#of a creationist trying to break down the ladder model of evolution as a end all be all argument against evolution | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

springle-sprongle · 8 months

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sorry for the existentialism tonight but i have a lot of thoughts. Comparisons between debates about evolution and politics below cut.

I've had this thought before but i feel like i need to put it in words.

I think that we can draw major parallels between how our view on evolution has changed over time, and how (at least American) politics are evolving.

Evolution Deniers

For one in the beginning of the evolution debates - and still to this day - we saw people completely refuting evolution, they didn't want to acknowledge that things are constantly changing. We can compare this to many conservative viewpoints nowadays.

Conservatives, as the name suggests, typically focus on "conserving" traditional American values. They feel threatened by the idea that their way of life is going out of style, just as many evolution deniers feel threatened that they aren't necessarily considered the "perfect life form".

Ladder Evolution Bias

We can compare politics to the hindsight bias many proponents of evolution first used to explain and show evidence for evolution, the seemingly linear evolution of the Equus genus. Scientists in the past would try and draw a definitive line from Eohippus, through: Orohippus, Epihippuus, Mesohippus, Miohippus, Parahippus, Merychippus, Pliohippus, and Dinohippus, all the way to modern day Equus.

However in modern times with the help of more extensive fossil records and a better understanding of the fossil record, we can tell there were many other "off branches", (though you can't really call it that if there was no main branch in the first place), of other evolutionary trees stemming from Eohippus that all had the same "goal" of becoming the most efficient at filling a certain ecological niche, that weren't as successful and became extinct, leaving Equus the only Extant genus of the Equidae family.

Many conservatives AND liberals have the point of view of "The future liberals want", and a "liberal agenda" and while those exact phrases are meant to fearmonger, similar words come out of liberal politicians mouths too. This, in my opinion, means that liberals are trying to personally push ideas, not follow the want/benefit of the people. But, in my opinion, liberal ideology is all about change and reflecting the changing needs of the people, not a set trajectory of political objectives, even though it is easy to draw a clear connections through the evolution of liberal ideology.

Modern Understandings of Evolution

In the modern day we understand that evolution is nonlinear and had no set trajectory. Animals change with the natural pressures around them. And i think the same can be said for liberal ideologies, the main basis of liberal ideology is reflecting the ever changing society we live in.

For example the modern push against capitalism. This view only came about due to external factors like late stage capitalism. I'm sure in the 16 and 1700's there was people pushing against Mercantilism in favor of capitalism since they had nothing to trade and thus could hardly acquire food let alone other commodities, so they preferred to work for personal "capital" creating capitalism. This was probably considered what would nowadays be called more liberal, pushing for change that would benefit the lower class.

and now capitalism hinders people from getting food or other commodities due to wealth hoarding, so many people advocate for a more socialist economic system to prevent wealth hoarding. Pushing for a change that would benefit the lower class

(If your reading this thanks :) this took me 2 hours to write cus i got into a rabbit hole of a creationist trying to break down the ladder model of evolution as a end all be all argument against evolution.)

#If your reading this thanks :)#this took me 2 hours to write #cus i got into a rabbit hole #of a creationist trying to break down the ladder model of evolution as a end all be all argument against evolution #punk #anti capitalism #anticapitalist #anti capitalist #socialism #evolution #politics #american politics #analogies #mercantilism #original rambles

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