Gene therapy for genetic disorders and plastic surgery for disfigurement should obviously be free.
However, even in a socialist world, discrimination based on attractiveness (lookism/pretty privilege) and height (heightism) would still be genuine concerns, as they are due to base human instincts around health and strength. Research shows that people who are considered ‘unattractive’ or ‘short’ face genuine disadvantages in society.
How should this be dealt with? If plastic surgery and designer babies were made free as a possible solution, the state would certainly be overwhelmed with requests, so that can’t be a good option.
Also, how should plastic surgery and designer babies be handled in general? For instance, intelligence has a significant genetic component, and making genetic intelligence enhancement open to all would greatly benefit any nation with the resources to do so.
Edit: To those downvoting, I’m not trying to suggest that these are good solutions. These are simply the only solutions I could come up with if we do remain in a capitalist world. I want to hear suggestions for how we should solve the problems I mentioned in a socialist world without needing everyone to undergo invasive surgery.
Lot to unravel here, so I won’t address everything.
intelligence has a significant genetic component,
Intelligence (as measured by iq tests) is not mostly dependent on genetics, but rather motivation. Motivation to succeed is decreased by discrimination, and ostracization. When the motivation factor is accounted for, natural intelligence (talent) is much less predictive.
Edit: iq testing and academic performance is heavily influenced by motivation but more influenced by intelligence. Real world performance is more influenced by motivation than intelligence.
Angela Duckworth did a lot of work on this, and I recommend giving her a read if you are interested in this.
So, as an answer to your concern, we should seek to eliminate discrimination of differences, and seek to understand the struggles of the ones who are different rather than make everyone the same.
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How “actually intelligent” you are doesn’t matter, because you will come out ahead in life if you are motivated, have self control, and have grit. Non-intelligence traits account for 8% of career success compared to 1.6% accounted for by intelligence alone.
https://www.pnas.org/doi/pdf/10.1073/pnas.1018601108
I also would love if intelligence depended solely on environmental factors that we could easily improve, but alas that is not the case.
You fucking can. It’s called studying and it’s what everyone does.
Someone with high grit and high intelligence can still be expected to perform better than someone with high grit and low intelligence, all else being equal.
When it comes to the real world outside of academia, this is false. Intelligence doesn’t matter all that much.
Part 2
However, even in a socialist world, discrimination based on attractiveness (lookism/pretty privilege) and height (heightism) would still be genuine concerns,
Yes. Even after the dissolution of class as defined by their relation to the means of production, there will be intersectionalities remaining which we would need to address. However, these intersectionalities are not antagonistic in nature, (unless they are made antagonistic by policies that favour one intersection over another like in fascist regimes or in the US) and they can be resolved through reconciliation and understanding.
To suggest genetic alteration would be to intensify the contradictions between intersectionalities, as it would be to suggest that their existence is not tolerated, which is why you’re getting downvoted into the dirt.
To anyone who suggests gov mandated catgirl/catboy sex slaves for ugly people: gulag.
I challenge the idea that “discrimination based on attractiveness and height” would necessarily be a thing in a socialist society. Is the socialist state going to be rigorously maintaining and pushing western beauty standards once the profit motives and corporations that currently do so are gone? Why would it do so? What does the proletariat have to gain by dividing and fracturing itself according to arbitrary standards of appearance?
Standards of beauty are a cultural thing, and culture is malleable. If the material motivations for classifying and discriminating against groups of people are gone, then any remaining remnants of dangerous and discriminatory ideology should be substantially easier to isolate and combat.
Any society will have vestigial elements of the past societies even after revolution.
Beauty standards in a future socialist society will be from leftovers of our current society. This is something that will exist and its contrary elements will need to be resolved. It won’t go away by itself.
Similar to how Castro made racism illegal and thought it was resolved, but then years later he had to admit its a lot harder to deal with than that.
Yes, but my point is more that it can be dealt with, it’s a relic of the old world that doesn’t have to survive. A demand for excessive plastic surgery and genetically pure babies are not likely to be a thing, long-term, in a socialist society.
Maybe I misunderstood the OP, but I guess I’m trying to say that socialism itself - insofar as it abolishes the old systems of capitalism and inequality - already is the solution for most of those problems, I don’t think outlandish medical procedures and genetic engineering for the masses need to be part of the conversation.
Like you said, reconciliation and understanding.
Edit: to be clear I wholeheartedly agree with your assessment, I think I probably should have replied to the thread instead of to your comment.
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In a capitalist system, intensified differences between intersectionalities can be monetized, and prevent organization and unionization. So they won’t fix this.
The third riche provided social services to only white people to alienate any working class minorities so that they can’t organize across race boundaries and strike.
Joe Biden slip-up “poor kids are just as bright and just as talented as white kids” is indicative of US domestic policy; keep a poor population as a labor reserve desperate for any wage, and alienate them from each other across race lines.
As socialists, we are for the working class, but that also means we must first unite the working class against the owning class, by focusing on commonalities and developing class awareness. Only then will they realize that their enemy isn’t their neighbour, but rather the owning class and the state owned by the owning class.
