The Soapbox

Joined: 03/16/2005 Posts: 16380
Likes: 28593

What's this?

This is going nowhere. I am very careful to not make value judgements of

better or worse, dumber or smarter. Liking blue vs red, liking to explore vs creating stories and oral traditions? I don't know what the tradeoffs were.

South Americans certainly built cities and cultivated. They domesticated livestock. Incans built Machu Picchu without the aid of a wheel. That's incredible to me. They were not scratching a subsistence living out of a barely arable land. They were not migrating with herds of buffalo. These were not stupid lazy people, as you seem to imply I think. Just different. What makes them different?

But you didn't answer my basic question. With 100,000 to 200,000 years of evolutionary differences between them, do modern Africans, Europeans (which includes some Neandertal genes) Asians, and North and South Americans have identical DNA? Obviously not. Do any of these difference occur in the brain? I would be shocked if it were otherwise.

(In response to this post by hoolstoptheheels)

Posted: 01/31/2024 at 3:55PM

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My 8 yo asked me how did America become so strong. I give him my thoughts. -- JohnHoo2 01/31/2024 10:34AM

Thanks for all the comments. I answered him on 3 main points. -- JohnHoo2 01/31/2024 3:37PM

Good conversation in this thread ** -- WaxHoo 01/31/2024 12:13PM

Constitutional framework of democratic/republican ideals. -- Chuck Taylor 01/31/2024 11:52AM

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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

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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