes, because most people have a super negative idea in their head about eugenics. But there's really no reason for that. So let's start with the word origin. It's on. Oh, yes. That's good. We gave Cecil shit for telling us the size of a battlefield. So let's spend some time on etymology, everyone. There's definitely not headed in a boring direction already. So yeah, let's do that. Don't let him fool you, Tommy. He's just trying to

win over Noah Noah loves embryology. You, you just heard him say the word. How could you miss pronounced a word you just heard? Epitology All right, so uh before we get into it, this is satire about current events Just so I don't know it's feel like I should opposite day starting now Actually starting slightly before now, whatever I said, go opposite. Starting right before the skin. So, uh, eugenics comes from the Greek word eugenics, meaning well-born, like good people are. And if you break it down, that's you, meaning good or well, and genos, meaning race, stock, or kin, just all good stuff.

So, so I'm saying. Why did I delete my joke? Because I thought that word was pronounced U-Jeans. That's not, which means my joke about how U-Jeans are unattractive. Don't really work here. Oh, it was a pretty much you jeans. So, what did you, you were saying?

You jeans, isn't that a group of Jews? That was my joke. You jeans, and I was gonna be like, ah, most you jeans are, I was getting in it, but apparently it's some sort of, I didn't read you, Joe. Come show, it was very funny. Yeah, well apparently it's some so I didn't read your joke. I'm sure it was very fun Well, it turns out that's pronounced embryology. Yeah

All right, well in modern English Eugene eugenics basically just A set of beliefs and practices aimed at improving the genetic quality of a group, which again, is all positive, improving quality. And there's really no way to abuse that. So feel free to start changing your minds now if you haven't already. We did. That kid from Gaddaqa wouldn't be an astronaut today. Exactly.

Thank you. Thank you. So, I would alert that kid from Gadda in Africa. The battle star turns out to be a battle star. All right, listen, he, you're very unlikely to change the fine reputation of eugenics that quickly. So as your girlfriend hasn't doubted Least you many times, can you get in a little deeper? I cannot, but I can. Here's what I can do. I can take a different angle and that's what

it's all about. So, we can think of eugenics as being divided into two categories, positive eugenics and negative eugenics. But again, let's try to avoid any confusion and remember that it's all positive, just like in the general sense of the word positive. The distinction between the two types, it's just a matter of what methods are used to make more of the better people and dispose of the shitty ones. So it's just like a dichotomy. Okay, so like a genux to do list would be like make more better people invade Poland. Okay, don't. And then dispose of shitty ones, preheat the oven to 500.

You're spoiling the story, man. Well, I will say for whatever it's worth, in this particular case, pre-heating would be an actor. That is fair. I'll explain. It's not what they just said. In positive eugenics, we encourage the better people to have more sex and create more babies. We now, we, we're using we now.

All right. Yeah. Yeah. Society, the royal we, the better people, we want them to have more sex and create more babies. And in negative eugenics, it's the opposite. We make sure the shitty people don't reproduce. Like by having more sex and less babies, because sign me up for shitty people don't reproduce. Like by having more sex and less babies because sign

me up for shitty people. You are Tom. Already got you down all good. So the shitty people we don't want them to reproduce. I don't feel like there's any reason to argue with this yet. So, you know, we would like trick them into using condoms or having abortions, which is actually easy because they're generally stupid or we start using the condom actually. Or we sterilize them again, often very easy with like a trailer candy, a big X and some rope. All's a lot of ways to do it. All right, let's rewind here a little. I think we need to know more about the history of eugenics before you espouse eradicating a population of imbacils. I need to know how to use the rope.

I kind of want to know where you put the X. I actually have an Acme blueprint. You can check it out. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. So anyway, in terms of origin story, Eugenics has a long rich history, dating back as far as ancient Greece.

