Rachel Lehmann-Haupt writes about Counsyl:

Even with the creepy Gattaca undertones, Counsyl’s technology could potentially save lives and health care dollars as a kind of preventative medicine. But the accuracy of the new technology is still in question, and it’s unclear if the masses really want to know these answers to such questions — even if insurance is willing to pay. Accuracy and large-scale adoption is the formula Counsyl needs to make its business model work.

“Creepy Gattaca undertones?” Tell me more, Rachel Lehmann-Haupt, about who you are to declare what “The Masses” think. From Rachel’s Lehmann-Haupt’s website:

I [Rachel Lehmann-Haupt] graduated with honors in English Literature from Kenyon College and attended The Graduate School of Journalism at The University of California at Berkeley. While at UC Berkeley I was the founding editor of F magazine, a post-feminist zine for which I received a fellowship from Women in Communications, Inc. I was also an assistant editor to Clay Felker, the founder of New York magazine, at The Felker Magazine Center.

Oh right. Kenyon College, UC Berkeley, “post-feminist zine,” New York magazine. I see that neither your subsidized intelligentsia education nor your vagina crippled your ambitions to write about your ambitions to write as a Woman who Writes. Good for you. If not for your harrowing quest to achieve your superior understanding of cultural justice, how else would you credibly justify your plea that “The Masses” may not be ready to not die from Tay Sachs?

Oh. Because genomics is “creepy.” Fuck you.

Fact: any plea on behalf of “the masses” is bullshit —unless your car is on fire —and even then, bet on an accident. “The Masses” don’t move around much anymore.

In fact, a lot of idiots seem to think that prenatal disease screening is the de facto harbinger of some lock ‘n stock B+ “Write about a Dystopia” 10 pager for ”Composition and Social Issues” 205. A quick Google search:

• counsyl brave new world
• counsyl gattaca

The hilarious part is that “The Masses” don’t want this “help” —and you are not “The Masses.” Think: when was the last time you read anything by anybody who self-identified as a member of “The Masses?” I bet it was about Jesus and published as a YouTube comment.

Listen: the primary complaint of “The Masses” is that television commercials are so loud that you have to turn down the TV, but then the show comes back on and you can’t hear it so you have turn up the TV… and what if you can’t find the channel changer?

That’s right: “The Masses” have no useful opinion on any subject —most people don’t even know what DNA is, let alone read books almost 100 years old. If The Masses did have a coherent collective opinion, it would be that they hate you —Rachel Lehmann-Haupt, The People’s Champion— for the excellent, all-purpose reason that you are a “know-it-all fag bitch.” (Nothing personal about you, that’s just the reason.) Either that, or they’d be obsequiously picking stray clutter during casual conversation which will include “Um, Sorry for [triviality]” and “Uhh… did you need help with [errand]?”

But why DNA, Rachel? What is so “creepy” about an esoteric biomedical laboratory for fatal inheritable diseases?

Because The Big Cultural Taboo in America is that you could not free to be who you want to be. That there could exist some universal, standardized report —never “mandatory,” always “understood”— which the inalterable, indisputable broadcast to the entire world exactly your place and where you belong, and to behave otherwise is blasphemy.

The real taboo is that record already exists: it’s called:

a “RESUME.”

Nobody cares about your DNA unless daddy is a big customer for The Firm . What people DO care about is 1) degree caste 2) occupational class 3) have you admitted to anything which could cast doubt on your suitability for your appointed social track.

No? Oh, right… I forgot. That’s not how this debate is suppose to go, right? Yes, please save us from all the scary DNAs! Save us Rachel! [My Employment Owner] paid [my wages] to the Death’s Protection Racket, but now I can’t cash out for a CT scan because my rs2384234 was an A and not a T! *GASP* I dropped an eyelash —my  precious FICO! I missed the resume screening for my own television sitcom fantasy —all because nobody could save me from evil DNA testing! O brave new world, that has such people in’t —like creepy geneticists! If only somebody had published skeptical op-ed and put these creeps back in their place! Society wasn’t ready!

Keep your minitruth doublespeak to yourself and leave genomics alone, Rachel. It’s already a Brave New World, but some of us still really do want to be astronauts.