Post examples of odd and counterintuitive facts

[Tooting Carmen]

Woah...

I could argue that Russia's progress from early 1910s to 1980s would've been even more impressive had there been no World War 1 and subsequent revolution. What will you say then? You will probably say that Russia lagged behind Britain/Germany/France in early 1910s. I will point out that Norway, Sweden, Finland were remarkably poor countries at that time. And there you will get stuck.



No it did not. People in 1980s simply lived better than their ancestors several decades ago. Even in GDR.

Hence why I said relative decline. In absolute terms by the 1980's people may have been wealthier and lived generally better lives, but when compared to other countries at the exact time in question the GDR was probably less affluent than when compared to those same countries in e.g. 1910. To give an even more extreme example: Argentina was among the top ten wealthiest countries globally in the early 20th century, even though its absolute GDP (both overall and per capita) and certainly its social and technological development would have been less than now, where by contrast it only scrapes into the lower end of what the UNHDI calls "Very Highly Developed Countries".

As for Russia, while the Tsars certainly turned out to be rather less murderous than the Bolsheviks, all the same most of the population lived in poverty and feudalism under them, even acknowledging that there were some pockets of industrial development in the two biggest cities in particular.

[Tooting Carmen]

It's a shithole with archaic low IQ people, so my compatriots don't deserve a international presence; we even created a slang to refer to the average Brazilian ("Chimpa").

One of the most extreme examples of the complexo de vira lata I have seen...

[Tooting Carmen]

Despite now being the most populous nation on Earth, India is only slightly bigger than Argentina in area (but with thirty times more people) and much smaller in area than Russia, China, Australia, Canada, US or Brazil. Moreover, recent years have also seen Pakistan surpass Brazil and Bangladesh surpass Russia in terms of population.

Furthermore, for all their dysfunctionalities and cruelties, India (and Israel) have both never had so much as one attempted coup d'etat since gaining independence in 1947, although some claim that the Emergency Period in India during the 70's was essentially a dictatorship, while needless to say that Netanyahu and Modi are pretty autocratic in some ways. Therefore, India and Israel have been longerstanding democracies than nearly all of Southern and Eastern Europe and Latin America (never mind most of Africa and Asia), with the exception of Italy (Mussolini fell in 1943) and debatably Mexico (there is still consternation and controversy over whether Mexico under the PRI was a democracy or not, but I don't really want to discuss that here).

[Abaddon]

One of the most extreme examples of the complexo de vira lata I have seen...

Oh, then surprise me by proving im wrong

[Tooting Carmen]

Oh, then surprise me by proving im wrong

While there is still a long way to go, Brazil is now the 7th largest economy in the world, roughly neck and neck with the UK (yes I know Brazil has just under four times our population, but it is a rise from what it used to be all the same). It is making its voice more heard diplomatically, whether over Ukraine, Gaza or Haiti. Although it does have a lot of criminal violence, the majority of it is concentrated in some urban neighbourhoods, and for such a multi-ethnic and pluralistic nation it certainly doesn't have anything like the political, ethnic and religious violence found in many other countries, including arguably the US. (Even the military dictatorship was actually quite mild compared to its counterparts in Central America and the Southern Cone).

[Abaddon]

While there is still a long way to go, Brazil is now the 7th largest economy

No one cares, GDP doesn't mean good living standards.

It is making its voice more heard diplomatically, whether over Ukraine, Gaza or Haiti.

No one cares, we've once called "diplomatic dwarf" by Israel.

Although it does have a lot of criminal violence, the majority of it is concentrated in some urban neighbourhoods, and for such a multi-ethnic and pluralistic nation it certainly doesn't have anything like the political, ethnic and religious violence found in many other countries, including arguably the US.

It's still way worse than any country with relevant violence like the US; i don't got your point, you're trying to convince me that a primitive South American shithole is good to someone who's born and raised here? you dont' live here, thence you don't know what you says.

[Tooting Carmen]

No one cares, GDP doesn't mean good living standards.

The wealth is badly distributed for sure, but the potential is indeed there.

It's still way worse than any country with relevant violence like the US; i don't got your point, you're trying to convince me that a primitive South American shithole is good to someone who's born and raised here? you dont' live here, thence you don't know what you says.

No, but my mother is Colombian and I have visited it and most of her family still live there. Colombia and Brazil rate very similarly in the UNHDI, although of course Brazil at least hasn't suffered a brutal decades-long civil war like the former. Compared to other large and ethnically diverse developing countries and even in some ways the US, inter-ethnic relations in both countries are quite harmonious, and what problems and violence exist are mostly linked to a mixture of misgovernance, organised crime and poverty.

Btw, you are known to make all sorts of crude stereotypes and generalisations about countries and ethnic groups that chances are you have never visited or encountered in real life, especially outside of Europe.

[Tooting Carmen]

France ranks slightly below Spain in the UNHDI, albeit doubtless it is distorted by its overseas territories like French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique and Reunion, which are officially fully part of national territory (unlike Britain's overseas territories, for example), as well as the banlieues factor.

[Anglo-Celtic]

.Corned beef and cabbage isn't an Irish dish
.Saint Patrick wasn't Irish
.Grant was anti-Jewish
.Lee detested Black slavery
.Jackson taught Sunday School to Black children
.Sherman hated Native Americans (genocidal views) more than Southern people (liked them) outside of the Civil War
.Scott, who devised the Anaconda Plan (block ports and supplies to choke and strangle Confederates) was a war hero from the South
.Quantrill was a school teacher from the North (led atrocities against Union sympathizers)
.Booth's dad was an English actor
.Davis had a Welsh grandpa
.Cleburne, "the Stonewall Jackson of the West", was Irish
.Wirz, who was tried for crimes at the notorious Andersonville Prison, was Swiss

[Tooting Carmen]

- Despite the stereotype of people in SE England being more individualistic and career-oriented than most, the 2021 Census showed that SE England (excluding London, which has a very different dynamic altogether) actually has a lower percentage of one-person households and a higher percentage of family households compared to most other regions of England and Wales.

Corresponding to this is how the South East (excluding London) has the highest percentage of adults aged 16+ who are married, at 47.6%, while London has the lowest percentage, at 40%. This being said, by some measurements even Londoners go against the stereotype that they are the most secular/modernist/individualistic of all: they have the lowest percentage of people in all regions of England and Wales who say they have no religion, at just 27.1%, versus a national average of 37.2%. (Even more intriguing and curious IMHO is how Wales, unlike any English region, has a higher percentage of people with no religion than who are Christian: 46.5% versus 43.6%. So much for the ridiculously outdated pious, chapel-going stereotype).