For example, the great philosopher Plato, who was basically the smartest guy ever, he suggested Eugenics in the Republic. He wanted the better people to have a selective mating policy in order to lock down a guardian class that would handle the like thinky stuff for all the idiots. It's kind of like super delegates. And then encourages a strong genetic line, quite like inbreeding, right? Wait, wait, wait, guardian class, little shot at democracy. I'm being

one over guys. Thank you. Open minds. Even after Trump's nomination, we're pretending super delegates are a bad idea. That's crazy. I was clearly saying good idea. Really wish everybody would pay attention. Okay, so like, we don't have a selective mating policy. They're like, I just want to ask that question. We just have like a okay, whatever, whoever pops in their mating policy. Most guys, Thomas, it turns out trailer parks. Okay.

All right. No, look, ask an answer, ask an answer. The concept of eugenics is a pretty obvious one that's been around since ugliness started, but eugenics didn't really get nicely honed into a societal project until more recently. And like all great ideas, at least according to Eli's ranking of the best white people,

this one came out of the UK. And before we move on, does everyone agree that British is the best type of white? Like you said, how would you guys rank that? I feel like he doesn't have a rank. Is there like an equivalent to an emergency eye wash station for racism? Because is this goes on if you like it? Should have access to one.

That's a weird dodge of the question, Cecil, because he, the know I have an attractiveness bias and I could use some support for my best friend. That's all I said. Also, weird dodge by everyone else apparently. So, Scandinavia first, Slavic last is how I had it. Anyway, modern eugenics actually started with a cousin of Charles Darwin named Francis Galton. And after reading about evolution, Galton realized we should

obviously be trying to get like better beaks and stuff. His general idea was that all the desirable traits in humans were linked to genetics, even though Darwin himself strongly disagreed with this actually. But then Darwin died and Galton was like, yeah, fuck that guy should have been having better genes. So we're doing my thing. I call it eugenics. What's the worst that can happen?

This episode, Jambane Ramsey, I can host a new knees. All right. So what other source of early eugenics was from an American gynecologist named William Gidell, who happened to attend Williams College, along with other great minds. early eugenics was from an american gynecologist named william godel who happened to attend williams college along with other great minds like uh... george steinbrenner for example and to think this guy didn't even have a firm of action to blame for not making it into a better school

well they they don't really make better schools than that one just saying number one liberal arts college in the country for like fifteen years in a row you know I'm sure that's the only one you apply to a bunch of other words you said between number one and country was it school I was ranked ahead of wherever else you're thinking anyway mr. goodell was one of the original advocates for negative eugenics. He wrote some important works, including clinical notes on the extrepation of the ovaries for insanity. Love that one. And he was a little predictable.

Little. Yeah. Have you heard it on the concertina though? Yeah. He also wrote the effect of castration on women and other problems in gynecology. That was one of the other words. Other problems. Other problems. Because I feel like we don't really have to move quickly past the first one for a while, right? Just this guy in front of a brick wall. Why a glove.

So expensive. Yeah. And, uh, Tommy, you make a good point. That second one, it's a, it's a weird title, other problems in gynecology because he'd ever lean in seem to think castration was a problem. His whole thing was ending mental illness by castrating all the insane men and spaying all the insane women. Yeah, they, they had little live trap cages filled with antidepressants to catch the feral insane. Okay, well, that's actually quite insane and clearly has been

long discarded as monstrous, right? Episode over. Yeah, absolutely. I think so. Can someone please tell me that we can just go. We're done, right? Sadly, proof of Heath's plan failing is on this show delivering this line, Tom. Delivering this line. It feels like you're saying, what was the point of the Holocaust if we still wind up with Eli? I'm not saying that's what you were saying, but I'm also not saying it is. Yeah, Eli. As we get into the early 20th century, eugenics spread to other proud white areas like the rest of Europe, Canada and the US, where it was naturally embraced by all parts of the political spectrum. And it's always great to see something with that much bipartisan agreement.

