Euro election results: UKIP on track to replace LDP as UKs 3rd largest party in local elections. Le France's National Front takes 25% of vote and 1/3 of eu parliament seats, comes in first place, quadruples performance from its 6% showing in 2009.

Overall a great election cycle for us in Europe.

German results no so good for paleos, but the free dems, Germany's pro biz pro immigration libertarian party, continued its collapse, once the #3 party they are now more like #6.

Greece finally found a way to get people to pay their taxes: cut off electricity if they don't. There is a Prometheus joke here somewhere.

Perhaps creativity needs to be measured, and examined—not just IQs. That and a willingness to take risks both of which entrepreneurs possess. I’d add salesmanship abilities. The entrepreneur is the go between of smart technical people that takes the risks and has the know-how to bring products to market.

You can’t just come up with a product but be able to market it too. Are Russians risk-takers?

I’m an American female, self-employed creative professional in the advertising/marketing/communications fields where I made a good living based on “fresh creative ideas” based on client testimonials.

Oh and I should add—that what entrepreneurs are good at tapping into is recognizing what products solve a problem, or serve a purpose for most people—knowing what they need and want, at a price most can afford, which will produce enough sales to sustain an enterprise.

Afterall, you can hire the best or smartest personnel to make whatever, but if it doesn’t sell it’s NOT worth anything in the market. So you lose all the money you paid to those personnel as well as other costs.

In America there are stories of mothers who had to drive all around to multiple stores to create a theme party for their young children, ( I was one) until one mother came along and created all-in-one party product covering multiple themes children would like. Solved a problem for mommies with just a click of a few buttons and delivered to their doorsteps. The woman made millions and millions of children and mommies were happy and satisfied. Solved a problem for them.

I learned in a free-market course, Austrian Economics version not the crony capitalist mixed with Keynesian manipulated economy we have, that if you can solve a problem for people, with a product or service it will succeed.

Actually, there is almost no resemblance between the experiences Armenians and Jews. A considerable portion of the former was armed, actively fought against their country, sided with invading Russians, involved in mass killings of Turks & Kurds, and actively tried to carve a country for themselves at the expense of their compatriots. As a result, Armenians who lived area close to Russian empire (East and Central Anatolia) were forcibly relocated to Syria; which was still a part of the Ottoman Empire and not that far from Anatolia. Many perished on the way, due to diseases and attacks by Kurdish tribes and gangs who were seeking revenge/loot, the main failure of Turks were being unable to provide enough security and doing proper planning, which in some ways understandable as it was during the World War 1. Had Armenians stayed loyal, and not tried to establish a country no harm would come to them as previous 900+ years of peaceful coexistence proves. The same cannot be said for the Jews of Germany or Poland.

Just because you know a word doesn’t mean you know you know what you are talking about. Being a Christian or Jewish did not mean you were automatically lesser and lived under oppression; that is why Jews migrated to the Ottoman Empire and the empire had the world’s largest Jewish city until Greece became independent. Ottoman court records are full of verdicts for non-Muslims at the expense of Muslims. So yes; especially compared to being constantly massacred & oppressed by Orthodox Eastern Romans, Armenians had a much better time under Turkish rule. I know no records of neither Armenian revolts nor killings until 19th century, quite the contrary, the two got along quite well and Turks trusted Armenians immensely calling them “loyal nation.” Of course, this changed after French & Russians involved and provoked them to establish their own country Balkan style. Extending what I said in my first message; had Armenians remained loyal they would not get harmed in any way; had formerly Christian states (like France) did not provoke Armenians they most likely would have remained loyal.

Exactly. Same can be said about Libya as well. Since the bombing of Libya, it became a transit country for illegal migrants from Subsaharan Africa. I also have no sympathy for France until they stop meddling everywhere.

Obviously, motives are economic. That said, it doesn’t matter whether Ivory Coast or Senegal were justly governed. The relationships with Africans could be strictly transactional, and trade based. But instead, Europeans opted for empires, and empires have always been multiethnic. They have no one to blame but themselves.

When the means are available immigration will happen in empires. The fact is that most immigration to Euro countries is from their former colonies. In the past, it was simply hard to travel distances, and people had no idea about foreign countries. Both communication and transportation technologies have advanced. So now, their former colonies are flowing in. Are there political enablers? Sure. But in the end, no one forced the French or British to go colonize countries, spread their language and culture. In the end, their empires returned them as immigration and multiethnic societies. It was just slower compared to Roman, Ottoman or other land empires simply because of the naval nature of European colonialism, but it happened nonetheless. As I said, empires by default turn multiethnic once they conquer other civilizations. It is inevitable. It appears that they ceased to be empires on paper, but they continue acting like empires with foreign interference, cultural expansion, and endless warfare. Who told French to destroy Libya, colonize Africa or recently involve in Syria? No one. What they get is the result of their own long term policies and ideas, and they still continue on the same destructive path. I have no sympathy.

You don’t even know that Anatolia has been the historical name of the region well before Turks came, and that Armenians were not the majority by the time Turks settled. Moreover, for almost 800 years they were just fine and there is no sign of any rebellion. Unlike what you claim, no one’s boy was taken to be catamite as there is no legal basis for such a thing in Ottoman law. Moreover, Janissaries were taken mostly from Balkans, not Anatolia and even that was not something that lasted forever, eventually, Muslims were allowed to become Janissaries. Moreover, not every family’s boy was taken, and for a long time, it was actually an opportunity for upward mobility for poor Christian villagers. Moreover, Janissaries were not forced to convert to Islam as it is banned to force conversion. A lot of people were eager to send their kids to capital. To give an example, if West Point recruited poor kids from Puerto Rico, I am sure they would have no problem finding eager candidates, very similar situation back then for Janissaries. I don’t think you know anything about this topic.

Finally, you pretend to know about Islamic law, yet you will claim about taking Armenian boys as catamites proving that you don’t even know that homosexuality is banned in Islam. Believe it or not, people have their own interpretations of their holy books, and that includes Muslims as well. Being a Dhimmi is Ottoman Empire was still better than being a Jew in most other parts of Europe hence the Jewish migration to the Ottoman Empire. It simply meant you paid more in taxes, but in return you were exempted from military service, and it was also an option to serve in the military if you didn’t want to pay taxes. Most non-Muslims chose to pay taxes over joining the army, as a result non-Muslims were often better off economically than Muslims.

