The Link between Extreme Environmentalism and Hard-Core Racism
8th July 2016
In my reading and writing on the history of eugenics (here, here, and here), I’ve begun to discern a common trait between the people called environmentalists and racists from a century ago.
They share a common outlook that is illiberal to its core. They imagine that a wise and powerful state can better plan a future for both nature and man. Both groups were panicked about unplanned progress, assuming it could only resort in degeneration, mongrelization, and destruction. They dreamed of a future in which they and not the unwashed masses would be in charge of how resources are used and how the human race propagates itself.
What we call ‘environmentalism’ would have been considered right-wing verging on ‘reactionary’ in any century other than this one (1916-2016).