I recently saw a video that claimed that conservatives behave the way they do because they have oversized amygdalae (the part of the brain that causes alarm and anxiety). While there are apparently multiple studies that show correlation between amygdala size and conservative leaning, the person in this video extrapolated this information further: that conservatives are biological misfits in today’s world; that their brain structures never progressed beyond skittish hunter-gatherer behavior; and that modern medical science is the only thing that has kept them from going extinct. This is dangerous rhetoric, and it has to be stopped. This leads to #eugenics.

I’m *exceedingly* skeptical whenever someone offers a simple anatomical explanation for complex behavior. People have been blaming undesirable behavior on everything from unruly uteri (hysteria), to “criminal skull shapes”, to—yep—skin color and ancestry, leading to countless volumes of bigotry and suffering.