Opinion of Clarence Darrow

[Türkisblau]

"Chloroform unfit children. Show them the same mercy that is shown beasts that are no longer fit to live." - Clarence Darrow



Yes, William Jennings Bryan was totally the bad guy.

[RFayette]

Massive HP.  And William Jennings Bryan was a massive FF on many issues.

[Mr. Reactionary]

Disgusting HP.

[NeverAgain]

The Scopes Trial makes me lean FF, but his other doings were a little HPish.

[Goldwater]

HP, despite the Scopes Trial.

[/]

The Scopes Trial makes me lean FF, but his other doings were a little HPish.

...

[Mr. Smith]

The Leopold and Loeb and Sweet Trial along with his Populist Party registration make me lean FF, but his other doings were a little HPish.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

Intellectual bully, and therefore an HP.  But Bryan was arguably worse.

[Supersonic]

FF.

Somewhat off topic, I went to see the Kevin Spacey performance of Clarence Darrow which was fantastic.

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

FF.

Somewhat off topic, I went to see the Kevin Spacey performance of Clarence Darrow which was fantastic.

He came to my school and said that was the favorite thing he ever created. I have searched high-and-low for that for quite some time with no success. No library or videostore seems to have it.

Are you talking about a live thing or did you see a screening?

[Supersonic]

FF.

Somewhat off topic, I went to see the Kevin Spacey performance of Clarence Darrow which was fantastic.

He came to my school and said that was the favorite thing he ever created. I have searched high-and-low for that for quite some time with no success. No library or videostore seems to have it.

Are you talking about a live thing or did you see a screening?

Oh really? I saw it live, the tickets cost a fortune but it was definitely worth it!

(Not to rub it in).

[Cory]

The Scopes Trial makes me lean FF, but his other doings were a little HPish.

[Maxwell]

The Scopes Trial makes me lean FF, but his other doings were a little HPish.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Of course it could be the case that both Bryan and Darrow were both men of their time (if in very different ways), that this was reflected in their views and attitudes, and that we need to understand their times before we can understand them (though understanding is not exactly the same as excusing).

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

Ignoring the Scopes Trial - which was basically a publicity stunt -  he was a real mixed bag. He was great in his defense of civil liberties and opposition to the death penalty.  His downplaying of moral responsibility and moral choice, seeing people in mechanistic terms, is a more troubling legacy (evidence of a view of human beings which lead for him also to worse things such as support for eugenic infanticide as quoted by the OP).

[Tetro Kornbluth]

The biology textbook defended in the Scopes Trial talked about the need to improve the race and the eugenic culling of the unfit.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Essentially every trendy intellectual was a eugenecist back then. Not that I'm defending him of course ...

Ah SSonic, I went to see that as well. At the old vic?

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Essentially every trendy intellectual was a eugenecist back then. Not that I'm defending him of course ...

Ah SSonic, I went to see that as well. At the old vic?

A lot were but hardly all. One who wasn't btw was G.K. Chesterton.

[Supersonic]

Ah SSonic, I went to see that as well. At the old vic?

That's right!

[TJ in Oregon]

The biology textbook defended in the Scopes Trial talked about the need to improve the race and the eugenic culling of the unfit.

That's really interesting actually. It's not terribly surprising given the era but one would think that detail would get mentioned a bit more.

[Orthogonian Society Treasurer]

Progressive = HP.

[RINO Tom]

Massive HP.  And William Jennings Bryan was a massive FF on many issues.

Like??

[DC Al Fine]

Massive HP.  And William Jennings Bryan was a massive FF on many issues.

Like??

Well at minimum he was anti-eugenics, at a time when such views were much less popular than today.

[Lurker]

Did the eugenics part of the textbook play a more than peripheral (at best) part in the Scopes trial, the events leading up to it, and its outcome? If not, then it's not much of a mystery why that hasn't been given more attention in the context of the trial.

[sparkey]

Massive HP.  And William Jennings Bryan was a massive FF on many issues.

Like??

Well at minimum he was anti-eugenics, at a time when such views were much less popular than today.

So was Darrow.

I haven't found the original quote from the OP but it seems to be at least 10 years earlier and not contemporary to the Scopes trial. Not sure if it's out-of-context.