The Frontier

Francis Galton coined the phrase "nature vs. nurture" in his 1874 study of 190 scientific fellows. Though he found firstborn sons were twice as likely to become scientists due to social advantages, he dismissed nurture's overall significance.

Biologist Alfred Russell Wallace, co-developer of natural selection, became an early critic of eugenics. Robert Evans notes that Wallace dismissed the movement as an arrogant scientific priestcraft, arguing that improving environmental conditions would naturally elevate humanity.

Galton advocated for the extinction of colonized populations he deemed inferior, suggesting they be outbred by superior groups. Robert Evans argues eugenics provided a secular moral legitimacy for late nineteenth-century colonialism, replacing Christian justifications with heredity laws.

Modern Effective Altruist spaces exhibit eugenics entryism. Robert Evans highlights a 2023 forum post arguing that because societies regulate incest to prevent birth defects, most people already endorse some form of eugenics.

Effective Altruists face criticism for using mathematical metrics to rank human value. Robert Evans points to reports that the Center for Effective Altruism tested a system deducting points from individuals with IQs under 120.

Long-termism founder Nick Bostrom faced public scandal after a 1996 email surfaced in which he claimed black people are less intelligent than white people. Oxford University shut down Bostrom's Future of Humanity Institute in April following the incident.

Galton's breeding theories were fundamentally flawed because he lacked an understanding of dominant and recessive genes. Gregor Mendel's work with pea plants was ignored by mainstream scientists, including Galton, until 1900.

Galton's eugenic panic was rooted in Victorian classism. Robert Evans explains that Galton feared London's urban poor would outbreed the upper classes, and blamed social welfare programs for breaking natural selection by keeping vulnerable people alive.

Galton compiled composite photographs of convicts and asylum patients to identify physical indicators of criminality. When the technique failed to identify actual criminals, Galton claimed he had instead discovered a facial structure predictive of future criminal behavior.

Galton constructed a beauty map of the British Isles by secretly cataloging the physical attractiveness of passing women. Using a pocket needle-pricker to register data without detection, he ranked London's women the most attractive and Aberdeen's the least.

In 1886, Galton surveyed Jewish communities in London, claiming they possessed biological traits of inferiority. Anthropologist Joseph Jacobs countered that any distinct characteristics in the Jewish population were the result of social oppression rather than heredity.

Galton attempted to prove that tuberculosis was a hereditary defect identifiable by a narrow facial structure. Though his photographic composites showed no link, Galton refused to abandon his theory, asserting that future studies would eventually validate his claims.

Hossam Al-Hamalawi argues Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi did not restore Hosni Mubarak's regime but constructed a fundamentally different Second Republic. This new order views Mubarak as too weak because he failed to prevent the 2011 popular revolution.

Hossam Al-Hamalawi claims Abdel Fattah al-Sisi unified Egypt's military, secret police, and general intelligence. This represents a complete break from the post-colonial model established in 1952, which fragmented security institutions to prevent a military coup.

Hossam Al-Hamalawi details Egypt's economic collapse under Sisi, noting that ballooning foreign debt has forced extreme austerity measures. The state now spends more of its budget servicing debt than funding public infrastructure or education.

Hossam Al-Hamalawi bypassed Egypt's strict information blockades by analyzing declassified US State Department records and monitoring local newspaper obituaries. Obituaries in the Arab world often print entire family trees and professional credentials, exposing clandestine military intelligence structures.

Hossam Al-Hamalawi argues Sisi rules exclusively through coercion because he destroyed the vibrant civil society that historically buffered the state. The regime's paranoia is so severe that it restricts soccer stadium attendance and routes public celebrations far outside Cairo.

Garrison Davis reports that Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested and deported right-wing media figure Milo Yiannopoulos in August after he overstayed his visa. Right-wing influencer Laura Loomer claimed she tipped off federal agencies to initiate the deportation.

Garrison Davis highlights the irony of Milo Yiannopoulos suffering from the aggressive immigration enforcement he publicly championed. Yiannopoulos previously used his social media platforms to demand mass daily deportations and total legal immunity for federal immigration agents.

Garrison Davis reveals that Los Angeles Superior Court documents from Milo Yiannopoulos' divorce detail struggles to renew his green card. The records contain text messages indicating Yiannopoulos offered his ex-husband substantial cash payments to cooperate with immigration authorities.

Mia Wong argues the collapse of the US government's planned secondary sanctions package against Iran signals the end of the Pax Americana. The scale of the rollback demonstrates that the US can no longer unilaterally isolate foreign economies.

Mia Wong traces the rise of the modern American empire to naval theorist Alfred Thayer Mahan's strategic writings in 1890. Mahan argued that maintaining global economic hegemony required securing ocean trade routes and establishing Pacific refueling outposts.

Robert Evans highlights the irony of self-proclaimed eugenicist Milo Yiannopoulos being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement for overstaying his visa. Yiannopoulos had previously posted on social media celebrating ICE raids.

During his Middle Eastern travels, Francis Galton abandoned the funeral of his local employee, Ali, claiming Muslims would resent a Christian's presence. Robert Evans disputes this, arguing Galton fled the country to escape the law after stiffing Ali's family of wages.

In an 1885 retrospective, Francis Galton categorized the ethnic groups he encountered, writing that Berbers could not be struck, whereas Egyptians were thoroughly slavish and could be flogged with sticks. Robert Evans notes this reveals Galton's deeply violent and abusive character.

After returning to England, Francis Galton bypassed animal quarantine to keep two monkeys, which subsequently froze to death. Robert Evans notes that Galton's travel diaries dedicated seventy words to the monkeys' deaths, but only seventeen words to his employee Ali's death.

Francis Galton secured his entry into the Royal Geographic Society through nepotism via his prominent cousin. Robert Evans argues that Galton never earned a single achievement on personal merit, relying entirely on his inherited wealth and family connections.

Susan Schumacher's research reveals Francis Galton held deeply critical views of South West African tribes. Galton dismissed the Herrero as heartless, silly savages, while praising the Ovambo simply because they were heavily subjugated and domestic workers for white colonials.

Francis Galton used a navigational sextant and trigonometry to covertly measure the body of a Herrero woman he found attractive. Robert Evans argues this shows that eugenic skull-measuring and race science originated from a prurient, voyeuristic obsession with non-white bodies.

Victorian racial theory was divided between monogenists, who believed all humans shared a common biblical ancestor, and polygenists, who viewed different races as separate species. Francis Galton adopted polygenism as his Christian faith waned, using it to justify his racism.