I hardly think Asians are incapable of creative cruelty--look at ling chi, 'the death of a thousand cuts', the Five Punishments (tattooing, cutting off the nose, amputation of one or both feet, castration, and death), nine familial exterminations, or hanging Christian converts upside down and bleeding them just enough so they'd stay cons…
I hardly think Asians are incapable of creative cruelty--look at ling chi, 'the death of a thousand cuts', the Five Punishments (tattooing, cutting off the nose, amputation of one or both feet, castration, and death), nine familial exterminations, or hanging Christian converts upside down and bleeding them just enough so they'd stay conscious. (That last one's from the people who brought you anime.) Nearly half of the top ten wars by death toll are Chinese--you've just never heard of the Manchu conquest of China, Three Kingdoms wars, or An Lushan or Taiping Rebellion (the last having a rather amusing origin story involving the younger brother of Jesus Christ). And then, as Warmek says, you've got the Mongol conquest of China, Unit 731 in Japan, and Pol Pot, who I think has the world record for percentage of the total population killed.
I actually think East Asia had the ill fortune to basically be a place where Justinian won (or more accurately the Lombards never took Italy). Unlike Rome, which never really made it back after its own collapse, the Han dynasty was more or less reapproximated by the Sui, Tang, and Song dynasties, which established a template for local empire that outsiders like the Mongols (Yuan dynasty) and Manchu (Qing dynasty) were able to copy, meaning the emperor of China (whoever he happened to be) was able to consider himself the 'ruler of the world' for over a millennium, which sapped their desire to explore strange new worlds.
"dating options for libertarians"--made me laugh out loud. Yeah, I don't think the inventors of the keju (Chinese examination system) thought it would make their descendants fall for nerdy hairy barbarians, but history is funny that way.
I think what you probably want to do (as Warmek says) is reestablish the ideas of assimilation, maybe informally lower the bar for 'white' to 3/4 or 5/8 or something, and most importantly remove any advantage to identifying as nonwhite. Latin America (as you may have noticed by now in Florida) actually has its own complicated variety of racism where a paler skin is more attractive but higher status 'whitens', dating back to the Spanish conquest. So it wouldn't be that hard to get a lot of Latinos on board if you got the ideology and rhetoric right (hey, you're the theater kid, you figure out the script and costumes ;) ). If you have a bloc of whites plus castizos plus Wasians, you've got a majority, and then you can work on actually improving the country instead of fighting over how many members of which group have what percentage of jobs and appear in movies etc.
> East Asia had the ill foetune to basically be a place where Justinian (or more accurately the Lombards never took Italy)
Conversely, you seem to hint that a surviving Roman Empire might have led to ultimate stagnation. And a China that never reunified after the collapse of the Han dynasty might have ended up more dynamic and expansionist, spurred on by interstate competition. Interesting thesis: I do wonder how that would look by the modern day.
That's my suspicion. The fall of Rome actually set the West up for future success...of course it was also lucky enough not to get conquered by the various caliphates in the interim, because Byzantium and later Poland and Russia were in the way. And if that's your theory, you still have to explain the Mongols. Unfortunately, we'll never really know; it's just fodder for alternate history stories.
If nothing else, Pol Pot certainly has the record for largest percentage of his *own* population killed. Outside of him... well, of the known travesties out there, the Mongols might be in the running again. The Golden Horde is why Russia is institutionally paranoid to this day. Afghanistan stills hold the name of Tamerlane in fear. Those dudes had death toll rates on par with *plagues*.
As far as assimilation goes, I don't think any sort of genetic bar is necessary. Limit based on cultural assimilation and ability. "Don't reject anyone who can benefit your organization." As long as someone is willing to not explicitly *declaim* me for being white, and willing to not *denounce* western culture for having been invented by white people, then they don't need to be my enemy. If they're willing to embrace it, and are useful, then hell, it's to my benefit to co-opt them rather than make them the enemy. Again, it's like Rome.
I hardly think Asians are incapable of creative cruelty--look at ling chi, 'the death of a thousand cuts', the Five Punishments (tattooing, cutting off the nose, amputation of one or both feet, castration, and death), nine familial exterminations, or hanging Christian converts upside down and bleeding them just enough so they'd stay conscious. (That last one's from the people who brought you anime.) Nearly half of the top ten wars by death toll are Chinese--you've just never heard of the Manchu conquest of China, Three Kingdoms wars, or An Lushan or Taiping Rebellion (the last having a rather amusing origin story involving the younger brother of Jesus Christ). And then, as Warmek says, you've got the Mongol conquest of China, Unit 731 in Japan, and Pol Pot, who I think has the world record for percentage of the total population killed.
I actually think East Asia had the ill fortune to basically be a place where Justinian won (or more accurately the Lombards never took Italy). Unlike Rome, which never really made it back after its own collapse, the Han dynasty was more or less reapproximated by the Sui, Tang, and Song dynasties, which established a template for local empire that outsiders like the Mongols (Yuan dynasty) and Manchu (Qing dynasty) were able to copy, meaning the emperor of China (whoever he happened to be) was able to consider himself the 'ruler of the world' for over a millennium, which sapped their desire to explore strange new worlds.
"dating options for libertarians"--made me laugh out loud. Yeah, I don't think the inventors of the keju (Chinese examination system) thought it would make their descendants fall for nerdy hairy barbarians, but history is funny that way.
I think what you probably want to do (as Warmek says) is reestablish the ideas of assimilation, maybe informally lower the bar for 'white' to 3/4 or 5/8 or something, and most importantly remove any advantage to identifying as nonwhite. Latin America (as you may have noticed by now in Florida) actually has its own complicated variety of racism where a paler skin is more attractive but higher status 'whitens', dating back to the Spanish conquest. So it wouldn't be that hard to get a lot of Latinos on board if you got the ideology and rhetoric right (hey, you're the theater kid, you figure out the script and costumes ;) ). If you have a bloc of whites plus castizos plus Wasians, you've got a majority, and then you can work on actually improving the country instead of fighting over how many members of which group have what percentage of jobs and appear in movies etc.
> East Asia had the ill foetune to basically be a place where Justinian (or more accurately the Lombards never took Italy)
Conversely, you seem to hint that a surviving Roman Empire might have led to ultimate stagnation. And a China that never reunified after the collapse of the Han dynasty might have ended up more dynamic and expansionist, spurred on by interstate competition. Interesting thesis: I do wonder how that would look by the modern day.
That's my suspicion. The fall of Rome actually set the West up for future success...of course it was also lucky enough not to get conquered by the various caliphates in the interim, because Byzantium and later Poland and Russia were in the way. And if that's your theory, you still have to explain the Mongols. Unfortunately, we'll never really know; it's just fodder for alternate history stories.
If nothing else, Pol Pot certainly has the record for largest percentage of his *own* population killed. Outside of him... well, of the known travesties out there, the Mongols might be in the running again. The Golden Horde is why Russia is institutionally paranoid to this day. Afghanistan stills hold the name of Tamerlane in fear. Those dudes had death toll rates on par with *plagues*.
As far as assimilation goes, I don't think any sort of genetic bar is necessary. Limit based on cultural assimilation and ability. "Don't reject anyone who can benefit your organization." As long as someone is willing to not explicitly *declaim* me for being white, and willing to not *denounce* western culture for having been invented by white people, then they don't need to be my enemy. If they're willing to embrace it, and are useful, then hell, it's to my benefit to co-opt them rather than make them the enemy. Again, it's like Rome.