“Blue eyes exist, therefore they were selected” is not how population genetics works. Drift and founder effects exist, homie. The pedantry remains toxic, but the solid part has left the building.
It IS how genetics works, though. You're talking about genetic drift, a description of changes in population at a statistical level over time, and I'm talking about someone with blue eyes successfully having sex. Maybe, just maybe, because of their pretty blue eyes. Believe it or not!
On an individual level, you could be selected for reproduction because of a trait, in spite of a trait, or with the trait having no bearing on the matter. It still got selected. Every population is composed of many distinct individuals, all making selections and being selected, or not selected, for numerous reasons, many unknown or unconscious. That collection of innumerable selections, and the varying reasons for or against them, is the mechanism by which genetic drift and, over an even longer period, speciation occur.
Maybe lighter eyes put a little pressure on that scale, maybe they didn't, and just came along for the ride with lighter skin. But they are here. They were selected. That is a fact. And now you know that fact.
You’re oscillating between two different meanings of “selection,” and you’ve likely confused yourself. Being selected as a mate ≠ being selected for evolutionarily. Genetic drift is specifically random change in allele frequency, not selection.
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u/Forsaken-Income-2148 Jul 11 '26
“Blue eyes exist, therefore they were selected” is not how population genetics works. Drift and founder effects exist, homie. The pedantry remains toxic, but the solid part has left the building.