Is it? Yeah. Yeah. As we'll learn, fascist Nazis and liberal snobs go full horseshoe, really get together on better DNA. It's good lesson we could use right now, actually. Yeah, you'll find that make eugenics great again is a better acronym too. It's like a real, it's like a real pre-fix, you know, hashtag meganice.

Yeah, nice. Nice. So, I'm going to use that. So, uh, when are you going to use that. So, ah, ah, when are you gonna use that? Sorry. When?

It's not, we'll have house on a poor desk. That's for everybody. It's not important. The website I like to use got taken down. It'll be back. Don't worry about it. So,

eugenics happen just like most good things from the UK. It really started popping when Americans stole it and made it better. Like America, the country, for example. So here in the US, we started doing some positive eugenics in the form of events called fitter family fares. And they're pretty much exactly what you're thinking. Families would go to local county fairs and much like livestock would be judged for best body or best physical dexterity. White people would compete for best Aryan type prizes

at the SNF. Yeah. Which is yet another way this episode ties into Jomine Rinson. Keep rubbing it in guys. Keep rubbing it in. Yeah, I was getting too you. Why do I suspect there probably wasn't a dancing competition. But best cracker wins night at the Ritz though, right? That's the joke. The kids show up their rich bits. That's what he spreads all over.

All right. Tell you make this like a buccacuari. Rits, you know, you just pour it on this. It's what I do. I just open the box and pour it. It's all over. Yeah. Yeah.

This is all very unsurprising stuff. We've been judging pigs at the fair and rural America for a long time. So let's prove what next. All right. So during this time period, all the beautiful blue, ribbon, white kids in America really started turning heads with the international scientific community. And pretty soon lots of national governments were on board. This led to universities with well-funded eugenics departments led to a rise to prominence for eugenics themed organizations. And even a series of international eugenics conferences happened in places like London and New York City. Basically, everyone embraced the idea

of responsible parenting. It was a simpler, greater time. Wouldn't actually happen until years later, but eventually these universities invented the most effective birth control of all time, oppressive student loan debt. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha I'm sorry I'm hung up on this. What does one do at a eugenics themed organization? Great question. I got a pamphlet for you. You just show up and you're like, Hey, who

wants to play cards against humanity and then kill everybody who raises their hands? Yes, yes, you do. Yes, you do. That's what you do to those people. They said a naughty word on the card so i have to say a naughty word haha crimes for humanity somebody's got to do it somebody got a cracks in the eggs anyway speaking of responsible parenting uh... jambanay rancid

that's what he put a gagging speaking of responsible parenting there's one other big movement that actually tied into eugenics, which happened around the same time. And that would be the birth control movement pioneered by feminist icon and champion of eugenics Margaret Sangas. And just for the record, many would argue that birth control is one of the most important innovations of the 20th century.

And for good reason, there is no more responsible way to parent than not doing that if you're poor and stupid. So it's the great stuff. And who better to side if you're poor and stupid than the rich and the scared, right? That's right. Well, I just, I, what if you're poor, but not stupid or stupid, but not poor? Don't complicate things. It's whatever I say, it makes sense. It worked.

In the latter case, you get to be president. Exactly. Mega. Positive. Positive mechanics. Yeah. So, plus, by the way, women at this point kind of became people with like choices. There's good stuff all around.

Bottom line, if you're a feminist, then you agree with you, Janet, and there is no middle ground moving on. I can see the bumper stickers now. A woman's right to choose the purity of her bloodline. I just want to point out, I know I'm a little late on this, but I want to point out that in the 19 episodes We've done so far Eli has never spelled John Bene Ramsey a the same way or B

You should talk you only made it two words so John Bene Gene Bennett a bane, a gene bened up here. It's French. All right, what about John Bene Ramsey's DNA, like top 10% time until, depends on where you find it. I, uh, who's, who's fingernails, do you scrape it out for a monitor?

