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Culture War Roundup for the week of August 7, 2023

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by 1870 European-Americans were already vastly more diverse than citizens of any Northern European country

Well they did get the most valuable real estate in the world. Fantastic farmland, minerals, navigable rivers and not a single strong enemy anywhere in their hemisphere. I'm fairly confident that the US was the biggest oil producer of all time, they started production way before Saudi Arabia and are number 1 producer today.

Was Switzerland really multicultural? There are French-speakers, German-speakers and Italian-speakers, yet these countries are all right next to each other. From a broad overview, they're European and from roughly the same part of Europe too. This is not really a core example of multiculturalism. By that argument Britain circa 1900 would be multicultural with Scots, English, Welsh and Irish. Yet it is not really considered diverse or multicultural.

Brazil was much more diverse than America (Portuguese, Germans, blacks and a significant number of natives) and did not fare so well. Diversity also enables race quotas which are toxic for meritocracy. They're a major part of life in Brazil, India and increasingly the US. Even the Mongol-run Yuan dynasty had race quotas since the Mongols and their allies weren't able to cut it in Chinese exams - a fact which was very frustrating to the Han majority and one of the causes of the Ming takeover.

Was Switzerland really multicultural? There are French-speakers, German-speakers and Italian-speakers, yet these countries are all right next to each other.

There was a big religious divide which led to some civil wars if that counts.