I don’t know buddy. It seems like Italians know how to live far better than any German or Anglo I’ve ever met. They have a gorgeous country, great food, very interesting history, excellent artisans and great art. Sometimes I wonder if North Europeans are so butthurt and acting angry at Italians etc. because they know they are living in the crappier part of the continent.

You are just talking nonsense. Ottoman slave trade was nowhere near as large in scale as Atlantic slave trade as there were no large plantations. Slaves were basically domestic servants or concubines in rich households. Therefore Turkey does not have a giant slave descendant black population. Moreover, this trade was already established by the time Jews started migrating. No one claimed any empire was benevolent, all I stated was that the Ottoman Empire was not some sort of evil empire and that it had its own dynamics. Muslims and non-Muslims, for the majority of its history, got along well up until nationalism and following collapse of the empire. However, I will state that compared to British, French or German Empires, the Ottoman Empire does look like a beacon of tolerance.

Interesting, can you further discuss? How is it there? I always thought it was really strange that they stagnated / declined this long after even surpassing the US as far as GDP per capita is considered.

I did not suggest it is the only reason and I never claimed only the empires get to become multiethnic states. What I suggest is that once an empire, it is almost certain the country will be multiethnic, it is what history shows. Russia, Ottomans, Romans, Abbasids, China, Habsburgs, without an exception all were multiethnic. Portugal was spared by the fact that its colonies are distant, but also because by the time modern technology become widely available, they had already become a second rate country. If British or French didn’t have empires would they still get migrants? Sure. Would it be at this rate? Absolutely not.

And where did I rationalize or justify any suicide? All I said is that I don’t care much about France, because even today they follow policies that cause further migration. Who told them to colonize Africa? Who told them to send settlers to Algeria? Who told them to destroy Libya and make it a transit state? They don’t want migrants? Fine. Then they should start with not putting their French nose into every war in Africa. It makes zero sense to spread your language and culture, establish strong economic ties, and then expect some of those people to not try to come to your country.

What is the wrong half? Every single thing I said is a simple historical fact for anyone who has a little knowledge about the subject.

Yeah, they are all gone, just about ~8 million diaspora members are imaginary.

No one is whitewashing Ottoman history. It is just that there is too much blackwashing going on that, even stating simple truth sounds like whitewashing. Everything I said with regards to Ottomans is verifiable, historical facts. The main problem boils down to the fact that Europeans confuse it with their own empires, their racist guilt, and extreme religious bigotry is reflected in their comments on Ottomans. In reality, Ottomans were a classical Eastern Empire, the rule was not based on race or ethnicity. Religious minorities had their own courts, their separate societies and had considerable autonomy. There are many, many records of non-Muslims winning cases against Muslims in courts (when there is a dispute between the two, mind you this was impossible in Europe during the same time because all Muslims were either massacred or converted). Sure, there were massacres of some people here and there, it is 600 years of mostly pre-modern history after all, but killings were not based on race or religion. Christian massacres? A Devshirme, Croatian Pasha alone killed 40.000 Turks in Eastern Anatolia in 16th century in a single campaign. Over a million Turks migrated to Iran in order to escape Ottomans, hundreds of thousands of Turks were forcibly removed from Anatolia. Apparently, people who try to make up a genocide out of Armenian relocations don’t know any of this, so keep repeating the same things over and over. Janissaries, Dhimmi, Armenians. What do they know? Nothing but imaginary victimhood.

This is correct, Crimea was one of the two main slave trade centers. However, I doubt it would be on the scale of Atlantic trade as slaves were mainly used as domestic servants & concubines in rich households mostly concentrated in Istanbul. For a vast majority of people, a slave would just be an extra mouth to feed. As for slavery in Abbasids & Umayyads, I didn’t really look into it, so I wasn’t discussing it.

Who said I was Muslim? Where did you get that all men were castrated? Only blacks who were supposed to watch over harem were castrated. Besides, why so angry anyway did they force feed you the African scrotums?

To Northerners, the world and everything in it is the enemies, they don’t understand the concept of not having enemies that’s why they always seek enemies. If there was no outside threat, real or imaginary, Northern barbarians would turn against each other in no time. Therefore it is no surprise that mild-mannered, highly civilized Italians would get along better with anyone compared to the former.

Italy has a higher average IQ than all Northern countries fool.

While Vikings, Germans, Anglos, and French were massacring and raping each other for centuries (not to mention other people), Italians were trading with everyone, advancing arts and sciences. Moreover, they settled in many countries and established trade routes. That requires civility, mild nature and high level of organizational skills. Unlike sailing somewhere to pillage and destroy.

Frankly, it is not a topic I am interested in. Most of these discussions are far below me, I visit this site to read Linh Dinh, and a couple of other writers, also to skim articles from both ends of the spectrum as you tend to hear what’s not being talked about when you look at edges, so that I can reach my own conclusions. There are also a few interesting commenters. But yeah, it appears some think if only Jews, Latinos, Arabs, Japanese, Italians, Chinese, Muslims, Koreans, Russians, Irish, Buddhists etc. would leave the US they would have a great life.

Again, I never talked about Arab or North African Muslim trade. Slave labor was not needed in Ottoman Empire, and frankly it was a luxury. Moreover, there wasn’t capitalism & large empty lands that could be utilized. It is very unlikely that this could even get close to Atlantic trade as Atlantic trade was 10+ million with more than that number perishing along the way. Besides, if you are bringing up all slave trade over 1400 years, then why are you comparing it to Atlantic trade only? Surely Romans were some of the biggest slavers. And I am not even counting entirely enslaved populations in South America or Africa.

What other whites are you referring to? Two main streams of slaves were Africa and the other was Crimea. That being said, there are fundamental differences between the purposes and treatments of slaves in the Ottoman Empire and Western Europe & Americas. For one, it was a simple social status issue. Being slave in the Ottoman Empire didn’t automatically mean one was less than a human and an object to be abused for sure, slaves often were just domestic servants, ate with their masters from the same table, were not overworked till they expired, and were treated like family members in many instances. You couldn’t just kill or maim a slave for fun, as consideration was that slaves were humans who just happened to slaves, rather than subhumans who were less than humans. That’s the fundamental difference. To be fair, the Catholic church did not support slavery and considered slaves to be human as well but its opinion was not taken seriously. One look into Congo & rubber plantations is enough to see the fundamental difference in approach.

