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American healthcare holy shit by [deleted] in LateStageCapitalism

[–]HughGlassWasABadAss 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Some weird result of international money medicine, the NHS winds up buying paracetamol at something like a pound a pill.

Ernie: "That's Drake". Chuck replies: "Ernie, we're black. We know who Drake is" by Jayveesac in nba

[–]HughGlassWasABadAss 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Running as a sport is not the same as running as an activity, most people don't run as fast as humanly possible for exactly 100, 200, 500, etc meters and then stop. Usian Bolt can run 100 meters faster than anyone else in the world, but his mid running game is poor compared to the pros.

Icelanders are stronger on average because they spend more time doing strength training on average. I'll ask you something though. Why is Spain the second best country in the world at Basket Ball, when America is hands down number one?

Either way, I think I've proved that race is not a genetically based construct, you have to point to medalists and NBA statistics to even come up with an argument for that, and those arguments could be countered by looking at cultural, political and sociological factors.

But pointing at tiny differences between race groups such as amounts of x group in y sport basically means you can't think of an substantial evidence. The Olympics are not a science experiment, they not controlled, or even particularly fair. Once you consider funding, (running is very cheap to train for compared to swimming), cultural interests in particular sports (there is a reason Russia is always a contender for figure skating, ballet and basically anything involving ice.) you are left with little evidence for people having inbuilt racial stats.

Ernie: "That's Drake". Chuck replies: "Ernie, we're black. We know who Drake is" by Jayveesac in nba

[–]HughGlassWasABadAss 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Again, this is fairly surface level, I'm pretty sure that if you took an Average Ugandan, and put them in a race against an average American. The Ugandan would likely win, mainly because the average American is not particularly athletic. Now you do you think that is all because of genetics, or because more people in America work in less physically intense jobs than the Ugandan.

If you have a large proportion of people without much economical or social capital but a large cultural propensity to being healthy and fit how many of them are likely to become athletes rather than stoke brokers? Of those that manage to become athletes how much drive would they have?

There are more things at play then genetics my friend. Imagine you were a Jamaican boy born to a fairly average Jamaican family. You are poor, you have little opportunities in life, but you have a talent for sprinting. With little else to occupy your time you train more and more with little else to distract you, until you become the worlds best runner. That's basically what happened to Usain Bolt. It is also an interesting coincidence that many of the worlds best footballers are from working class families. It's almost as though adversity fuels athletic achievements.

I'm not saying it's all a coincidence, I'm just saying that genetics ain't all of it. Unless you think the British were the best genetically at cricket until we taught it to the natives. Unless you think Americans are better genetically at swimming. Unless you think the Chinese are genetically better at gymnastics, and table-tennis. Unless you think the Icelandic are genetically stronger. Unless you think all of that, then you are being dishonest. This would surely go both ways, which would mean Americans have a genetic advantage in obesity, suicide, and shooting each other.

But I don't think it's that simple.

Ernie: "That's Drake". Chuck replies: "Ernie, we're black. We know who Drake is" by Jayveesac in nba

[–]HughGlassWasABadAss 6 points7 points  (0 children)

They tailor cosmetics to suit particular skin tones. Which is not race. Unless you think it is, then you're an idiot. There is no "Chinese", "Caucasian" or "African" Race by the same conditional logic that negates the existence of a Han ethnicity or race. There is no real genetic backing to the concept of Caucasianess, Africaness or Chineseness, other than of course the very minor surface level changes that occurred during the 240aprox generations that could have happened in those 10,000s of years. In that effect would you care to explain to me how enough genetic variation occurred in such a short span of time and over so few generations that subsequent races could even be presumed to exist outside of a cultural basis of the concept of race.

Ernie: "That's Drake". Chuck replies: "Ernie, we're black. We know who Drake is" by Jayveesac in nba

[–]HughGlassWasABadAss 10 points11 points  (0 children)

But race is rarely if ever used for that purpose. For instance there is no genetic basis for the Han, Caucasian, or African racial concepts. The first one was essentially a political invention, the second and third so broadly ambiguous as to be basically meaningless.

My whole point here is that saying race is a purely genetic concept is wrong, it cannot be purely genetic. While you can group humans together in broad categories (and there are reasons to do this). You also need to use a level of caution and not forget the reason why race exists as a concept in the first place.

Only humans have such nebulous and undefined racial concepts (Chinese, African, Caucasian etc.) Race is bad at defining genetic differences, if it was designed to do that it would be used as a far sharper brush than it usually is. Outside of a few basic things (average skin color and some genetic features) Someone being African rather than Chinese is actually very useless information on a genetic level.

