RSSI think he’s referring to the constituents, not the representatives themselves. Fred has stated before that we are living with a single-party government, and how they keep it that way is by making sure people are too busy squabbling with each other to realize how badly they are getting fleeced.
My comment refers to a specific form of eugenics. I do not have a problem with eugenics when used by individuals. When used by groups, particularly governments, the potential for unethical abuse is very high.
I’m pretty sure happyclaus means with gene-splicing, not eugenics.
Non-ideal traits are likely to be recessive, and/or are part of a gene that provides a benefit strong enough to overcome the negative selective pressure.
Civilization has also altered the evolutionary landscape. Terrible vision is so easy to correct that the negative selective pressure is greatly reduced.
Also, there is a misconception that natural selection is a process that selects the “best” traits. The reality is that it selects the “good enough” traits.
On top of all of that, you have environment, and past experiences also influencing behavior. This has always been a huge hurdle in studying psychology, there are too many variables to keep track of. Even just the genetic variables are not static. Environmental factors can affect gene expression.
Though I agree the virus theory is quite a stretch.