Exactly, and therefore, once you are able to label some as “human” and others as “subhuman” you can redefine some people as “subhuman.” Precisely because of this, ancient civilizations treated slaves better than late Europeans. And I don’t claim that only Muslims treated slaves as if they were human, but for example, in ancient Greece too they had a rather decent life, again it was a social status issue. Moreover, as I said, most slaves were domestic servants in the Ottoman Empire, people tend to treat those who live with them better, even if they don’t see them as their equals socially. Also, no, there is no such thing as treating slaves however you wish in Islam. Quite the contrary, Islam orders to treat them well even if they are not Muslims, hoping that it may encourage them to convert. References to killing animists/pagans are about wartime, not anytime and anywhere. Finally, it wasn’t due to simple opposition against European ideas that the printing press was not established until late (the first was 1728, I think) but rather there were other things going along. Calligraphy was actually a sizable business and artisans successfully lobbied against printing press for a long time with the help of clerics, so much so even after the first printing press was allowed it was banned from publishing religious books. Otherwise, in general, Turks had been generally quick to adopt useful technology especially early on. All said, Jews of empire actually had been using printing press long before “first” printing press I talked about, but that’s another topic…

There are more direct orders in Islam with regards to slaves, whereas some slavers even referred to Bible to justify slavery (Bible says sons of Ham were cursed to be slaves of others). There aren’t many records to understand exactly how slavery worked on a day to day basis, but there are many incidents of slaves rising up to become high status after being freed, some slaves even ended up becoming kings. I think it does show there are some significant differences between the two slavery. I will add however that there are probably differences between how Turks treated slaves vs. how Arabs treated them. In general, Turkish understanding of Islam was much more reasonable and wasn’t mixed up with some sort of racial superiority thing. Arabs have been guilty of both making religion unreasonable and mixing it up with Arab superiority, hence there are instances of slave uprisings in Arab Empires due to maltreatment, and even today Gulf Arabs treat Asian servants like crap even if the servant is Muslim.

Yes, Arabic was harder to print especially considering all the calligraphic styles that were used in religious book writing, and the early printing press was pretty slow even with easier to shape Latin letters. Scribes were also rather effective and fast. Some technologies were adapted late (after Europeans proved the superiority of the new tech) because Turks had been pretty good at using the earlier tech; for example, it was difficult to make soldiers adopt rifles because archery technology was high quality and soldiers could shoot arrows much faster than using early rifles. Sort of like how we all mastered Q keyboard because it was early, even though it is inferior.

Yeah, definitely not a good institution. It is also true that Slavery in the South was still better than Caribbeans & colonial Africa.

I just read some books. I am not a college graduate.

Hey just saying, if there was an IQ requirement (which can be done effectively through standardized test for college entrance) only about 16% of whites & less than 1% of blacks would be in college. Assuming an average IQ of 100 for whites in the US (possible that it is a few points lesser than 100). It wouldn’t be a bad thing necessarily but would collapse the higher-ed business. Which again, is not necessarily a bad thing.

I don’t get how your comment is relevant or address anything I said?

Walrus Bolton has quite an ego. Avoid draft for Vietnam (supposedly because little snot had the foresight that it was a lost cause, talk of rationalizing cowardice), try to compensate by turning into a lifelong warmonger. How about this idea then? Let them have their war, with the condition their kids should go for fighting on the frontline. I wonder if they would be so keen on warmongering if this was a clause.

I repeat, talk of “human” n “subhuman” is simply irrelevant when discussing the Ottomans. They had no knowledge of or interest in such ideas, which are mostly of the 20th century.

And that is what I am saying, people did not need these ideas because they did not consider slaves to be less than human for the longest period. That is until Europeans came up with the idea that some people were inherently lesser. I don’t like wasting time giving citations; you can easily find countless examples of newly discovered people being defined like some lesser species in old documents. Once some are inherently inferior, it opens gates for all sorts of mistreatment.

This is nonsense. The fate of slaves thru most of history was to be worked to death, just look at the Zanj plantations of southern Iraq in the 8th century which worked thousands of imported African slaves to death. Iraq was Muslim then.

I repeat, slaves were treated better in ancient times, better just implies relativity not absolute terms. Large plantation economy was not common, and often slaves were not that different from their masters unlike in later times. This is partly human nature, partly economics. I precisely separated Arabs from Turks because of Zanj rebellion and already stated that the former did mix Arab supremacy into Islam. As soon as racial superiority is mixed in abuse towards others follow.

But the Turkic khanates in Central Asia did treat Russian slaves as disposable.

Incorrect. Russian slaves were rare and more expensive in Central Asia, much of a status symbol only the rich could afford. But here I will clarify disposable: mistreatment or some abuse alone does not mean disposable, this had always been the case for the poor and unfortunate, even today. However, once you stash 1000 people into a ship that can carry 150 because you figure at a 70% mortality rate you still profit more from 300 slaves than carrying all 150 alive is treating people as disposable. I need not elaborate this; it is already widely available information. Rather than checking apologist modern sources, look into older histories where this stuff is candidly discussed.

I agree, slavery was primarily a social status issue in Europe n among the Ottomans

I didn’t say it was social status in Europe at all times, it was a social status thing when a slave was expensive, when plantation economy wasn’t widespread, and when slaves were physically similar to their masters. Otherwise, pretty sure post rationalism Europeans were considering themselves to be superior race & defining American Natives or Sub-Saharans as less than a human. There were circuses for displaying these people.

In actual practice this had little effect. Converting to Islam did not cancel one’s status as a slave, n once the profit motive comes in, you can be sure that conversion meant very little.

It didn’t cancel status, but the existence of a principle implies at least a common agreement. That being, the slave is still a human and has a chance to be saved spiritually, and has a chance to be free. Certainly, people who would consider slave to have these properties would treat them better than those who considered slave to be something less not just socially but also biologically. It is then no surprise, actual Christians were major among abolitionists when the movement started.

That’s misleading since technically the Ummah is at war with non-Muslims at all times n forever. Periods of peace are only temporary truces.

This isn’t true and could be concluded only with selective reading. There are different views among Muslims too (so you are partially correct), so let’s not pretend that there is an agreement among Muslims that they are in a perpetual war. This is mostly propaganda to justify wars of aggression in Middle East and elsewhere.

This is another way of saying that it was not just artisans who opposed presses, but the Arab religious clerics who opposed them. Under the Ottomans, Arab clerics ran the religious administration, not Turks. The Porte (Sultan) did not feel confident to challenge the Arab clerics, so he let them wreck the presses. The clerics believed calligraphy was authentically islamic while mechanical presses were against Islam. This goes back to the prohibition on bid’a (innovation) in Islam. We still see this attitude today in Saudi Arabia not wanting women to drive. n yes this also meant opposition to European ideas being introduced, which we also still see today in the ME.

