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Fascism had a lot of nonsense in its frankly muddled ideological whirlpool, and some of that nonsense was inherently harmful. Even discounting the distinct revolutionary streak (always a cause for suspicion), the economic back-drop of fascism was basically analogous to Keynesianism -- and...

That is what S'task wrote, and what I was agreeing to, so... yeah. Indeed, and that difference was to a meaningful extent motivated by the differing religious context. The Spaniards were Catholics, specifically men (often younger sons) looking to make their fortune. The Anglos, early on, were...

It should be noted that there's a fuck-ton of Métis. It's the Anglos in particular who went "let's replace these savages". The factors @S'task brings up certainly played a role (and explain why there's way more Mestizos than Métis), but there's an additional major factor here. Protestantism...

It has to be obsered that Lemkin's chapter on Tasmania was based on outdated information, and that Lemkin was inclined to take anti-colonial sources at face value (because his whole concept of genocide was largely motivated by an anti-colonial attitude he personally held). I get your point...

For a very long time, the role of disease was severely under-rated, because (in a related point that I also mentioned) the number of Native Americans was also severely under-rated. To if you think there were maybe ten million native Americans, then whatever number of those that were killed by...

To get this all a bit back on track, let's have an actual "controversial take on history". Okay, more of a controversial take on pre-history. I think the Younger Dryas impact hypothesis warrants serious consideration. I don't think other factors, such as Lake Agassiz rapidly emptying, should...

In practice, I make more doing my actual job (philosophy professor) than an economic tutor. Which means that I'd either have to spend my time inefficiently (doing work for a lower wage, when a better-paid work is available), or I'd have to convince students to take lessons at a substantially...

Every point you raise has already been addressed in detail, @Morphic Tide. The "profound incomprehension" here is exclusively on your side. The fact that you fail to understand quite obvious explanations, and then just stubbornly act as if those explanations were never actually given, is...

Pro tip, @Morphic Tide -- If you're going to call the people who understand more about economics than you do "nutters", they won't be inclined to give you a free education. Bye.

Well, the really high-end estimates are real outliers, and not generally taken seriously. I went with the ballpark figure that all official institutions use, across the board, across the globe. (Which suggests that some "national interest" skewing the estimate can't be applicable, since they all...

You're still not thinking about human beings, @Morphic Tide. I understand that Keynesianism (whether absorbed directly or through cultural osmosis) is a hell of brain-rot drug, but set its assumptions aside and think about what you're actually saying. Consider the current situation. Inflation...

See? Garbled Keynesian bullshit. Yes, you're wrong. Completely, utterly, failure-to-think-about-how-real-life-works wrong. Yes, deflation encourages savings. And that's healthy. Nothing wrong with that. The current constant inflation is a draconian tax on saving and responsibility. That is a...

In short, you haven't the faintest idea what we're actually talking about, and you can't even give a definition of inflation that isn't 100% garbled Keynesian bullshit.

Your first sentence regarding "zero difference between metals" already reveals that you don't really know what you're on about. You compare gold and copper. Most estimates of the total amount of gold that's been mined in all of history arrive at a number c. 200.000 metric tons. Let's see how...

Even beyond that; the comparison he's making is just ludicrous. Fiduciary currency is intrinsically ultra-low value (worthless paper), whereas gold is intrinsically high-value, and can be debased... by removing the % of gold (that is... adding more % fiat to the currency). If you only back your...

Some people here have absolutely no clue what fiduciary currency means. Please -- stop applying your own made-up definitions that "prove" that ACKSHUWALLY, gold is a fiduciary currency, too!!!1! It's not. The point of fiduciary currency, as the term implies, is that you have to take the value...

Heron's invention was really just a demonstration piece, as @Doomsought said. It should be noted that such fanciful inventions were also very much a Greek thing. It's something of a generalisation, but the Greeks were more interested in the science for its own sake, and the Romans were more...