Founders Fund Partner Did A Nazi Salute...
This article has been updated1
Based on this TechCrunch article, which ended with:
When asked if linking things like blue eyes, blonde hair, and IQ could be interpreted as eugenics, he clarified with a laugh, “I said brown hair!”
Then, miming the same hand motion that Elon Musk performed following President Trump’s inauguration, Asparouhov joked, “My heart goes out to you.”
You can decide for yourself if it was meant in jest of not. But in a discussion on eugenics, to make a gesture that has widely been interpreted as a Nazi salute while referencing the excuse given for that salute:
Is a Nazi Salute.
I think The Producers is a funny film! From what I remember the Great Dictator was pretty good too! Jokes about Nazi’s can be funny!
I don’t get the joke here.
What’s the joke?
Something about a group of people who would have killed my son, Eugenics, and Elon Musk… is really funny. So I’m looking forward to someone explaining the joke to me.
It reminds me of an event earlier in my career… Sitting down with a genomics executive in a pub… for some reason he decided to start explaining that he got into genomics for political reasons… to paraphrase:
“I want to eliminate stupid people. That includes all religious people, because all religious people are stupid.”
I guess it was a joke.
I don’t get the joke. Can someone explain the joke to me?
To be clear, eugenics is both morally wrong and scientifically flawed. It’s part of a movement that led to what is generally considered the worst atrocity of the 20th century. And yet I’ve seen this image casually flashed up on slides in scientific presentations without comment:
I don’t consider my views on this topic particularly extreme. Unlike some, who have categorized technologies like NIPT as a form of eugenics, I’m broadly in favor of them. But understand their is nuance there too, as this article states:
the rhetoric of choice is meaningless; to knowingly carry to term a baby with Down syndrome “cannot be a real option when society does not truly accept children with disabilities or provide assistance for their nurturance.”
And yet, I remain broadly in favor of NIPT and don’t believe it can be considered “considered a form of contemporary eugenics”. When decisions are ultimately made hopefully by individuals who retain their own reproductive rights.
What I’m not in favor of in minimizing the dangers of eugenics and making mocking Nazi salutes when addressing the topic.
Pseudo-scientific eugenics ideals can clearly can be used as a tool of political control. There are folks in positions of power who are quite happy to promote these ideas. Prominent scientists have promoted these ideas.
And I’ve seen them unashamedly professed in industry too.
When I was told that someone wants to use genomics:
“to eliminate stupid people. That includes all religious people, because all religious people are stupid.”
I didn’t say anything… I didn’t say anything to the religious person sitting next to him either… I don’t want to make excuses for that.
But perhaps I should be better prepared to say something if it happens again…
Because it feels like it might happen again.
(Previously the title read founder. Kian Sadeghi reached out on LinkedIn and confirmed that it was actually there investor. Based on the TechCrunch article, this would I believe be Delian Asparouhov. TechCrunch confirmed it was Asparouhov). The TechCrunch article has now also been updated.