Meanwhile my ecology professor is literally teaching that survival of the fittest is about genetic superiority and that evolution is about working towards that ‘goal’. This is incorrect and bad science that is rooted in right-wing ideology that was disproven decades ago.
This is not what survival of the fittest means by the way. There is no such thing as a genetically superior being, as ‘fitness’ is totally subjective, as well as dependent on your environment. A lifeform that reproduces well in the ocean will still die if you put in the vacuum of space, no matter how ‘fit’ it was for ocean life. Not to mention the idea that nature has some sort of conscious goal is anthropomorthising a concept and again, bad science.
I really want to do something about this, but I feel like complaining will get me failed or known as a shit stirrer.
I fucking hate capitalist education.
On the plus side, our next lecture is on mutualism
Yeah my bad. In my hurry to post I wasn’t clear about what I meant. I meant that most Ecologists I know don’t apply these ideas to social matters, and furthermore, don’t fall prey to the oversimplification of ecological networks that is needed to apply Darwin or Malthus to human realities.
Makes sense!
I would bet money that this prof is terrible to their grad students. The STEM reactionaries are notoriously terrible bosses. Even abusive.
Even the cool ones are exploitative, so I can imagine how worse they are.
I have heard so many stories of verbal abuse, rugpulls on funding, and sexual harassment…