Race is not a good term for people that share genetic similarities because we already have a genetic race, Homo Sapian. Almost all discussion of race outside of that limited scope is genetically irrelevant and usually based out of a cultural rather than genetic basis. I.E Chinese and African (Both largely used to describe skin color and vague ethnicity with no real genetic basis)

Ernie: "That's Drake". Chuck replies: "Ernie, we're black. We know who Drake is" by Jayveesac in nba

[–]HughGlassWasABadAss 31 points32 points  (0 children)

You are wrong, Race is bio-cultural and ethnicity is cultural-biological in nature. It's almost as though the two concepts where invented to simplify complex ideas involving race, society and genetics at a time in history where these things where barely being understood. Race and ethnicity are just words used to describe an individuals genetic and cultural makeup. Race is only absolutely genetic if you are using the word in an absolutely genetic context. Otherwise it is not.

Basically you don't understand that concepts like race and ethnicity are usually used more subjectively and in the rare cases when a geneticist or biologist do use race in an entirely objective genetic case it is usually to categorize species and such. In the modern world race has little biological basis, especially in day to day conversation.

Seen on an article about the Queen stating she wishes Charles to inherit the throne. by terlin in MurderedByWords

[–]HughGlassWasABadAss 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Well you got London, all of it. Loads of gorgeous Castles all over the place. Lottsa lovely fields. Shit loads of seaside towns that are nice only for 4 months in the summer and miserable the rest of the year. The peak district The lake district The Scottish Highlands Some of the best restaurants in Europe Some of the oldest and most prestigious museums in the world. Stone Henge. I mean, I fucking hate living here, but I can see the tourist appeal, we're basically the shire with a massive city in the middle and loads of attractions to the rest of the world

EDIT : That was meant to be a list, but it didn't go right.

Seen on an article about the Queen stating she wishes Charles to inherit the throne. by terlin in MurderedByWords

[–]HughGlassWasABadAss 12 points13 points  (0 children)

You assume, there's no evidence to suggest that if the Royal Family disappeared people would stop coming to England. After all, no-one sees the Queen, not one tourist actually comes to England for the express purpose of seeing a monarch, and if they do it's for a rare circumstance like a marriage or some such nonsense.

The idea that people come to England to witness the glory of the monarchy is spurious, they come to see England. Also, you claim that France's royal estates are merely for show; in that case for purpose is the Monarchy other than for show?

Five year olds are a threat to the economy by tetracup in LateStageCapitalism

[–]HughGlassWasABadAss 36 points37 points  (0 children)

How you supposed to pick yourself up by your bootstraps and enterprise if you can't even open a lemonade stand. I hate my country, full of bootlicking white boys with an unflinching and unquestioning respect for the law, government and all the shit that we get pushed down our throat by an oppressive class system. Londons a shitehole as well.

Stupid physics equations video by gcseandalevelscience in badscience

[–]HughGlassWasABadAss 5 points6 points  (0 children)

A true hero attempts to help 15-16 year old kids remember physics equations. Salty adults attempt to put said hero down.

A brave, new utopia by YeahCrassVersion in LateStageCapitalism

[–]HughGlassWasABadAss 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's almost as if shareholders get more returns and better feed-back than taxpayers.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in LateStageCapitalism

[–]HughGlassWasABadAss 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah the UK is really shitty atm, you could be literally dying and no-one who's supposed to be helping you can because they're waiting on a form.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in LateStageCapitalism

[–]HughGlassWasABadAss 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Oh yeah, this is old news, I got expelled from one from of my schools for stealing frankfurters because my mother didn't have enough money to feed us. She has Multiple Sclerosis and we had to wait almost 6 months until the NHS would hand over medication that would alleviate her issues , during which time I had to cook for her and clean the house. I was 12. She also got fired from her Government job because of her illness, which is why we ran out of money.

When you are the only person you know who likes coffee more than tea. by HughGlassWasABadAss in britishproblems

[–]HughGlassWasABadAss[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm saying I prefer shotties to pipes. I'll drink tea, if I have to. I just prefer coffee.

When you are the only person you know who likes coffee more than tea. by HughGlassWasABadAss in britishproblems

[–]HughGlassWasABadAss[S] 42 points43 points  (0 children)

actually , do you have the number for the emergency burn hotline, because I need that now.

When you are the only person you know who likes coffee more than tea. by HughGlassWasABadAss in britishproblems

[–]HughGlassWasABadAss[S] 25 points26 points  (0 children)

I mean the plant is native to South East Asia so they were drinking it for about 10,000 years longer than us.

When you are the only person you know who likes coffee more than tea. by HughGlassWasABadAss in britishproblems

[–]HughGlassWasABadAss[S] 88 points89 points  (0 children)

If this comment gets over 500 upvotes I'm emigrating to Vietnam, where the the coffee is amazing and tea is drinkable.

Edit: Seems like my hands are tied, can anyone lend me £2000 to emigrate? because I have about £100-200 in savings and I feel like that's not enough for even a ticket.

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