Last night, Glenn Beck blended his anti-progressive polemics with anti-evolution dogma, attacking Charles Darwin as "the father of modern day racism" who "plant[ed] the seed that leads to progressivism, eugenics." He expanded on this critique on the radio this morning, saying that Darwin wrote about "the savages" and announcing: "I understand why Darwin has to be taught in schools now. You have to teach evolution, because if you don't teach evolution, progressivism falls apart." According to Beck and his cohorts, a direct line can be drawn between Darwin, eugenics, and Hitler: "Charles Darwin is the father of the Holocaust."
Much of what Beck is referring to can be found in Darwin's The Descent of Man, published in 1871 -- in particular Chapter 5, titled "On the development of the intellectual and moral faculties during primeval and civilized times." And, indeed, Darwin's writings are peppered with terminology and assertions that, to modern sensibilities, are offensive. That Darwin was writing at a time in which theories of racial superiority were widely accepted -- the United States had just wrapped up a war predicated on the notion that blacks were inferior to whites -- is not exculpatory but does add some needed context.
But to lay blame for "modern racism," eugenics, and the Holocaust at Darwin's feet is not only wrong, it's phenomenally lazy and an act of profound cowardice from a self-styled "thinker" like Glenn Beck.
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