I will only correct a few factual errors, but not expand the whole claim because it is a topic for a book and very complex. No, Arabs did not run religious administration, barely any Sheikh-ul Islam was non-Turkish, religious administration itself is a misnomer but that is another topic. Thus, the following sentences regarding challenging them are also fiction, the mechanical press was simply not a concern of Sultans. Educated religious classes opposed press simply because it challenged their livelihood. Bid’a does not mean “ban all innovation,” it is about religious innovation; even then it is not an absolute thing, when people find it convenient they call “good bid’a” so suddenly the new thing is acceptable.

I am not sure if Saudis are the best examples to show how good/bad Islam is. Aside from the fact that Wahhabism is widely shunned among Muslim scholars (increasingly rare), their clerics are some of the dumbest clerics ever existed. There is no basis in Islam to not let women drive, especially since it is recorded that women did ride camels to commute in pre-modern times. For future discussions, let’s not refer Saudis for anything Islam related (or anything for that matter). They are opportunistic desert dwellers who happened to usurp the rule of more civilized Arabs, they are out of date and must go away. I expect Western and Israeli support to get rid of Saudis. 😉

If you mean military technology, yes. The Ottomans collapsed under the pressure of trying to govern a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural empire, which required them to turn one group against another in order to maintain power. IOW the sultans destroyed their own state. But this is the fate of all multi-ethnic empires.

I meant technology in general, especially early on, if printing press was discovered and introduced 100 years ago, I am positive Turks would have no issue using it as there wasn’t a huge cleric and scribe class in early times. I agree with the rest of your statements.

Brazilian Germans are having a good life in Brazil, why would they go to Germany and become lower class?

He would suddenly conclude the war was a lost cause already and that he had no intention to die in a desert.

I think they are actually very eager to marry whites because, in Indian culture, whiteness is considered superior. Whitening products are a billion dollar industry in India, and an ugly white girl would actually be considered prettier than a more attractive dark skinned girl. The problem is that wanting to marry whites is not enough, the white side should also have the same desire. They just are not attractive on average, the prettiest Indian girls I’ve ever seen were average at best (white standards), it is very unlikely for an average white to want to marry an Indian, hence the low intermarriage rates. When they can, Indians tend to pick the most stereotypically white men/women they can get, blondes with blue eyes.

Actually, Erdogan doesn’t know anything. If he did he wouldn’t try to give citizenship to millions of Arabs who neither share a common language nor culture with Turks. He is just an ignorant fool who confuses reality for fantasy. Turkey’s birth rate on average is just around replacement rate, and no local ethnicity has Middle East levels, but West’s beloved Kurds have a slightly higher birth rate. Also, note that about half of those “dark Turks” in Germany are not ethnic Turks. Moreover, I wouldn’t count on the opinions of those Istanbulites you talk about. First of all, they probably are not Istanbulites as real Istanbulites are a small minority and some of the most polite & refined people you will ever meet, consequently, they would not refer others as “dark Turks,” as it would be impolite and arrogant. Those who use the language you refer to are usually dumb & ignorant people themselves, not to mention that they likely have at most ~50 years of family history in Istanbul, most likely not even close to that. Also, this whole “dark Turk” vs. “white Turk” has nothing to do with color, but rather with class, and is a rather recent invention of Turkish leftists.

I am not sorry to say it. It is just a simple fact, and obvious to anyone who has eyes that can see, and it has nothing to do with the color, I don’t have the same opinion for blacks for example, have seen very pretty black girls. East Asians tend to be more attractive relatively speaking, but even they are not attractive on average. A whole lot of make-up, whitening, face painting and in case of Koreans, plastic surgery going on in East Asia. Still, I have seen actually pretty Asian girls, cannot say the same for Indian girls. Agreed about whole Asian lumping, actually came across Indians who thought that East Asian high IQ thing applied to them because they are also called Asians.

Actually, Israel or Saudi Arabia are far more likely to use their bombs. In case of Israel ever heard of Samson Option? And Saudi Arabia is a tent state who cannot even calculate two steps ahead. A bunch of camel shepherds pretending to run a state, a monarchy of clowns that would have collapsed without the US backing. Iran on the other has a state tradition going almost 2500 back, with about 1000 years of it being under Turkish rulers. No, they won’t drop any nukes on anyone for no reason, they understand well how states function and they understand that had they used one they would be wiped out. They have neither been a stateless people with victim paranoias nor desert thugs. Serious people within the US government knows this fact, the whole Iran thing is more about Israeli paranoia and fear about losing strategic superiority nuclear provide.

All being said, you may disagree with all the facts I said, which is fine. But if you want to stop Iran, go ahead, do it yourself. Because the US has absolutely zero interest in fighting your wars.

First, Iran wasn’t trying to get nuclear weapons after the treaty. But say that they hypothetically got it, then the simple fact is that Israel already has nuclear missiles, and it appears that it didn’t start a nuclear arms race. Truth is that Israel is worried that if Iran got nuclear, they could be more brazenly hostile against Israel. Otherwise, everyone still knows that Iran cannot use nuclear weapons, if they did they would be wiped out, it is well understood. And Saudis cannot even build saddles for their camels, how could they build nuclear to begin with?

If you are actually concerned about nuclear arms race, maybe the US should first request Israel to give up on its nuclear arms, then maybe Iran would not want nuclear, how about that?

I will expand on the idea that Russia could be equivalent to the US. Russia was never a top power (aside from the brief Soviet period, which owes a lot to outside factors & monstrous human sacrifice for the sake of ideology), and will never be one. Russians’ only advantages have been to be in a place not many people wanted and adopting their nature to that place. It was conquered by Turco-Mongols, and their rule was only broken by another Turco-Mongol named Timur centuries after, had it not been for that Russians might merge into Turks (more so than they already did, notice how many of them have Asiatic features) or would have a small state somewhere in the Western part of modern Russia. It was conquered by Napoleon and Napoleon was defeated by the winter. It was conquered by Germans, and Germans were defeated thanks to the American support and the winter (still with a huge cost to the Russian population). Its population is declining and it has no moral claim or alternative world view that it can offer to humanity, at least as of now. A scientific path for Russians would be to slowly reduce their holdings in Caucasia, and Asia beyond Ural mountains. Concentrate population in West Russia, and try to get a stronghold in the European part. This way their population density would make sense, the country would be easily manageable, and their life standard would drastically increase (this is unimaginable of course, they would be willing to sacrifice another 10 million for keeping land that is inhabited by non-Russians, which brings nothing to Russians).

