Comments by "Steve Davenport" (@stevedavenport1202) on "Whatifalthist" channel.

  1. Also keep in mind that North America and Europe will be the last places to see real population shrinkage since people are always willing to migrate to these places.
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  2. I wouldn't exactly call Canada a younger sibling. It achieved its independence later, but the basic civilization was started at the same time as the USA.
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  3. Dude, the Marshall Plan was not a reflection of how generous Americans are. It was very much a calculated attempt at creating strong regional blocks around the periphery of Eurasia to act as a counter balance to the Soviet Union. Just look at the Treaty of Versailles post WWI. It was far from generous.
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  4. If you were to interpret it literally, you would realize that we have no inherent right to bear arms.
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  5. The Russian army is seriously struggling in its conquest of Ukraine. I think it would get its ass handed to it if it were to invade Poland.
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  6. Umm, yeah, your comparisons with Rome and China are a bit off base. First, the Roman elite were incredibly decadent and the republic was constantly fighting off barbarian invasions. Second, China has had hostile neighbors on its borders for millenia and its inclination to close itself off from the world had more to do with their unipolar dynastic system and closing themselves off to the world long before the industrial revolution. The USA was largely an isolated, agrarian society but successfully industrialized. The USA does not have nor has it ever had powerful regional militaries threatening to invade it.
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  7. @Digital Footballer  Read the first part.."In order to form a militia.." So, a strict interpretation of this would read as "If you are not automatically obliged to use your fire arm to join your local Army Reserve unit, then you don't really have a right to keep fire arms at home" The original colonies were always under threat of armed invasion, and did not have a standing army with overwhelming firepower. As such, it was essential for every household to have weapons ready to go at a moments notice, much like in Switzerland. So, this is the reason for this part of the constitution. The only reason we have the right to own a private arsenal at home is due to political inertia and the overwhelming popularity of gun ownership. IMO, the only way to make gun ownership an absolute, ironclad guarantee is to strike out the part about forming a militia. So, the constitution should read. "Every US adult citizen is constitutionally guaranteed the right to own and operate fire arms" Full stop.
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  8. Those rust belt cities are scary.
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  9. Glad to hear about your 16th percentile of agreeableness. You will need it for the culture wars.
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  10. I am intellectually pugnacious by nature and am always looking logical fallacies, but these videos are just brilliant. Hats off to you.
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  11. The truth is no longer P.C. in America, but I appreciate your courage anyhow.
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  12. Yeah, truth is, the Vietnamese wanted an alliance with USA since the beginning.
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  13. Which trucks are you referring to? I have seen several Amazon delivery vans, box trucks and semi trucks in my region and not a single one of them has an armed escort.
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  14.  T B  Elaborate?
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  15. "The answers will be horrifying"....not the place where optimists come to start their day 😀
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  16. @mohmj  That's the problem. The way it is worded leaves it open to interpretation. Remove the ambiguity so that no hard left nutters of the future can revoke it. That is a silly analogy. You don't need to mandate the existence of farms in your constitution. Societies will will always want those.
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  17. Umm, dude, the USA now imports people just like Europe. The native born population is in decline.
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  18. Most Americans don't talk about Canada
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  19. No, Romans never made n it to the Americas..they didn't have the technology and motivation.
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  20. Objectivity is anti woke, my friend. It went RIP circa 2020
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  21. 17:02 This has always been my argument against radical libertarianism.
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  22. In many parts of America, it feels like you are in the third world.
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  23. That Scots Irish map is exactly the trajectory of my recent ancestors.
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  24. The Mormon dominance of the empty quarter is very true.
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  25. Umm, no, no parallel. The Roman empire was a republic of loosely affiliated states with quite different cultures and real animosity towards Rome. Rome had near peer powers which invaded it on several ocassions. The US has zero near peer powers on its borders and continental USA is quite unified culturally and politically. Also, the USA has almost all of the resources it needs within its borders to sustain its empire.
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  26. I fear that we are condemned to violently swing between left and right wing extremism. God help us.
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  27. Brilliant insights
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  28. Ummm, if not mistaken, Mongols attempted to invade Japan.
