To be fair, if there’s a coherent definition of ecofascism, I’m not sure what it is, and I think I have seen ecofascism be over-applied, and I didn’t read the entire article nor look deeply into Rees’ body of work. But eugenics, ecofascism, and capitalism are closely linked.
Your book presents a belief in eugenics as one of the most important intellectual threads that runs through Palo Alto’s history. Is eugenics still a force in the region today?
We’ve seen a huge swing back towards eugenic philosophy in Palo Alto. There are a lot of startups invested in eugenic technology. If you ask people, “Is that eugenics?” they’ll say “No!” But if you ask, “Are you trying to improve the quality of the baby stock?” “Well, yes, obviously.” These people are constantly forgetting the names for what they’re doing, intentionally, or as a useful adaptation, because then they can sell old-school eugenics as some new app.
To be fair, if there’s a coherent definition of ecofascism, I’m not sure what it is, and I think I have seen ecofascism be over-applied, and I didn’t read the entire article nor look deeply into Rees’ body of work. But eugenics, ecofascism, and capitalism are closely linked.
From the above-linked Harris interview:
Big Oil Helped Shape Stanford’s Latest Climate-Research Focus