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4:28am July 23, 2014

➸ Watching a documentary on Tesla.

littlegreykida:

youneedacat:

One, wow he had sensory issues. I mean seriously he had hyperacute hearing, he could hear watches ticking three rooms away, carriages from several streets away… I’m not much for retrodiagnosis but he was at least neurodivergent in some way, and I’m guessing more than that.

But two, it turns out,…

I have always found it quite ironic that a man who is (or seems to be)  quite neurodivergant was such a strong supporter of eugenics.

I don’t find it too shocking.  A lot of people back then were strong supporters of eugenics, including people who stood to lose a lot by it.  It was one of those ideas that swept through the world and even people very badly harmed by it often believed in it, much like other forms of ableism and racism today.  Look at autistic people and you’ll find plenty who believe in eugenic abortion, for instance, even though that’s something they’re aiming to do to eliminate us (the guy who discovered the double helix was even quoted as specifically saying he wanted autism eliminated in this fashion, IIRC).  Temple Grandin thinks it’s fine to eliminate autistic people that way as long as you only eliminate the ‘low functioning’.  It’s common.