ricketson

It's become fashionable to object whenever someone says "Columbus discovered the Americas", pointing out that other people discovered in the Americas long before him. This objection is just semantic quibbling, and rarely even addresses the real problem with how Columbus' discovery is emphasized in history curricula.

1. To say that 'Columbus discovered the Americas' does not imply that he was the first person to do so. Everyone knows that people were present in the Americas before Columbus -- it is usually even included in the story of Columbus' voyage. The pedantic objection that 'others discovered the Americas first' does not actually clarify or improve anybody's understanding of history.
2. By simply stating that Columbus did NOT discover the Americas, these objections seek to obliterate the importance of what he did (both historically and as a nautical accomplishment). If they wanted to be accurate, they would say "Columbus discovered how to sail between Europe and the Americas". However, this performative pedantry is usually content to denigrate Columbus' achievement rather than seeking greater specificity about it's nature (as if that were needed).
3. The impulse to denigrate Columbus' achievement is generally intended to shift historical narratives away from Eurocentrism. However, simply dismissing Columbus' achievement does not accomplish that goal. It does not expose the evil intent of Columbus' journey, nor the evil acts he committed in the Americas -- let alone the horrible long term consequences for the people of the Americas. It also brings no attention to the accomplishments of the people who already lived in the Americas, who discovered America via a fundamentally different process. It doesn't even correct the historical record in favor of the Viking explorers -- the reason we hear so little about them is because they did not spread the news of their discovery in the same way that Columbus did (e.g. not because Columbus took credit for their work).

Ultimately, it is totally acceptable to use a term like 'discovery' in a subjective sense -- a person can discover something for themselves only or for their own society. It's fine to have a perspective. Columbus discovered the Americas for Christian Europe. If we want to expand our own perspective to include all people, we need to do better than create fake semantic objections to Eurocentric narratives.

Heavy usage of cars and trucks is detrimental to urban communities; we should implement policies that reduce car-based access to city centers and other densely populated areas. This is mainly focused on the USA.

Some points:

1. Cars interfere with the movement of pedestrians and small vehicles (bikes, scooters), making dense urban areas less usable.
2. Cars require a lot of space, both for roads and parking. This competes with housing and green-spaces in cities, making urban areas less accessible and pleasant.
3. Cars are dangerous and dirty - especially when at high densities, such as in cities.

To address this, a variety of changes may be instituted:

1. Traffic arteries (e.g. expressways going to the city center) should be slowed and narrowed as it approaches the city center, so that passenger cars/trucks do not use it. Instead, they should be reserved mainly for motorcycles, buses, single-point delivery trucks (e.g. stores or to transfer packages, not trucks that will drive to each residence), and vehicles required for the disabled.
2. A portion of city roads should be closed to most cars, either by making barriers that they cannot pass through, or resurfacing and shaping them to be pedestrian focused rather than car-focused. It is especially important that side roads do not allow access towards the city center (so that commuters don't just drive on side roads when main roads are over-capacity).
3. Space reclaimed from cars should be re-engineered for greenspace, trees, mass-transit (trolleys), and pedestrians.
4. Cities should stop subsidizing the construction of massive attractions (e.g. pro sports stadiums), or at least move them to more peripheral locations that are accessible from suburbs while assuring good mass transit from the city center.
5. For situations where individuals feel that cars are essential, congestion fees should be charged and hefty penalties should be levied on traffic violations within dense urban areas -- including prohibition on driving in those areas.
6. Suburban communities will be told that if they wish to enjoy the ammenities of the central city, they will have to support the expansion of mass-transit networks into the suburbs. We will no longer tolerate the double standard where they insist on having access to urban neighborhoods via cars but intentionally block carless urban residents from accessing their neighborhoods.

This article is from mid-2021, but addresses a timely issue given the prominence of "replacement theory" among much of the right.

Joe Pinsker at the Atlantic writes:

The two main ways to help people have the babies they want are to give them time and give them money. A country can offer financial support in the form of cash and tax credits; it can also promote job flexibility by funding parental-leave and child-care programs, and providing job protections to parents who opt into part-time work. These strategies, demographers told me, address two core reasons why many people who want kids hesitate to have them: because they can’t afford to, and because they don’t want to compromise on their career.

What's notable about Pinsker's framing of the issue is his focus on evidence and individual preference. Pinsker is primarily concerned that adults feel like they cannot afford to have as many kids as they prefer, rather than fretting about racial or cultural 'replacement' or geopolitical power. It's also notable that the solution he promotes is to provide straight-forward economic assistance to parents rather than attempting to shame or coerce women into having more kids as Fox's pundits or Republican politicians do.

I found a few other interesting facts while browsing the web for information (I don't have all citations, but the PRB is good).

• The US birthrate dropped below replacement levels after the 2008 recession, and took another hit from the pandemic during the 2020 but rebounded during 2021.
• The low US birth-rate is not limited to white people (unlike what racial fear-mongers suggest)
• Low birth rates are seen in many other countries, including Europe and the Caribbean, with some East Asian nations having the lowest birth rates.

Some recent news also has me wondering about some specific factors that may be stopping people from having more kids, including

• rising maternal mortality (which has more than doubled since 1980, and is likely to get higher as states ban abortion)
• The strong incentive to move around the country during young adulthood in order to advance one's career and achieve financial stability -- something that is harder with kids and separates would-be parents from potential family assistance.
• The rising cost of housing -- in addition to health care and schooling.

If we are concerned about the societal consequences of low birth rates (and I'm not sure that I am), then we, as a society should at least make concrete efforts to assure that everyone who wants kids is able to have them.... instead of letting politicians use this as another culture war issue to divide us.

This article has an excellent roundup of how conservative pundits have doubled-down on the 'great replacement' conspiracy theory in the wake of the Buffalo shooting. It also explains the various flaws of reasoning in that narrative. I'm really disappointed by this reaction from the conservative media elite -- I had expected them to shy away from it for a while, but instead they have decided to own it. That is troubling, to say the least.

I'll come back later to discuss why I think these pundits are promoting a genocidal conspiracy theory (if anyone has questions). Serwer does a good job of breaking it down. In short, there are several flaws:

1. Political identity/ideology is not fixed, especially not across generations.
2. Democrats are not openly advocating for 'replacement' (Carlsons' clips show nothing of the sort).
3. The problems with this conspiracy theory are not mitigated by replacing "Jews" with "Democrats" -- it still has 99% of the genocidal potential, and 99% of the logical fallacies.

Edit: Here's an Ann Coulter piece that Serwer did not include, but shows the same rhetoric.

This episode of "The Fire These Times" has an interview with a Syrian activist to discuss the war in Ukraine. They discuss several interesting issues, starting with how Syrians and Ukrainians are facing a shared enemy in the Russian military; they also talk about how the shared experience of being refugees can build solidarity between Syrians and Ukrainians, particularly if they end up in the same cities as they flee the Russians. Finally they spoke about the delicate balance required to connect the Syrian experience to the Ukrainian one without distracting attention from the urgency of the Ukrainians' needs at the moment.

To start a discussion, how do you think the media and politicians (and people) of your country are keeping a proper perspective about the war in Ukraine and seeing the full context?

This podcast describes what we can infer about the "Indo-Aryans" who moved into South Asia around ~1700 BCE. Lets discuss!

To start, the historian-narrator has a preface about how he does not want to discuss the modern political interpretations of "Aryans" -- whether that is neo-Nazi or Indian nationalist. Do you think this is generally a good rule -- that people living 3000 years ago are not relevant to modern politics and identity? Or should we consciously look to these ancient people to provide a foundation for modern identities?