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Culture War Roundup for the week of May 25, 2026

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They belong to an unusual population called Irish Travellers with which few non-British or Irish are particularly familiar.

Was The Snatch not a big hit in the US? It was extremely popular in Russia.

Historically, divergence was at most 300 years ago as a modern Irish state slowly emerged under British rule in the aftermath of the wars of the 17th century, which is too soon for the kind of extreme selection effects that produced some other minority groups to emerge.

Huh, TIL. Is this a counterexample to the HBD argument? Do those of them who dislike the culture simply precipitate out of the community and become sedentary Irish?

We called it just Snatch, but yes it was, or at least was very popular as a cool and good movie among college kids interested in such things. In Latin America, it was called something that translates to Pigs and Diamonds.

Was The Snatch not a big hit in the US?

I've certainly never heard of it.

Is this a counterexample to the HBD argument?

Russia itself is a counterexample to the HBD argument. Incompetent corrupt oligarchy running a shithole for average people that's slightly poorer than Mexico- despite being fairly good at G-loaded tasks like chess grandmasters and advancing higher mathematics.

Snatch Brad Pitt, Jason Statham, seen it many times. No?

I've never heard it referred to it as The Snatch. It sounds like the title of the porn parody.

A Snatch by any other name..

Was The Snatch not a big hit in the US? It was extremely popular in Russia.

I'd assume that most people don't look up what a "poikey" is.

Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if your average 'murican assumes "Mikey the Pikey" is just the local equivalent of white trailer trash. But I could be wrong.