That's the per dance. Let me do the episode. All right. So just to reiterate throughout the early 20th century. This is like a two for episode right? All right. So those were jumping in the race last word. This is too. Oh God. Oh. Oh. Oh. I'm a segue one more time right now. All right. So just to reiterate, throughout the early 20th century, Eugenics was crushing it. But then 1925 rolls around.

And a German author writes a book called Mine Come. It would prove to be a major turning point in the history of eugenics. But I won't say how just yet, because I want to leave everyone a cliffhanger while we take a quick break for a fun lighthearted segment we call Oppropoe of Nothing. Okay, so why'd you guys bring me to this warehouse? Well, you know, we're doing this week's episode on Eugenics, right?

Yeah, you put Genics. No, yeah, I'm a little confused too on this one. Well, confused as well. And you guys know that eugenics seeks to improve the human race by eliminating the weak from the gene pool, right? I'm not sure. I like where this conversation is headed. Okay. Well, we read the Wikipedia article and so sorry, but you can't be allowed to breed. You guys just, well, you can't, can't allow it. Oh my God, you're gonna kill us. What?

No. Oh, that'd be terrible. Me first. Not kill. Castrate. See, so ready? Yeah, I can shitch about their testicles from 20 paces, Tom. You know that?

Actually, sorry, guys, my wife wants kids. Um, from you. Pugs is what you mean. What? Your wife, she wants pugs and she has them. It's your set. Okay, second point, I want my testicles. I want to keep those.

Yeah, yeah, I'm with Eli. No fucking way to just have it besides, I did way too many drugs to still be fertile, but no way that this is not happening. It's locked in. He's cheerful description of the wonderful effects of eugenics with just two persuasive. Cecil, on guard, I don't know, let's stab.

Okay. Yeah. What's going, why is there so much smoke? Noah, were your testicles full of smoke? What's happening? You know what a weird way I actually kind of feel better now. Yeah me too, get the other one! Hi, let me lie Bosnick, from JokeGitter.

JokeGitter is a revolutionary new app on all devices that will turn jokes into basic, straight forward that you can agree with, or disagree with, and we're the sponsor of this episode about eugenics. Is this episode made you upset? Are you concerned that five comedians got on the air after 18 episodes of joking about cannibalism and murder to seriously advocate eugenics? Then you need joke-gitter. Before joke-gitter, I spent most of my time commenting, but I know other people's Facebook statuses,

but now, you know what they say, I don't do that more. People would always say, what a great idea. And I would think they were serious, but thanks to JokeGetter, I understand its orgasm. It's a...- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar- ar always afraid comedians cleverly hid their open hatred for the lower races in the 19th episode of their podcast, but thanks to Jokegetter, I know that if they did an episode about the Donner party, this episode probably ate serious either. Jokegetter, available now in the App Store for $285,000. It's not, see, that was a joke too. And we're back. When we left off, you were telling us something about a German guy?

Yes, yes, I was exactly. So there was this guy in Germany who was big into national socialism. Kind of like Bernie Sanders, but not exactly. He was kind of like Bernie Sanders. Anyway, this guy tried to organize the German workers party and take over the government,

hoping to help out the little guy in Germany, but it didn't work and they threw him in jail for it. He was a veteran too, job creator veteran. Exactly. He was in his emails, his wife. We may never know. Yeah. Well, while this guy was in jail, he wrote that book I was telling you about earlier called

mine. Yeah, that's German for the art of the deal by. It's something like that. Close. Yeah. And after he got released from jail, he eventually managed to get most of the country on board with his platform. And he actually became chancellor of Germany.

And his plan for Germany was mostly about stuff like healthy living, promoting good science, like eugenics, and ending the international conspiracy of capitalism and also somehow communism being run by the Jews. So the same is skeptic magazine at this point. The same agenda description of events is distressingly bright part in town, but tell me he's how to turn out. Oh, we all, all the people got together and defeated their ideas in a big

bit. Yeah, that was it was a huge counter protest called D-Day. Yeah. Hey, access allies. There were some violent people on both sides. All right. Very true. There was also some fine people, some very fine people on both sides too. Thank you, Noah and Cecil. I think everybody's coming around except Tom, weird, whatever. Hold out.

