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A new book, Predatory Data, by Anita Say Chan, takes on the
throughline from the rise of 20th-century eugenics to Silicon Valley.
Elon Musk’s calls for a so-called “efficient” US government — including wanting to end the already endangered right to work from home, a disability accommodation for many — are less surprising when you view him as a techno-eugenicist.
The eugenicists of the early 20th century used medical violence like forced hysterectomies in a pseudoscientific campaign to prevent “inferior” immigrants from entering the US, and push certain groups — especially disabled, non-white, and otherwise marginalized people — out of the gene pool.
Big Tech successors like Musk and PayPal billionaire-turned-arms dealer Peter Thiel have overtly promoted fraudulent race science, with Musk amplifying users on X who argue that people of European descent are biologically superior. In response to another user’s deleted post suggesting that students at historically Black institutions have lower IQs, Musk posted, “It will take an airplane crashing and killing hundreds of people for them to change this crazy policy of DIE” — diversity, equity, and inclusion, misspelled. In...