Russians are used to be governed by despots and authoritarians. The problem is, by nature, authoritarians push away everyone else, and make everyone around them cautious. In reality, Russia is far less of a threat than it actually is, but the US finds it useful to have a Russian scare and Russian love for authoritarians plays into the US’s hand. Therefore, in a weird twist, Russia appears more prominent than it should be, again, this is purely against the interests’ of Russians. While they complain about NATO and the US all the time, they manage to make everyone around them friends with NATO and the US.

A nation that has aspirations of becoming a world power should have ideals to offer humanity. Russia doesn’t have that as well. The US has freedom & democracy (it wasted a lot of credibility while fighting Israel’s wars). China has common prosperity and cooperation. Above all globalists have environmentalism and multiculturalism. What does Russia have? In the past at least there was enough suffering in Russia that brought out some of the most mature literature ever written, but modernity destroyed that as well. Now, all Russia offers is missiles.

It’s nonsense. By the time of the war with Timur, the Horde had already suffered a crushing military defeat by the Moscow Prince (in 1380) and lost all real power over Russia.

This is false, but you know that, which makes it a lie. Just a few years later Golden Horde sacked Moscow, massacred its population and was on the path of recovery, they crushed Lithuanians and Poles, and made them tributary states as well. Doesn’t sound like a state that lost power to me. Then Timur came and broke Golden Horde for good. You have responses for other points already, but I will also add the fact that Crimea (a vassal state of Ottomans) was alone enough of a challenge for Russians for centuries, as late as 1650s Moscow was getting raided. But, the basic idea is that a country that gets invaded in regular intervals cannot claim to be a superpower. Superpowers do not get run over by their enemies the way Russians were run over on regular intervals. Russia, on average, throughout its history had been a mediocre power. It is essentially a landlocked country that is very exposed. People look at the world map and think Russia must be a great country, in reality, the majority of that land is not livable and empty and there aren’t enough Russians to keep population density favorably (and it’s going down).

I will reiterate, Russia, apart from brief USSR (which Russians hate) era, was never a superpower and will never be one. As for future, it cannot be a superpower because it lacks many conditions; it doesn’t have any ideals to offer, whether the ideal makes sense or not. America knows this, that’s why the focus is China. China does have some ideals/ideology that attracts foreign nations. I don’t see how Russia has any path or claim to becoming a superpower given its current conditions and future expectations.

Lol, I didn’t even know what that meant. No, not even close.

Neither Tehran nor Washington want war, but that does not mean they will not get one.

Benjamin Netanyahu has led the charge in demonising Iran and encouraging the US to see it as the source of all evil in the Middle East. But Netanyahu’s belligerent rhetoric against Iran has hitherto been accompanied with caution in shifting to military action, except against defenceless Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.

Iran obviously wants war.
Look how close they put their country to our Glorious Military bases.

Look how close they put their country to our Glorious Military bases.

This is funny.

Yes, and the Sultan accepted English demand and sent a lesser amount of gold than originally promised. However, Turks who have by then mastered how to find loopholes in anything under the tutelage of Greeks sent three ships of supplies secretly. It was a relief for the Irish, and to show their gratefulness they added crescent and star to their city flag:

British by then were familiar with population theories of Malthus. They knew what they were doing by allowing grain exports, as a result of famine the Irish population ratio is greatly reduced compared to English today. Had the same thing occurred in England itself, I doubt they would use the free market as an excuse.

Yes, Russia was a great power at that time (not sure about rankings), like it is today. However, its influence and reach was/is limited both due to culture & geography. But let’s not forget the Ottoman Empire was about to collapse even before the war, even then Russia collapsed before the Ottomans, not sure how that makes Russia second great power. But, I am not sure that superpowers did not exist before WW2. I don’t think many would disagree that Romans were a superpower of their time. I guess it can depend on how you define it.

Quite the contrary, Christian Chinese would turn against their atheistic government once they have enough mass. Which is why PRC reacts the way it does. Worse yet, if the population is divided over faith (Atheist vs. Christian), the Chinese could turn against each other. If I was governing China, I would consider Christian missionaries as foreign agents.

I wouldn’t be surprised in the future if an authoritarian China turned to Christianity in order to fix its birthrate problem.

If Christianity solved it, S. Korea would not have the lowest rate among all Asian nations. Christianity brings more trouble than issues it solves, the main problem being that Christians think they are connected to some God and therefore rightful in anything they do. While some morality would help Chinese, I am concerned with Asian manchild traits mixed with Christian nonsense could cause major disruptions and wars over there (just think Japanese interpretation of Western ideas and how it ended up).

Could it be because Canada is still far smaller, isn’t surrounded by different nations and cultures, doesn’t have any enemies, far younger and isn’t landlocked in essence. Contrary to what you assume, easier communication and transportation will not mean Russia is more likely to hold on farther regions. Especially considering so few of minorities were urbanized.

Look Russia is like the dachshund of countries with head on the west and tail in the east, and everything else in between is useless back pain. How will you defend against China on the East? They already have aspirations for the East of Russia, if the US fails to contain China, how do you plan to deal with them while also trying to contain Ukraine, Crimea, Caucasus and god knows what other places?

I will give that I misremembered Timur vs. battles against Lithuanians, but at the core what I say is right:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Horde#A_brief_reunion_(1381%E2%80%931419)

To sum up, Timur:

– Destroyed Golden Horde capital,
– Looted Crimean trade centers and trade routes of Golden Horde,
– Took skilled craftsman to Samarkand,
– Appointed the ruler of Golden Horde,

Meanwhile, Toktamis offered Lithuanians his suzerainty over Rus’ lands and in the end defeated by Timur’s commander who basically ruled Golden Horde. Still Rus was forced accept Khan’s supremacy. Clearly though, after the structural destruction Timur caused Golden Horde never recovered, and eventually disappeared. Had it not been for Timur, there might not never be a Russia as we know it today. Russians should be thankful to Turks for saving them from other Turks lol.

They also have nukes though.

Just Google it, there is ample evidence. They would be stupid if they had the intention and told it explicitly. This is Putin’s comment about the issue: “If we do not take practical steps to advance the Far East soon, after a few decades, the Russian population will be speaking Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.”