Yeah, so that was a whole thing with Germany. Long story short, the German guy took this great idea of making people better with genetics, but he ran with it. Some would say a little too far. The Holocaust is what I'm talking about. The Holocaust. Yeah, the German guy was Hitler is what I'm talking about. Obviously one of the darkest moments in human history, or at least that's obvious to you

if you're part of the alt left. Anyway. Is the alt left the thing you throw if they are currently blocking their face like a liver punch is that? I mean, I prefer a bike lock, but sure, yeah. If you want to start with the body, the hand strap, when a paraphrase here a little bit, Hitler took it a little too far. Ethan Wright.

Okay, so it doesn't matter the extent to which, I feel like we're getting too much into detail. I said too far. I said too far. So yeah, the genocide thing was a little over the line. It's a little over the line. But that doesn't mean there weren't a few good angles at eugenics that also happened around the same time.

For example, there was an effort to remove severe hereditary defects from the population, like major physical disabilities, that kind of stuff. According to a poster about this project, showing a man with no legs, quote, this person costs the community 60,000 rikes mark during his lifetime. Fellow German, that is your money too. And quote, those are responsible fiscally. As one of the, you hear that Thomas Smith. Hold on, hold on, hold on. So you start out with two feet and then you lose two feet. I've never been good with story problems. What's the final solution to that? Let's kill Thomas Smith's baby.

No, in fairness, the thing I just described, that was a poster for the Germans T4 euthanasia program. So just to reiterate, yeah, he's one through three didn't get off the ground. No, it was better, but T4 still was problematic. The murk part was bad, is what I'm saying. But their hearts were in the right place. That's the important things takeaway here. Or brains, whichever part was in the right place. That's the important things takeaway or brains. Which ever part was in the right place. Hearts, but I don't know. Something was in the right place.

Point being, if there was a test that could tell us, you know, yeah, this fetus is going to become a literal dragon and burn cities to the ground. We'd obviously want to have that be a standard OB-GYN test, right? Could you imagine how insufferable Ivanka would be if she had three dragons? Two more dragons have been rough. Can you imagine how much less damaged dragons would do than her dad? Just picturing some fat asshole and a red hat cheering for the dragon. He's a straight shooter. A fire.

Yeah, and if some people were like, no, no, you can't discriminate against dragon babies. We'd all be like, fuck you, no dragons. You can still live, but no having dragon babies, obviously adopt a human. Like a good one or something. Oh, but when Dawkins says it on Twitter, he's suddenly a pariah. Thank you. Thank you. You can't expect a geneticist to know these things. All right, guys, well, since we got the dragon population nicely under control, well done.

I'm really warming up to this episode. In fact, I feel just about preaching some worship. So what other wonders do we have to thank Eugenics for? Okay. Well, one other good portion of the Nazi Eugenics program that gets lost in the shuffle a lot of the time was the idea of due diligence when choosing a mate to breed with. Again, they definitely took it a little too far with the pure Aryan race thing as the goal, but the general idea of potential partners thinking about how

to make better kids. That's just like common sense, which is why members of the SS were, quote, cautioned to carefully interview prospective marriage partners to make sure they had no family history of hereditary disease or insanity. But to do this carefully, they were, you know, they were, they were going to give you a caveat, carefully, so as not to hurt the feelings of the perspective fiance. And if it became necessary to reject her for eugenic reasons, to do it tactfully and not

cause her any offense and boy. Those Nazis are damn considerate. Right, exactly. There's no way this is gonna work. I've tried the whole, it's not eugenics, it's me line, they see right through. There's a weird topic for someone to choose when they're dating the human version of a shaky chihuahua. Just throw them out there.

