Details emerge about Natal conference in Austin later this month, set to feature figures linked to far-right politics

Summary

A US natalist conference, promoting higher birth rates, is set to feature speakers advocating race science and eugenics at the University of Texas, Austin.

Organized by Kevin Dolan, the conference includes figures like Jordan Lasker, who promotes discredited race-IQ theories, and advocates of “liberal eugenics” like Jonathan Anomaly, who offers IQ screening for embryos.

Speakers also include figures from the far-right fitness scene and those associated with publications pushing racist pseudoscience.

Elon Musk, a natalism supporter, has amplified some of these views online. The event has drawn criticism for platforming these ideas.

  • yesman@lemmy.world
    46·
    3 days ago

    I just want to point out that Eugenicists didn’t pervert or appropriate IQ. It was designed by and for them. From the beginning.

    • Genius
      16·
      3 days ago

      Wasn’t it designed by a paediatric psychologist to quantify children’s academic performance?

      • yesman@lemmy.world
        13·
        3 days ago

        Yea, a guy called Binet. But his was an instrument to compare small peer-groups of children to gauge who might need special attention.

        When it was brought to America, Spearman and others changed it to an “objective” measure of “innate” and “unchanging” intelligence for all ages. Something Binet had specifically asked it not be used for.