It may not be a major concern for the Chinese government as of now, but there is a minority with these ideas. What happens when there are more Chinese than Russians in the Far East? I am talking based on long term trends, and history, not today or five years later.

Lol, I think anon is teasing you bringing God into this stuff. But he does have a point, had alcohol was allowed in Islam, maybe tzar would choose Islam over Christianity. Instead, they chose booze & Christianity, as result alcoholism became a major crisis for Russians:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_consumption_in_Russia

That said, I think Saudi Arabia will crash. Their cocaine-addicted psychopath prince is just another sign of impending doom.

Then use your favorite search engine. I brought you the opinion of the Russian president himself and you still won’t accept that it might be the case. I think Putin is very smart and just sees ahead. It is another story if it would be better or worse for Russian people, I already said they would have a much better time if they stopped being an empire & focused on other things rather than trying to run an empire. Same for Americans.

People want to move to where there are more opportunities and freedom. Many Chinese want to get out of China, not only for these two reasons but also because of extreme competition (the last one applies to South Korea and Indians as well). Russian East is empty (and thus low competition), close, and Russia is far more free than Orwellian China. Being a white dude, you may not realize how jaded they are of competition, but it is true. They turn their society’s life experience into life long cram school and want to escape what they created in the end.

Well, I guess everyone just wants me to post links so here it goes:

https://journals.openedition.org/chinaperspectives/4033
https://worldview.stratfor.com/article/russian-far-east-turning-chinese

There are almost 1.4 billion Chinese, not all of them are from Beijing or Shanghai, or with extra money to allow them to move to Vancouver. There is a reason why Xi’s first domestic goal is eradicating poverty, giving everyone enough food and clothing, which means there are still people who are struggling with basic necessities.

I’m perplexed that people in the comments here are seriously discussing AK’s thought experiment, I had initially assumed it was some kind of joke.

In fact, Anatoly’s new fascination with his own edgy religion fits nicely into #2 of Stuff White People Like.

Religions that their parents don’t belong to

White people will often say they are “spiritual” but not religious. Which usually means that they will believe any religion that doesn’t involve Jesus.

Popular choices include Buddhism, Hinduism, Kabbalah and, to a lesser extent, Scientology. A few even dip into Islam, but it’s much more rare since you have to give stuff up and actually go to Mosque.

Mostly they are into religion that fits really well into their homes or wardrobe and doesn’t require them to do very much.

https://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/01/18/2-religions-that-their-parents-dont-belong-to/

I don’t know man, I am not the chaperone of masses of poor Chinese. Ask Putin.

Anatoly, the root of Russian problems is a shitty climate. Russians are as human as anyone else, it is just that they appear too willing to line behind authoritarians, and this is partly because of large geography it just appears there are enemies everywhere. Otherwise, Russia has enough resources both as human capital and as natural resources (so why its people’s fortune is so negatively correlated with their resources?). That’s why I suggested they’d do much better if they were concentrated in their ancestral homeland and focused their energy there. But it won’t happen. So, until an idea Russians will accept comes up, burn as much fossil fuel as possible in order to fasten the global warming, perhaps it will warm up Russia and they will have a chance to relax.

Some things he says are true, that said, inequality in Mexico is actually slightly worse than the US (which is a shame for the US). He is forgetting the poor of Mexico escaped Mexico because of poverty inflicted on them by their compatriots. Otherwise, Mexico is a middle-income country, it is just that the rich in Mexico is no less greedy than rich in the US. Thus for them, it is still better to be in the US, as a poor but well fed illegal immigrant than be in Mexico as a poor and hungry Mexican. But, he will do well in Mexico with a US degree.

That aside, looking forward to another of Vietnam essays Mr. Dinh. Hope you are doing well over there. Your essays truly reflect the human condition in Vietnam.

Number one, white poor people have no time in America. The lower class and lower middle class come home dog-tired and just want to eat as fast as possible so they can get in front of the television or get high or drunk and then go to sleep.

How come poor Chinese people have time? Time is an excuse and maybe even fast food propaganda, so is price and taste. The biggest lie about fast food is the name itself, it is not fast unless you live right next door to a fast food place. There are loads of dishes that can be prepared very fast as well.

Number two, fast food is intended to be addictive. It tastes better than what can be cooked at home.

I have never had the better fast food you mention, therefore don’t feel any addiction. Fast food even fails simple logic and price. You can eat steak, chicken, and vegetables for the price of a fast food combo item, at about similar or even less cost. It will be much healthier, tastier, just as fast and likely cheaper.

Finally, cooking food requires some skills. You also have to clean up afterwards. Poor people who just finished a 12 hour shift don’t have the energy.

Skills are vastly overrated, you need about 0 skills to make a burger or cook some chicken tenders, can’t people even use a spatula? The cleanup part is correct, but even the majority of poor people have dishwashers & not all families have two people working 12 hours shifts.

This is what creates the huge demand for fast food in the US.

Lack of willpower, ignorance, actually thinking that fast food tastes good, actually thinking that fast food is fast are all reasons. By the way, not even all fast food is evil, you can be perfectly fine eating big mac or whatever. The problem is that people cannot even stop themselves from having a giant HFC syrup pop and large fries / breadstick etc when they order stuff. Otherwise, the food itself isn’t evil in many cases, it the shit they order with it that makes it so unhealthy.

Yeah, it tastes disgusting. Those juices you talk about taste just like watered down tomato paste, never appetizing. Manufacturers do not put stuff in food to keep you addicted, they may put flavorings to enhance the taste you may enjoy it more (but I didn’t, in case of those vegetable juices, it is mostly the MSG from tomatoes and excessive salt), but flavorings are not addictive.

That’s also why people are fat, they are too obsessed with tasty food. Our grandparents used to eat moderately tasty simple food most of the time, with amazing food on special occasions or on weekends.

I love tasty food, and basically eat it every day. You don’t need to be a genius or a rich guy to enjoy great food. You just need to have the will and the desire, that’s all. Don’t really get how fast food is tasty as well? All burger joints have substandard burgers, with some tasteless plastic-like cheese and sad greens & veggies. Fries all have a bitter taste because they are fried long before they are fried for the second time in the restaurant. That all said, it is not even the food itself, about all entrees at McDonald’s have acceptable calories. It is giant drinks and other junk that makes people fat.

I wish we had s food culture like Asia. Tons of stalls and mini restaurants selling reasonably tasty normal food for cheap 24 hours.

It is not the culture. There are millions of people from all around the world, mostly not the upper class in the US, why aren’t they trying? Because it is not possible with all regulations, local permits, zonings, and taxation stuff.

