Some of these conclusions just make me sad

Quote: Evenbob

I've read that one reason the US has done
so well compared other countries is we have
only one national language is a giant country.
Russia, for instance, has many. A common
language unites us and we work towards the
same goals as a result.

One of several reasons. Something we used to have going for us was immigration came from so many different places that there was no single secondary language that could take root more than regionally. Sadly we may lose this advantage in the next 50 years as we "press 1 for spanish" and we have too many people that think it is "racist" to make people learn English and adapt to our customs.

We didn't have centuries of squabbles and wars
with other clans. We came to a new continent
and tamed it and it drew us together. We had a
huge goal. Those goals are long gone and now
the squabbles are all we have.

Quote: Evenbob

We didn't have centuries of squabbles and wars
with other clans. We came to a new continent
and tamed it and it drew us together. We had a
huge goal. Those goals are long gone and now
the squabbles are all we have.

We used to have a goal of being best in everything and that was that. Now things have changed. Too many Americans today would rather "be liked" than "be feared." That is a recipe for disaster. Within 100 years I expect the USA to become a series of racial enclaves, both official and unofficial, small and large. The first large one will be a Mexican-American one in the southwest.

Quote: AZDuffman

Within 100 years I expect the USA to become a series of racial enclaves, both official and unofficial, small and large. The first large one will be a Mexican-American one in the southwest.

This is what I don't understand. The PC media
acts like the race issue is gone in the US. I think
it's worse than ever, it's just hidden now. In
the 50's and 60's it was out in the open. It's
worse now, but we don't talk about it, we pretend
it's gone.

Quote: Evenbob

This is what I don't understand. The PC media
acts like the race issue is gone in the US. I think
it's worse than ever, it's just hidden now. In
the 50's and 60's it was out in the open. It's
worse now, but we don't talk about it, we pretend
it's gone.

The media acts like if you do not have six best friends of another race something is wrong. I saw a story once about some southern town where the Freemasons were self-segregated. Whites joined one order and Blacks joined the other. Now, anyone could be sponsored in either order (technically you cannot just "ask" to join the Masons) but it was peaceful, and everyone was happy. But the media acted as if both sides were doing something horrible.

One day I want to do an experiment, and it would be a good one for a graduate psyc paper. I would get two conference rooms at a hotel and invite subjects to come for some kind of presentation. The kind of presentation does not matter. But I would have 20 each of black and white actors. I would have the actors get there early and tell them to just hang in one room by race. Talk friendly but the rooms need to be all or at least 90% one color or another. Otherwise they would be dressed and acting the same. Then when the subjects come in, explain that both rooms are getting the same presentation but the hotel screwed up so it is in two rooms, so pick one and wait. Have some food and coffee.

And see how many people choose what room.

I live in a 100% white area. If there are black people
living in a 2 mile radius of me, I've never seen them.
In the decades I've been here, I've never seen a black
pedestrian. If tomorrow I saw a group of 4-5 black
teens walking down my street as I was about to leave,
I wouldn't be going anywhere. Does that mean I'm a racist?

Quote: AZDuffman

What does the amount of population have to do with how advanced they are? China had a billion people decades ago but could barely feed themselves and had 1 car for every 10,000 people. I'm talking technology, societal advancement, and exploration beyond the home continent.

But you are talking about the 20th century when the world grew from 1.65 billion to 7 billion today. In the last century there is little correlation between development and population.

But in previous centuries there was a strong correlation between population and success. In four centuries Africa increased in population by roughly 50%. Europe went from the same population to 5X as big in Europe, and 7X if you include the Americas. That was indicative of huge advances in medicine, literacy, agriculture output, hygiene, transportation and industrial production.


====================
In 1500 the populations were about equal (populations in millions)
86 Africa
84 Europe

By 1900 there was a dramatic difference considering Americas were almost entirely populated with European descendants
133 Africa
408 Europe
74 Latin America and the Caribbean
83 Northern America

Quote: TheCesspit

Rewriting the Jungle Book is not political correctness. It's just bloody stupidity and not accepting old documents as being a product of their time and place. Literature generally has context, and you can view it in that sense or just decide to take the dynamite and blow them up and bury them. When folks do it to thousand year old bhudda statues, we are aghast, but doing it to the Jungle Book is 'okay'? Not at all.

The past is a foreign country. But one we can learn from at least.

They did it to Mark Twain Huck Finn censored

Quote: aceofspades

They did it to Mark Twain Huck Finn censored

Yeah, and that was damn stupid too.

"Publisher and Twain scholar Alan Gribben claimed the word – which occurs 219 times in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and four times in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer – had prompted schools to stop teaching the works over concerns about racism."

The only way to properly teach the history of
racism is to pretend it never happened. 219
times? That's about the same number of times
the average black comic uses the word in his
standup routine. My, how times have changed.