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Discussion » Questions » Life and Society » What are some negative ways science has ever been used to justify a government policy/program, or a social/cultural practice?

What are some negative ways science has ever been used to justify a government policy/program, or a social/cultural practice?

Any time in history, anywhere in the world, any location, any group of people, etc.

Posted - August 18, 2021

Responses


  • 44652
    Nuking Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
    Use of poisonous gases in WWI.
      August 18, 2021 5:44 PM MDT
    2

  • 16835
    Unit 731 (the infamous World War II Japanese "scientists" who conducted abhorrent experiments on POWs, mostly Chinese).
    The demented experiments of the Nazi monster, Dr Mengele.
      August 18, 2021 6:16 PM MDT
    4

  • 19937
    As bad as the Nazis under Dr. Mengele were, it is indisputable that medical science learned an enormous amount of information from those experiments.  In no way am I justifying what Mengele did; I'm merely pointing out that something so negative did have a positive aspect to it.
      August 18, 2021 9:42 PM MDT
    1

  • 53526
      August 18, 2021 10:14 PM MDT
    2

  • 17619
    Tuskegee Project

    COVID-19

    This post was edited by Thriftymaid at August 19, 2021 9:11 AM MDT
      August 18, 2021 9:38 PM MDT
    2

  • 16835
    Wet markets are not "science". Both SARS viruses that have caused problems have been zoonotic, not created in a lab. Hence the joke, "Why doesn't China play baseball or cricket? They ate the bats."
      August 18, 2021 10:15 PM MDT
    2

  • 17619
    I think you intended for your comment to go under a different answer; it makes no sense as is.
      August 19, 2021 1:10 PM MDT
    1

  • 16835
    COVID-19 is not an example of "science gone wrong", any more than AIDS is. Both are diseases which jumped from animals to humans.
      August 19, 2021 5:23 PM MDT
    1

  • 17619
    Bless your heart.
      August 20, 2021 10:33 AM MDT
    0