Jonathan Anomaly

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Jonathan Anomaly[1] (born Jonathan Beres) is an American eugenicist associated with the "human-biodiversity" online network and blogsphere. He has published several articles in the right-wing online magazine Quillette[2] that are mostly nonsense, with the exception of a stopped clock article that opposes factory meat farms.[3]

Anomaly defends discredited theories on racialism and race and intelligence. Similar to Nathan Cofnas who he co-authored an article with,[4] Anomaly tries to present himself as a political centrist and libertarian between both alt-right and hard left-wing extremes,[5] when his own views concerning issues such as race and eugenics have much in common with the alt-right.

Anomaly is a signatory to a petition organised by Quillette supporting the disgraced academic Noah Carl who was sacked from University of Cambridge for his links to white nationalists like Emil Kirkegaard and publishing Islamophobic papers in the OpenPsych pseudojournals.[6]

His eugenics views and far-right connections have been criticised in a blog post on altrightorigins.com.[7]

He lost in the Round of 64 in the 2019 Name of the Year competition.[8]

Background[edit]

Anomaly has a PhD in psychology from Tulane University. From 2010-2017 he was a lecturer at Duke University. Since 2018, he is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) at the University of San Diego.[9]

Pseudoscience and extremist views[edit]

Anomaly speaking at the Longevity Biotech Conference in 2024

Eugenics[edit]

Anomaly published a provocative article "Defending eugenics" in a peer-reviewed bioethics journal.[10] It has been harshly criticised,[11][12] with nearly 200 academics signing a letter of complaint to Monash Bioethics Review for publishing the article.[13]

Anomaly has most controversially argued that 20th century court decisions upholding the right of the state to forcefully sterilize undesirable people are morally defensible but as a libertarian favours the state only discouraging the reproduction of those with certain traits deemed "unfit" such as heritable diseases, low cognitive ability, and lack of impulse control.[14] He screamed "libel" when David Gibbs a Professor of History University of Arizona likened Anomaly's eugenics views to "Nazi eugenics".

Despite arguing that coercive eugenics is morally defensible, Anomaly claims to be a "liberal eugenicist" who doesn't endorse state-sponsored coercion:

The paper on eugenics is defending liberal eugenics, which means that when we have the technology to select embryos we ought to allow parents to do that as individuals. I'm Jewish, and the idea that you would smear me as somehow defending Nazism is so disgusting and is so taken out of context.[15]

Racialism and hereditarianism[edit]

Anomaly co-authored an article "We shouldn't obsess about race and IQ, but we should openly discuss it" that defends racialism and hereditarianism. In regard to the latter, he cites with approval the dubious research of HBD pseudoscientist Gregory Cochran.[16] He's also published a peer-reviewed article defending this sort of race-based junk science.[17] In 2019, he co-authored a paper with Bo Winegard arguing that diversity between groups is compatible with political liberalism.[18] He also co-authored a paper defending the hereditarian hypothesis with Bo Winegard and Ben Winegard.[19]

In 2022, Anomaly was a speaker on the far-right Aporia Magazine podcast.[20]

Natal conference[edit]

Anomaly was a speaker at the far-right Natal Conference in 2023 with far-right extremists including Kevin Dolan and Raw Egg Nationalist.[21][22]

Creating Future People[edit]

In 2020, Anomaly published Creating Future People: The Ethics of Genetic Enhancement.[23] In the book, Anomaly defends eugenics and argues for "enhancing traits that might benefit future people" (p. viii) including "cognitive enhancement" by gene editing and embryo selection. The book has been promoted by white nationalists and far-right eugenicists including Anatoly Karlin.[24]

External links[edit]

References[edit]

  1. https://philpeople.org/profiles/jonathan-anomaly
  2. https://quillette.com/author/jonny-anomaly/
  3. https://quillette.com/2017/08/17/case-factory-farming/
  4. What the Alt-Right Gets Wrong About Jews by Jonathan Anomaly & Nathan Cofnas (March 15, 2018) Quillette (archived from March 27, 2019).
  5. Anomaly, Jonny. What the Alt-Right and Regressive Left Have in Common. Quillette. March 23, 2018.
  6. https://twitter.com/Tilley101/status/1125013523015307265
  7. https://altrightorigins.com/2021/04/27/eugenics-not-well-born/2/
  8. https://deadspin.com/pope-thrower-is-the-2019-name-of-the-year-1834945703
  9. Jonathan Anomaly, PhD Department of Philosophy, University of San Diego
  10. Anomaly, Jonathan. 2018. “Defending Eugenics: From Cryptic Choice to Conscious Selection”. Monash Bioethics Review 35(1-4): 24-35.
  11. http://allegralaboratory.net/petition-against-race-realism/
  12. Reiheld, Alison. A Gimlet Eye: The Journal of Controversial Ideas and Jonathan Anomaly’s “Defending Eugenics”. November 16, 2018.
  13. Ryan, Tess. Open Letter to the editors of the Monash Bioethics Review. ACRAWSA. December 4, 2018.
  14. https://conatusnews.com/anomaly-academia-left-inquiry/
  15. Nelson, Shannad. Prof accuses Jewish academic of backing Nazi-style eugenics
  16. Anomaly, Jonathan and Brian Boutwell. A Reply to John McWhorter. National Review. July 12, 2017.
  17. Anomaly, Jonathan. Race Research and the Ethics of Belief. Journal of Bioethical Inquiry. March 15, 2017.
  18. Jonathan Anomaly, Bo Winegard: The Egalitarian Fallacy: Are Group Differences Compatible with Political Liberalism?
  19. Dodging Darwin: Race, evolution, and the hereditarian hypothesis
  20. Human Biodiversity & Political Philosophy. Aporia Magazine.
  21. Natal Conference. natalism.org.
  22. Revealed: US pro-birth conference’s links to far-right eugenicists. theguardian.com.
  23. https://www.routledge.com/Creating-Future-People-The-Ethics-of-Genetic-Enhancement/Anomaly/p/book/9780367203122
  24. https://www.nooceleration.com/p/the-biosingularity-is-near