Anyway, one of the big consequences of that whole ordeal in Germany was the way it basically ruined the reputation of eugenics for decades to come. Um, I mean, 2017 feels like the stigma might finally be gone, but we'll get there. We'll explain. It also totally ruined a style of mustache. Right. Yes.

Except for Michael Jordan. Yeah, he really did. He really did. So, uh, yeah, lesson learned. But I feel like it's important that we don't let, you know, one freak genocide ruin the whole barrel of it. So, Holocaust notwithstanding, I think we can all agree that the shitty people from all the groups

could use some weeding out, you know, fair and balanced. And given our new knowledge of genetics, another Holocaust wouldn't even make sense to the good races because if we exterminate entire groups that we deem inferior, that's actually bad for the gene pool. Turns out the weaker stock often carry hidden positive traits that we don't wanna make extinct.

And again, we know this now, so it's all good. Anyone else feel like this is the point in the wiki where he started to come around? Drew. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, the weaker stock carry hidden positive traits, you tell me like a pug is going to give birth to a German shepherd.

Wait, oh god, oh god, he cast the spell on me and turned me into races. He's like a grand wizard. All right. All right. All right, good. I think I got this eugenics as a justification for the wholesale slaughter of a massive group and turn me into racist. He's like a grand wizard. All right. Good. I think I got this eugenics as a justification for the wholesale slaughter of a massive group of people is bad. Really? Right. Banging up research. Thank you. Glad we're all, uh, that we're here today. Good use of our time. What's next? What else you got? Uh, next week we're doing third party voting. Um more harm. Fall. We want to ease people into it.

But yeah. All right. So like I said before, Holocaust was terrible. Hitler was an awful person who set us back immensely in terms of genetic science. There's terrible. He said in a weird, rushed, forced awkward, someone made me say this. Yeah, it's a bit of a soft denunciation of Hitler. Are you running for president or something? I will make another statement at a press conference in a couple days. I'll figure it out. Pretty much nothing was achieved in eugenics for a long stretch following World War II. That's

the point I was making. But then near the end of the 20th century, people finally forgot and eugenics made a comeback. And this coincided with some major advances in genetic science. For example, one thing that we've had for a while now is prenatal testing for birth defects, which leads to plenty of smart abortions. Obviously a good thing. So there you go. Yeah, I can't wait until we get genuine smart abortions. Obviously a good thing. So there you go. Yeah, I can't wait until we get genuine smart abortions, though. Like you can get rid of that thing with a text. That's what you're doing. I mean, is that, is that where you text your fetus?

And if it uses emojis in the text back, just, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I could just... Exactly. We want that. We want smart abortions. And several other advances... Four abortions are just performed in really small cars. Yeah.

And several other advances in the field of genetics are being labeled eugenics as well. But it's becoming less and less clear why people would see that as a bad thing? Because again, it's pretty much all good stuff like artificial insemination, egg donation, gene therapy, cloning, embryo selection. So you don't create the inside out little girl with Zika if you can avoid it. We want that. We want these things. Obviously.

And just to put an icing on the cake, the Christian right is against all of it, all the stuff I mentioned. So it's almost certainly good for the world and also probably not rapy because that's how it works. Well, to be fair, though, the Christian right does have a vested interest in not raising the general IQ. Yuck. Fun fact, general IQ, a character in my new version of Clu, where you figure out who killed Charles Murray's career. It was him. It was him.

That's how each game ends. It was him by being a racist piece of shit. All right, well, everybody checked the math Eli was doing just now. It's not necessarily a curve and you can do some analysis. Play the game. You know, let's be skeptics. Anyway, one final point on this. There's a great movie on the subject of eugenics called Gatica that showed us the wonderful

utopian society that's possible once we really perfect genetic engineering. Cecil mentioned it before. It's basically a documentary of the future, highly recommend. Anyway, in the movie, the people with a responsible parents who didn't procreate until they had money, were able to buy better DNA and therefore produce better kids.