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  29. There would be Argentine boy bands dancing tango on YouTube
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  30. If you are around in 2120 to see how your predictions panned out, that would be interesting 😀
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  31.  @christiandauz3742  Then had to I get the things I need like food, clothing, energy, shelter, etc? Do I buy a nanotechnology appliance that produces the things I need?
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  32. Well, if you can puree the bark with some soy sauce, it tastes good. Lots of fiber too.
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  33.  @nathanoher4865  I just did
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  34. American universities are festering cesspools of intellectual mediocrity.
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  35.  @inovakovsky  Well, if they were better, the contribution of said alumni would be greater.
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  36.  @inovakovsky  That would be a start. The second would be to hire professors who actually have a passion for teaching. Too many profs are just "mailing it in" because they would rather be researching. Quit demanding that professors publish or perish and let them focus on teaching. Make sure that most classes are taught by actual professors and NOT bumbling grad students who barely speak English. Get rid of all the expensive and unnecessary overhead like gyms, semi professional sports teams, huge and energy inefficient Gothic style buildings and use the saving for cheaper tuition and higher pay for professors., maybe build more facilities for applied engineering, robotics, life sciences. Maybe create more internships for people such as urban planners who would need to be off campus. Hire more ideologically balanced staff members and quit canceling people who are not woke enough. Stop lowering English proficiency standards for foreign students simply because they are cash cows. Quit the whole grade inflation nonsense. Stop recruiting students who have no business being in a university due to their lack of intellect or preference for frat parties over studying. Allow rock star professors, a la Jordan Peterson, to publish their lectures online and split the revenues with the university. Find patient and effective tutors and pay them $30 an hour to help students. Be more responsive to the needs of industry and actually incorporate that feedback into the curriculum. Students attend universities so that they can get high paying gigs in industry. Get rid of all the overpaid and marginally useful deans. Hire world class curriculum consultants to tweak and upgrade the curriculum.
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  37.  @inovakovsky  Thanks for responding. I have a few more ideas, but didn't want to turn a You Tube comment into a PhD dissertation...😀 To satisfy the research mission that universities are known for, historically, you could have a dedicated state-funded research center where upper level academic types who prefer to do research can ply their trade. Teaching professors could visit the research center every few years for a semester or two to update their knowledge. Or, if more applicable, sent to an archeological dig or to reside in a foreign country, etc. However, these changes may be nearly impossible to implement as there are already too many entrenched interests at existing universities. Fortunately, we do have a bunch of community colleges which are already fulfilling this mission. Just increase state funding for these or create entirely new ones and leave the "legacy" universities to their own devices by de funding them. This wouldn't be a problem for USC, CAL, Berkley, etc but others might suffer. Oh, while I am at it, get rid of tenure. Give profs 8 years to pursue their bliss, but review their performance and only renew if they are productive, effective, etc.
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  38.  @inovakovsky  Well, state governments have been decreasing funding to universities for a while, so accelerate the process and increase funding for the CCs. No need to pull their credentials.
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  39. Los Angeles is very multi cultural. Oddly, San Diego, which sits on the Mexican border, is far more Anglo.
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  40. Yep, spent a good amount of time in El Paso. The local population is conversant in Spanish but definetly speaks English better. They used to have a lot of cross border ties with people in Juarez.
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  41. Long live ASEAN!
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  42. Japan?
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  43.  @ramoncastaneda8432  Of course
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  44. I think we have reached peak urban since most people don't really relish crowding into gigantic cities.
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  45. It was thanks to the Quebeqois separatist movement that Canada is officially bilingual
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  46. Yeah, Vancouver is heavily Asian and Richmond is over 90%
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  47. I live in the greater Seattle area and am politically center left. I have some conservative views. Being center left makes me hard right in the eyes of most Seattleites. The tolerance for criminal deviance has gone WAY too far. Enforcing the law is not racist. It's how you respect your fellow citizens.
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  48. A brilliant PHD dissertation in 28 minutes.
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  49. Another terrible idea
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  50. @TheJosman In the agregate. Not all regions have similar populations.
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