1 million on a Filipino wife? The guy was nuts. She like all the third world whores only wanted his money. He could have had a new girl or even several new girls every day and it would have been a lot cheaper.

I don’t know what guys see in these tacky Asian girls that makes them completely lose their minds. They go to Asia and rent a bar girl/ whore for a night and end up falling in love with them while the girl stays coolly business-like while telling her lovesick “boyfriend” how she’ll love him long time. Often the girls will have 4 or 5 “boyfriends” sending her money in between visits. That’s just the fools prepared to send money to a whore even when they aren’t having sex with her. Of course she is busy servicing all the other potential boyfriends/husbands while her regular “boyfriends” are away. That is the reality of what many sad guys consider a marriage worthy woman in Asia.

Bill Gates has 172 IQ and wealthy parents. You don’t.

I am talking about statistics. I guess by your definition Mexican illegal immigrants are so stupid that they don’t know any better. The fact that many Mexicans have a decent life does not even mean most Mexicans have a decent life. As for other issues you pointed, no one said that the US didn’t have any problems or all Mexicans are poor, but how does that change my argument? You have trouble understanding what is being said.

I’d say the Jews deserted their so called ‘homeland”..if they wanted it they should have stayed like the Muslim Palestines did.

Actually, most Jews did not desert their homeland. A minority remained Jewish until Israel was established, others have converted. DNA studies show that Palestinians are native. If you just go by bloodline, they are probably more ‘Jewish’ than average diaspora Jew. Romans did not mass punished whole nations, it is simply unproductive and logistically too expensive. A minority of Jews were expelled, rest remained where they were.

Actually no point in mixing up Holocaust and all sorts of stuff. As far as I know Dr. Giraldi never denied Holocaust and I don’t remember any anti-semitic arguments in his articles. All he says boils down to these simple facts:

1. America’s Middle East policy is not independent, it is shaped by Israel’s interests.
2. It is a political and strategical error to ally the US with another nation at the expense of American interests.
3. The Zionist lobby has too much power in Washington, and it undermines the US.
4. Israel does not care about international laws, violates international treaties and human rights. It degrades America’s image to stand by Israel.
5. To get support from the lobby, American politicians do things that harm the US and its constitution, including the first amendment rights of citizens.
6. Israel tries to make America fight its wars, including the one against Iran that they have been cooking.

Basically, he just wants America to act like a sane and independent country. No point in bringing in Holocaust, anti-semitism, Jihad or whatever to every discussion. Do you disagree with any points above? If yes, explain. If no, stop bringing red herring arguments.

Any citizen should be allowed to vote, period. Anything else is inviting fascism. How would you answer if someone says that you will vote against the interests of your country, and therefore you should not be allowed to vote? You are basically undermining democracy, and your own rights as soon as you support not letting someone vote because of who they are or what they believe.

I know all of it, my point was something else: just because Bill Gates could afford dropping out of Harvard does not mean anyone can or should.

Why being an alcoholic in SEA makes sense-

1. Booze is cheap. If you are going to be a drunk and have a pension of $1000 a month, you can be DEAD DRUNK EVERY DAY for $20 a month. As oppose to eating dog food to pay your booze bills in the US.

2. Thailand and SEA is a lovely place to get drunk-tropical, breezy, nice beaches. Why sit in low dangerous bars in the US where some thug parolee is always swinging a chair or a bottle and the clientele are hardcore white trash in order to drink everyday in say, Indiana, when you can enjoy a nice outdoor bar on the beach?

3) In Thailand if you want to get laid at a bar as oppose to US bars where men fight over some borderline-alcoholic barfly slut just get some sex.

4) Cops always hassle drunks in the US.

Sunnis reject Wahhabism, they are not the same thing.

India’s average IQ is estimated to be 82. It means that there is no way there can be 100 million high IQ people in India, and one look into the country shows that it is the case. If India had 100 million high IQ people it would be the best country to live. Sure there are some very high IQ Indians, but that is expected given 1.34 billion population. This is the case if you accept the premise of IQ measurements.

Elaborate please.

Ashkenazi intelligence thing is not well established (well, not in the terms they fantasize), first numbers fluctuate a lot, second same studies find their spatial IQ much lower while verbal IQ is much higher. Personally, I don’t think Ashkenazi Jews are any smarter than say Germans or any population around them in Europe. In the past, most of the success was related to hard work and study in intellectual fields, and reason for effort in fields like law, medicine and so on is that these skills are transportable. Meaning, if you get kicked out, you won’t starve in exile. Ron Unz showed that success ratio of Jewish kids is much lower compared to the Jewish students in earlier generations (but Harvard percentage is much higher). This again can be explained by the fact that their families are more affluent compared to immigrant ancestors and they grow up without discrimination in modern America.

Fear of life, survival concerns, a sense of family are all great motivators. It is also what often push Chinese or Korean students to study for ridiculously long hours nowadays, which naturally brings them academic success. However, academic success still would not result in the dominant position Jews have established in the US. They have very high representation in Ivy league schools, especially relative to population and scores. Dominate or have very high representation in media, business, arts, intellectual life, and increasingly politics. This is mostly because of tribalism. Jews are not special in their tribalism of course, however, they have been here longer than other tribalist people, and they also have advantages Chinese or Indians don’t have, such as easily passing as white or being considered familiar (Judaism is the precursor to the other nonsense called Christianity after all).

This is not to deny the success of Jews, they do have the necessary intelligence, and had conditions and cultural factors (emphasis on study) to become successful. However, massive overrepresentation is totally another issue. If it was based on IQ, shouldn’t we have much more prominent Asians in all walks of life? Unz.com itself has a writer named Linh Dinh who is no less talented than any Jewish writer in The Atlantic or NYT, what is he up to? Oh right, he is working at a recycling plant in Vietnam. Wonder why talent, intelligence and hard work didn’t bring him a prominent position in the US?

There was never a summer, to begin with. AI was and is terrible at anything that requires actual intelligence. All the hype is around data and a set of techniques to master certain functions related to that partial set of data. There will simply never be a true AI, a human-made replica of the human mind.

Yet the level of greed they display is phenomenal.

