Thanks for all the comments. I answered him on 3 main points. -- JohnHoo2 01/31/2024 3:37PM
My 8 yo asked me how did America become so strong. I give him my thoughts. -- JohnHoo2 01/31/2024 10:34AM
Good conversation in this thread ** -- WaxHoo 01/31/2024 12:13PM
Constitutional framework of democratic/republican ideals. -- Chuck Taylor 01/31/2024 11:52AM
The potential to improve your status in life was less dependent on the -- Tuckahokie 01/31/2024 11:42AM
Layers of different reasons of course and any discussion is dependant on -- fishhoo 01/31/2024 11:17AM
We ate lots of spinach -- WahooMatt05 01/31/2024 10:54AM
Three things… -- Los Angeles Hoo 01/31/2024 10:54AM
Multi-layered answer, I think. You start with the prerequisites. The -- hoolstoptheheels 01/31/2024 10:48AM
Lots of structural advantages like oceans between us and Europe/Asia as -- CharlestonSC 01/31/2024 10:47AM
Lots of warm water ports, abundant natural resources, vast arable farmland, -- KaHOOnah 01/31/2024 10:43AM
Those warm water ports long predated the arrival of Europeans. And had -- hoolstoptheheels 01/31/2024 10:52AM
I think an authoritarian or totalitarian state easily could have evolved -- KaHOOnah 01/31/2024 11:06AM
No, actually, it couldn’t. If it could have “easily”, it would have. But -- hoolstoptheheels 01/31/2024 11:30AM
Well, I disagree. First, america does not become a hyperpower without the -- KaHOOnah 01/31/2024 11:50AM
Ok, I disagree back. The USA was already the most powerful country on -- hoolstoptheheels 01/31/2024 12:02PM
Wadr, and there’s plenty due, you’re missing the point. -- KaHOOnah 01/31/2024 12:46PM
Actually, a further data point to refute your view that totalitarianism -- hoolstoptheheels 01/31/2024 1:39PM
Russia also has dreadful shipping logistics available to them. -- SchmHoo 01/31/2024 4:28PM
I might buy that with Russia, but I buy it less with China. -- hoolstoptheheels 01/31/2024 4:32PM
I can say it because I believe it to be true. The only countries you -- hoolstoptheheels 01/31/2024 1:32PM
Well that’s semantics and the US was ostensibly an empire at the time -- KaHOOnah 01/31/2024 1:59PM
We definitely disagree. Germany needed to bring raw materials in from -- hoolstoptheheels 01/31/2024 2:25PM
If those data are true it is surprising. Any reason there’s no UK? Omitting -- KaHOOnah 01/31/2024 2:38PM
Probably because countries like NZ and Australia were part of the UK. -- hoolstoptheheels 01/31/2024 2:54PM
Europeans came with millennia of domesticatable beasts of burden. -- KaHOOnah 01/31/2024 11:00AM
Native Americans didn’t even use the wheel, although they understood the -- SixerHoo 01/31/2024 11:11AM
I’m admittedly influenced by guns germs and Steel, having read it at uva ** -- KaHOOnah 01/31/2024 11:01AM
I’m a believer in Guns Germs and Steel’s theories. It’s very telling -- hoolstoptheheels 01/31/2024 11:24AM
I started reading that and it came off, to me anyway, as a preordained -- 81_Hokie 01/31/2024 11:21AM
Correction: domestication cropped up in China more or less concurrently -- hoolstoptheheels 01/31/2024 11:47AM
Imo you should have finished the book. It would have challenged your view. -- hoolstoptheheels 01/31/2024 11:39AM
The term race is fraught with PC issues, so let's just say populations. -- 81_Hokie 01/31/2024 2:39PM
If that were remotely true, how is it that Italian Americans, German -- hoolstoptheheels 01/31/2024 2:59PM
Pretty insulting to bring up a term like eugenics. Why do YOU think -- 81_Hokie 01/31/2024 3:05PM
Sorry you find it insulting, but your statement is the foundation of -- hoolstoptheheels 01/31/2024 3:40PM
This is going nowhere. I am very careful to not make value judgements of -- 81_Hokie 01/31/2024 3:55PM
You may be careful not to attach value judgements to these genetic -- hoolstoptheheels 01/31/2024 4:13PM
And yet, you still didn't answer my question. Populations that have -- 81_Hokie 01/31/2024 4:20PM
Yeah, far as I know, pretty much. I am not aware of a single subset of -- hoolstoptheheels 01/31/2024 4:27PM
I don’t think genetics is the right word, and tradition -- 111Balz 01/31/2024 4:11PM
It’s what makes us the “melting pot”. It’s not “eventually” in this -- hoolstoptheheels 01/31/2024 4:19PM
I thought he was talking more about cultural, values, and choices more than -- 111Balz 01/31/2024 4:37PM
I think that distinction is dead on arrival. I don’t see how you separate -- hoolstoptheheels 01/31/2024 4:44PM
Great book! ** -- SixerHoo 01/31/2024 11:09AM
AmeriKKKa was never that grate. ** -- ResistHoo 01/31/2024 10:35AM