These people were known as valid and the poor, ugly disease people were called invalid. Obviously, the valid people did all the important stuff and the world was better for diseased people were called invalid. Obviously, the valid people did all the important stuff and the world was better for it. So there you go. It's crazy. Just the second I realized the supporting actor was a valid, infolid. I am not a smart, not smart. For someone who was never meant for this world, I must confess, I'm suddenly having a hard time leaving it. Of course, they say every Adam in our bodies was once part of a star. Maybe I'm not leaving. Maybe I'm going home. It's a line from Gadigah, guys, from the movie. Oh, that explains why you embroidered it on that pillow that you clutched just want to. And the invalid, it happened after he was born.

So, Eugenics, it was an accident. It wasn't like, he couldn't, it wasn't, doesn't relate to Eugenics. Okay, let's go. Now, here we go, here's the full story about Eugenics. I'm thinking it might be fun for everyone to weigh in with their opinions on each side of the issue. I'm thinking we'll make a list of pros and cons and we're really hashed this out. So, I mean, I feel like everybody's on my side of the issue. I'm thinking we'll make a list of pros and cons and we're

really hashed this out. So I mean, I feel like everybody's on my side for the most part, but let's do this. Let's do this. So we'll start with the pro side who's got some arguments in favor of eugenics. I would not exist. Eli would not exist. Two votes. That's three make that three. And also you have several interesting flags to choose from. Great. Great. Some good answers. Okay, I'll add one more.

So as we learned recently, we're kind of stuck with democracy or whatever you want to call the electoral college. So as long as we're still letting everyone vote, seems irresponsible not to breed out the stupid people as best we can, right? Yeah. Okay. So, what about the cons for you, Jennings? I don't know.

Bringing a teaky torch everywhere is cumbersome. Says you, no more daytime TV ads for instant egg pealers. I think you mixed up your answer, Zila. I did not. I did. I'm not. I did. Okay. Anyone cons? Nobody?

Okay. Well, the pros clearly outweighed the cons. So the end. Jesus. You're just. I just decided as a group. God. All right.

If you had to summarize what you, did you learn anything? Did you, if you had to summarize it, what would it be? How? How? Tell me. I guess say what you, do you learn anything? Did you, if you had to summarize it, what would it be? How, how? Tell me. Um, I guess say what you will about the tenants of national socialism, at least they were right about the future of science.

And, uh, and Umat Thurman was super hot in Gatica. So there you go. I will add, that's indisputable. So I won't push any further. And then are you ready for a quiz? Heath from our panel. Robert E. Lee was a great general. Yes, I am.

The cut price. All right, he was good at being a general. That's all I'm not saying. I like it. I was better. I was better. He was a good general. He was a skipper.

Why would they hire him? It's not as a good general. He was also excellent at being an orange car later on. I'm just saying Terrific orange car. Okay, so he I'll go first Now that we're all eugenicists. We're gonna need a quiz. That's a word. We're all gonna need a quick catchy nickname. Should we be Eugene A? The testy's testers B the Oven omnibus. C the semen overseers or D the Eli Bosnik story. Well you're trying to trick me with Z, but I bet you've got some hidden positive traits in there somewhere.

I don't think he knows. It's not clear. It's, but there's possible. I'm going to, so that was an attract, you're trying to trick me. I'm going to go with, uh, a, the testiest testers, because that's, that's definitely going to make you. I did. Thank you. You did it. I did. Thank you.

You did it. You correct. It's how this works. I bet you'll get mine right too. So if you want to rehabilitate the reputation of eugenics, which you clearly see too, I'm so weird. So we're promised to your question. I don't know.

I reject the premise. I reject the premise, but go ahead. Which group of people should you eradicate first? A sports announcers who use words, they don't know the definition of a shorter term for that. By the way, sportscasters. B, people who tell you stories about friends of theirs that you don't know. B, people who tell you stories about friends of theirs that you don't know. See the residents of Ohio. Fuck that's day. I drove through the other.