Spot on. The set of morals Euros, Middle Easterners, and Americans have is basically the same and has the same roots as well. The set of morals Chinese and Indians have is, well, doesn’t exist. Their whole culture and society are based around their family. They don’t care if they feed you poison to make an extra buck, let alone worry about displacing a new graduate. When I mention morality Chinese simply don’t have any clue, to their credit, they seem to appreciate the ideas when presented and understand potential benefits (that when individuals have morals the whole society, including themselves benefits). As far as Indians are concerned, no hope, all they care is money and taking as much as possible. Worse yet, contrary to the Chinese, they tend to think they have a superior religion. So they can’t even be taught Western morality, which is based on religious ideas.

I don’t know much about IQ or how dependable it is. I am pretty sure hard work has more influence on success than intelligence as well. That said, what is so unbelievable about 82 IQ, it puts India in same rankings around Madagascar and Egypt. As far as social indicators are concerned (GDP, health, environment, HDI, safety) India does not appear any better than many Subsaharan Africa countries. I did say there are very smart Indians, but it is expected given 1.34 billion population, even if 0.1% of people were really high IQ that would mean 1.34 million people, which would be more than enough to build ICBMs or space programs. Yet at the same time, India is having a toilet issue, something that most people solved thousands of years ago. What is the explanation for that?

Alright, look I am not trying to give you a hard time. All I am saying is that there is no way India has 100 million high IQ people. It also depends on one’s definition. I don’t think someone who is 1std dev above means is high IQ, I don’t believe 16% population is high IQ. I would start it around 2std dev. If we take the world’s average IQ is 100 and std dev is 15, that would mean there are about 150.000.000 high IQ people. Surely 2/3 of that cannot be in India. Toilet thing was not an actual question; I will not debate about the history of sewage systems. I was merely pointing out the conflict between high IQ suggestion and the problems India faces. It is also getting tiring to hear about Brahmin intelligence nonsense, I don’t know who started this malarkey. I am also pretty sure the caste system is forcing many geniuses into a life of misery just because they were born in the wrong family. I don’t think it is a constructive step to blame everything on other billion people in your country instead of utilizing the best among them.

There aren’t many prominent Muslims in the US, and most Muslims don’t really know about Wahhabism anyway. I already pointed somewhere else that it is increasingly rare that Muslim scholars condemn Wahhabism, this is because of many reasons outside of this topic. But basically, Wahhabists were a bunch of desert bandits and outsiders, who were rejected. When they invaded holy cities of Islam first thing they declared was that residents and their ancestors were heretical, and they would be forgiven if they changed their ways (become Wahhabi). Naturally, theirs is the most backward, most primitive version of Islam and had caused Muslims nothing but trouble. This I guess, makes them natural allies of Israel.

Turkey is taking possession of a Russian-built S-400 air defense system this summer, despite a U.S. warning that our sale of 100 F-35s will not go through if the Turks go forward with the Russian system.

The US asked for this. During the heightened tensions with Iran, Turkey asked for air defense systems. In return, they told Turkey that they won’t sell it but temporarily established Patriot systems (which is removed later). As the situation in Syria and tensions with Iran got worse, Turkey decided it needed missile defense systems. Turkey wanted to buy Patriots, the US refused to sell. Turkey then decided to buy missiles from China, but under the pressure from the US and NATO, its government caved and canceled the order. Meanwhile, the US still did not offer the Patriots. Then there was a CIA planned coup attempt and assassination of Erdogan in 2016, it failed. The leader of Gulen movement is in Pennsylvania and is not being extradited. Later, Turkey approached Russia and made the deal to buy Russian missiles. After the deal was done, the US offered Patriots, but still without any technology cooperation, without any guarantee and with a higher price (Patriots are inferior to S-400).

As far as I can see, the US did everything possible (probably with strong Israeli guidance) to push Turkey to buy missiles from Russia. I think it is nonsensical to lay the blame on Turks for S-400.

Phillip are you sure you are talking about Israel and not the Apartheid muslim only states, killing people starving children in Yemen, half a million is Syria?

Too many falsehoods in one sentence. Killing people, starving children in Yemen? It is the Saudis. Best friends of Israel in the Middle East, unwanted dictators sucking on the blood of Arabs. Syria is too complex, won’t get in there. There are no Muslim only states, Jews faced hardships and expulsions from their thousands of years old communities after Israel was established, due to the wars of Israel, not before. By the way, there is a BCE Jewish community in Iran that refuses to move to Israel, and they are happy. I guess if Israel manages to make the US declare war on Iran and these Jews are forced to escape, it will be Iran’s mistake as well? Moreover, no one claims that regressive regimes in Saudi Arabia or elsewhere are model governments or democracies. In the case of Israel, no one in MSM calls them regressive.

I got an idea if you don’t want to be killed and you are a Palestinian living in Gaza

I got a better idea. Just put a giant roof over Gaza, build the largest crematorium the world has ever seen next to it, put a wall all around and release Zyklon B gas inside, cremate those who cannot live with poison gas and call it final solution.

I wrote this message to respond to Fran Taubman’s comment. I see that it’s deleted, I wanted to inform moderators that I don’t support censorship unless it’s spam or just plain uncivilized. If she didn’t delete it herself, I suggest you restore her comment if possible.

King Lear.

Actually, in the US too, right is the better option for Indians. What kind of idiot would want to bring 600 million Indians to the US only to turn the US into what they escaped in the first place lol? That said, since they are so smart and built the Silicon Valley, maybe they know something I don’t. Maybe life is better when cows and people shit on the streets together, without interruptions. Who knows…

While I have serious concerns and criticism about the US, especially about crony capitalism, I think you have really hyperbolic statements about China Mr. Roberts. Chinese are not freer than the Americans, they are just more practical. In some ways, their personal development is stunted by the autocratic state and nationalist propaganda as well; so they don’t even understand what freedom is. You tell them about Uighur issue for example, and they retort back saying Uighurs weren’t subject to the one-child policy, and thus freer than Han Chinese. It makes no sense, but it is just an example of stunted development caused by the paternalist state.

If all your claims were correct, the Chinese middle and upper classes would not spend hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions of dollars to send their children to the US or emigrate to Canada. This alone proves your statements do not reflect reality, as certainly Chinese who live in China can appreciate life in China better than you.

The US does have really deep issues. Both on the political and social sides, and it will likely get worse over time since the country is run by an unwilling and alienated elite. But it doesn’t make China the beacon of freedoms. China still has seriously corrupt business and political classes, has terrible inequality issues and has a government that thinks it makes sense to put millions of people in internment camps because few among those people happened to break the laws. I can further the commentary, but my point is clear I think.

She is an actress with a crew. Village women do not put on a ton of makeup and do not have perfectly clean, pampered hands.