@lobrowR Some of the earliest eugenicists were cautious, owing to the very limited knowledge of genetics at the time. Francis Galton and Karl Pearson, for example, didn't envisage doing more than handing out fitness certificates for people with good genes.
@lobrowR Credit where it's due, they recognised the limits of their understanding. What supplied the political energy, though, for the movement as a whole, was a fear. It is hard to understand its power, because it has disappeared from our collective cultural mind so completely.
@lobrowR This is the fear of degeneracy (evolution running backwards - the strapping yeoman/peasant being replaced by the sallow corrupt slum dweller) and the collapse of the empire as a consequence. Google degeneracy, social darwinism, and feeble-mindedness for the buzzwords of the day.
@lobrowR But this existential fear really did then propel politics designed to sterilize, segregate and ultimately eliminate the dangerous elements of the population - you're quite right about that