How the hell can a whole state be under construction guys and still be such a piece of shit? Anyway, we're finished the construction. They're going to build more Ohio too. Distressing it up. So it's just getting worse. Yeah. All right. How about D people who equivocate between Nazis and anti-Nazi protesters? Okay. Well, um, catch the ball at its

highest point. Are you fucking kidding me? It's obviously a, you're an idiot. Why do you think that that? It's a, it's a parabola. The ball. How would that, how would you imagine a quarterback throwing a ball? You're jumping in the middle of that arc. No, you're catching it way later than that. You guys don't know the definition of the word highest. Are you fucking kidding me? It's a yes, it is definitely a gym class was fun. I made it too easy. All right, he'd like all things. This episode made me hungry. Which of below is the most thematically appropriate snack for this episode? Oh God, a poll pot stickers.

Oh, stickers, right? Be Charles D'Jews. Oh, she's screaming. See, very good. Sagar hanger steak. Okay. Charleston Jews. Oh, she's scorned. See, very good. Sagar hanger stank. Okay.

Or D a fourth one, I'm not good at puns. I just wanted to use pole pots. It's actually secret choice E, both A and D. It's pole pots. That's awesome. And you wanted to just, you just wanted to use that. And that's why that's the answer. It's a Andy. I got to say it twice. Just say. All right. Uh, he, which of these pop songs is actually a subliminal eugenics song a faded jeans by golden earring. That's a

hominem pun. Be good by baby by Fleetwood Mac. hominem. Detachable penis by King Missile. Humberphone whatever go ahead. Or D, a great birth control about pulling out. Come on, I lean. Oh, wow, that is tough. That is tough. Um, it's, it's D coming. I mean, it's definitely definitely. No, actually, that song's about Bukaki. The, uh, the real answer is good

by baby. I was literally excuse me is a great form of her control. We know that's also the way. You know this, we know this personally. I would advice this. I'm going to buy a good cut. Okay. Once again, the eyes have it. Well, congratulations, he's will use stump our racist. So I don't know. That's awesome. Great. So you're the host next episode. I don't want to do this anymore. Pick the next guy. All right. Just pick somebody. I want to go home. Maybe don't want to do this anymore. Pick the next guy. All right. Just pick somebody. I want to go home. Maybe don't pick. To continue this day of disappointment. I'm going to pick Noah. I bet I select something less offensive. I'm just throwing it out there. I miss new

Coke. All right. Now toss it over to Sarah for last week's Twitter answer. And this week's Twitter question. Thanks Tom. Last week's question was, if you could dig anyone up from history to answer for their crimes, who would they be in why? Our favorite answer came from Attenaptoonora. If I could dig up someone to answer for their crimes, it would be Kellyanne Conway because that's pretty much her job anyway. Thanks to everyone for submitting answers.

This week's question is, if there were a eugenics themed amusement park, what would be their most popular attraction? Just retweet or face book share this episode with your answer for a chance to be next week's winner. Back to you, fellas. All right, well for Heath, Eli, Noah, and Cecil, I'm Tom. Thank you for hanging out with us today. We'll be back next week and by then, Noah will be an expert on something else. Between now and then, you can check out Cecil and I at Cognitive Disonents, where I mostly just monitor Cecil's ever rising blood pressure.

And you can check out Noah, Eli and Heath. I don't know, pretty much everywhere on the internet where naked women don't go, but I guess specifically, the skeptic rat got awful movies and the skating atheist. If you'd like to help keep this show going, you can make a per episode donation at patreon.com slash citation pod or leave us a five star review everywhere else. If you'd like to get in touch with us, check out past episodes, connect with us on social

media or check the show notes. Be sure to check out citationpa.com. And so then only we are now taking applications for the role of heat. Firmative action. Get in there. He did quit the show. He did quit the show. I'm going to show you guys a couple of times. Thank you.