Comments by "Rob Fraser" (@krashd) on "The Consequences of Marrying Your Cousin (Genetic Disorder Documentary) | Only Human" video.

  1. The key word was "trust", in their culture a stranger wouldn't lend you money or help you fight a battle but a family member, even if you've never met them, would do so since you are their kin. It is something we have lost a little in the west since many of us no longer even speak to our families or even care for our elderly, if anything we have reversed it in the west as we seek to create our own family and leave our parents and siblings behind. As Peter said, we are more likely to form bonds with strangers to create our own groups but in older cultures the family name is stronger than any other bond you can have. That is until someone dishonours the family name...
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  2. If you want the healthiest children you pick someone as far removed from you as you can possibly get, which is something that racists never like to hear. I'm a Celt so if I have a child with another Celt there is a small chance the child can develop cystic fibrosis, but if I have a child with any other human group I won't. Just as if two west Africans have a child there is a small chance of sickle cell disease. Every group has certain genes that are weak and so when two people make a child the embryo moves through the line one gene at a time picking the strongest one from each side, but if it gets to say gene#7,116 and both the mother's gene is partially broke and the father's gene is partially broke then the child gets a wrecked gene and has to live with the consequences. Similarly, even if both parents don't have faulty genes their children will all have almost identical genes to one another (being siblings) so if they, or their children, decide to have children amongst themselves the embryos don't have any other genes to play with and so end up just making copies of what were already the best choice of genes and so the results diminish over time like when you make a photocopy of a photocopy of a photocopy, you will eventually have children that look like the European kings of old. Riddled with defects from too much arranged marriages.
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