People horrifically fucking up facts about evolution and genetics too support their stupid beliefs or to seem smart and ârationalâ is probably one of my big pet peevesÂ
Yeah. An enormous number of racists, misogynists, homophobes and transphobes Iâve met eventually whip out something about evolutionary biology and they never, ever, ever, ever have the slightest shadow of even a half-right idea what any of it means or ever cite a claim ever actually made by a scientific study.
Hereâs a quick handy reference list or anyone who isnât sure:
Homosexuality does exist in almost all social species.
âAlpha malesâ are not a real phenomenon and in fact the most aggressive males tend to be the least reproductively successful.
âSurvival of the fittestâ simply means that the success of a species hinges on how well it âfitsâ its environment. It does not mean that stronger or smarter individuals are supposed to succeed. Those things can even be a detriment in nature by wasting too many resources.
âRaceâ is not a biological concept. Someone who looks different from you has the same human genes, just a different grab-bag of dominant traits.
Evolution is not a march towards higher complexity, more intelligence or even more adaptability. Itâs just a fluctuation of characteristics dictated by environmental pressures and mutation. A slime mold isnât âless evolvedâ than a hawk, just adapted for success under different parameters.
People didnât evolve âfrom apes.â Itâs more complicated than that. We are a category of ape, sharing a common ancestor with the other apes.
No human on Earth is âcloserâ to an evolutionary ancestor than any other. We all descended from the same one.
Neanderthals were also a âsiblingâ species of ours. We didnât evolve from them.
Some of us did, however, cross-breed with Neandethal man. It is exclusively non-African races, such as white people, who still carry hybrid human/Neanderthal genes. Whoops, sorry âwhite purityâ skinheads, youâre actually mixed with a whole other species.
