Recent comments in /f/todayilearned

zebulonworkshops t1_j6mw2k3 wrote

Reply to comment by Pay08 in TIL that between 1895 and 1908 the population of the Belgian Congo declined by between 2 and 13 million due to colonial brutality and diseases caused by colonialism. by hetkleinezusje

https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB107787406695041047

>The USSR destroyed itself, it had nothing to do with any other country.

The capitalist western world certainly stifled any vestige of communism. It's not like, up for debate, it's historical fact. The USSR had tons of their own problems and very well might have failed on its own, but I was responding to the quoted statement.

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PureImbalance t1_j6mvea9 wrote

Reply to comment by TjeefGuevarra in TIL that between 1895 and 1908 the population of the Belgian Congo declined by between 2 and 13 million due to colonial brutality and diseases caused by colonialism. by hetkleinezusje

I agree. It is however in different contexts an interesting question which evil would weigh heavier: The one intentionally inflicted with a reason behind it, or the one inflicted out of callous disregard.
IIRC Chomsky made an argument about that that bombing the Al-Shifa factory should be considered a worse evil than the twin tower attack in the sense that both were terrorist attacks (as long as you recognize state terrorism as terrorism) with similar order of magnitude of death toll - however intentional killing in a perverted sense at least recognizes the human status of the victim, while the Clinton Administration simply did not consider it important that thousands would die in some poor african nation somewhere as a consequence.

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AlanZero t1_j6mv9dq wrote

Reply to comment by Cubusphere in TIL about cargo cults, where indigenous people of small tropical islands would perform elaborate rituals to mimic air traffic control and marching patterns after witnessing airplanes drop supplies on airforce bases during world war II. by sciencedit

Son, I am disappoint… that you didn’t link a certain clip from The West Wing where Bartlet explains post hoc ergo propter hoc.

Therefore - [here it is] (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HL_vHDjG5Wk).

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-6-6-6- t1_j6mv6d8 wrote

Reply to comment by Shooter2970 in TIL that India had to ban charas (cannabis concentrate) due to pressure from the US. by UltimateGamingTechie

People don't shit in the streets on China. Obviously population has nothing to do with it. You've never been to India; and only circlejerk or perpetuate racist memes on the internet about the country. Nor have you apparently been to certain cities in America; both the deep south and those big "liberul" cities that the news is always droning on about, because the same shit happens there. The only difference is scale; and you're right in the sense that the scale of population and levels of poverty are far different. Reason being?

Colonization. Let's take a look at the dissolvement of the Ottoman Empire after WW1 and how the borders were drawn between the French and the British with a complete and utter disregard for the ethnic make-up and historical constituency of the Levant and Middle-East. Because of their mistakes; the middle-east exists and will probably exist in constant turmoil. India is similar; in the sense that the population was kept under such a level of poverty that 70 years alone isn't anywhere near enough to cover it. Ontop of that; a rapid growing population. Population isn't the reason people shit in the streets though.

Funny enough; the only two countries who have had that much development in 50 years is China and the USSR. Weird how that works right? Look at them now, sadly.

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Pay08 t1_j6muti1 wrote

Reply to comment by zebulonworkshops in TIL that between 1895 and 1908 the population of the Belgian Congo declined by between 2 and 13 million due to colonial brutality and diseases caused by colonialism. by hetkleinezusje

The cold war was both countries trying to get ahead of each other and be ready for a possible war. This didn't have an impact on the general population and there's no evidence (that I know of) of a large and successful destabilisation campaign within the USSR.

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kaizokuuuu t1_j6mumod wrote

Reply to comment by TheRedBow in TIL that India had to ban charas (cannabis concentrate) due to pressure from the US. by UltimateGamingTechie

No not for that, India and Nepal were a haven for the hippies during late 1900s, it was banned in Nepal in 1985 as well. Before that, a lot of young people from the US would just come and chill in Nepal and India. This was a big problem for the US because they were losing able bodied people who they could send to Vietnam and middle east to die. So they forced the countries to ban all types of grass. I have seen pictures of old shops in Freak Street Kathmandu with sign boards advertising marijuana. Guess how the street got its name.

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kibufox t1_j6mtqka wrote

Reply to comment by apprehensivelights in TIL that India had to ban charas (cannabis concentrate) due to pressure from the US. by UltimateGamingTechie

Nope.

India didn't even outlaw it. All they did was, in exchange for lower import tariffs on other goods, stop sales of it around major airports into and out of the nation.

The problem wasn't the charas itself, it was people trying to bring it back to the US. The main issue here being Customs (the guys that search your bags when you return from an overseas flight), are federal officers. So they follow federal laws. Whether something is 'legal' on a state level, really doesn't matter when you're talking about federal laws. So people were getting arrested for smuggling and trafficking in states where marijuana use had been decriminalized. Since these were federal charges, and not state level charges, there wasn't anything that could be done about those charges, regardless of how 'legal' cannabis was in them.

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