Comments by "Black Cat Dungeon Master\x27s Familiar" (@blackcatdungeonmastersfami5311) on "Ask Peter: Why Scottish Independence Will NEVER Happen!" video.

Except he got some huge facts wrong for example the age structure - Scotland is typical for the EU. Health - pockets of dire health mainly in Glasgow aren't typical for Scotland. And energy - Scotland is a huge energy exporter.
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@stephenderry9488 In reality Northern Scotland has pretty good health outcomes, the really bad health problems are from the poorest parts of Glasgow. As for obesity, some of the USA e.g. Mississippi is way worse than Scotland.
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@secretname4190 He's basically a CIA propagandist. I assume the Washington establishment would oppose Scottish independence in case an independent Scotland was sceptical about NATO or closed down Faslane. Inconvenient facts don't matter, just so long as the presentation is self assured and backed up by an army of fan boys.
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@thomasherrin6798 Mainly England, some to Ireland if we're talking about electricity. Most of the gas powering Britain is from rigs overwhelmingly off NE Scotland. I'm not trying to make any kind of anti-English argument, I'm just pointing out Zeihan is factually wrong and it's obvious he's deliberately talking down Scotland's prospects because of his own pro-Washington agenda.
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@matthewgaudet8001 Why does Washington want to get involved in the internal politics of any other country? We can speculate why but we know for sure it does. My guess is NATO. The US views the UK as a vassal - largely correctly. An independent might take a more sceptical position on NATO and the US rule the world project. In particular, Britain's nuclear submarines are based in Scotland, moving them to England would be difficult and expensive, all the viable locations are big cities.
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Peter Zeihan obviously never read the McCrone report - during Thatcher's years Scotland was massively subsidising England. And it was kept very, very quiet. As for energy, Scotland is an energy exporter.
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@@BF-sb5zs Yeah Mississippi is just an extreme example. Anyway obesity in Scotland is around 30% of adults, US average over 40%. Don't you think Zeihan should have given that context?
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@jdee8407 Yeah I've lived/worked in about eight countries, now permanently living in Scotland by choice. Great culture, low population density, higher pay to cost of living ratio than England, mainly avoided mass immigration - so far. Excellent schools, free, high quality health care, great mountains and plenty of coastline within easy reach. The weather isn't terrible, it's a bit wetter and colder than ideal but it's not too different from England. I have a Dutch friend who moved to Scotland intending to stay for two years before moving to Canada, he now intends to stay permanently.
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@GlasgowCelticBhoy This discussion just goes to show how inaccurate and radically exaggerated Zeihan's takes are and how he confidently makes astonishing claims which can be debunked with 30 seconds googling. Likewise, his claims about Scotland's obesity and health problems - which are real - are presented without the important context that both of these problems are far worse elsewhere.
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Zeihan doesn't do details.
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@TrendyStone Look into it. Zeihan/Friedman/Barros - Neocon propaganda
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@sambones1092 Zeihan makes some ridiculous claims for example Scotland is a large energy exporter and its demographics are way healthier than places like the Baltic countries. There are pockets of dire health but that's not typical for Scotland overall.
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@dw620 Doesn't matter who owns it, it's jobs, exports and a tax base. Same for the oil industry or the wind industry.
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If you actually fact check Scottish demographics, it's not that bad. Way better than most of Eastern Europe. England's demographics are slightly younger only because of the immigration - and as we see in France that's a way bigger problem than an aging population.
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Yeah Zeihan doesn't seem to know what he's talking about. He's wrong about the population being older and unhealthy too. There are pockets of severe health problems but that's not typical of the whole country. The age structure is typical for the EU. Scotland is an energy exporter and that won't change any time soon. Huge wind farms, fisheries, North Sea oil will be around for decades yet. Cheap housing and pay similar to England outside London.
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@w8stral Scotland obesity around 30% Mississippi obesity around 40%. USA around 36%. But now compare to what Zeihan actually says about Scotland. If you didn't check the numbers, you'd have the impression that Scotland is worse off than just about anywhere right? BTW I wasn't meaning to suggest Mississippi is especially bad, just using that as an example of one I knew about without having to check.
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@hrogarfyrninga3238 Don't you think that's relevant information for context for his mainly American audience? He's basically saying people in Scotland are fat - but leaving out the hugely important context that relative to the population his audience comes from, people in Scotland are thin.
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@Whaleydavey If you followed the entire thread you'll know that obesity in Scotland is lower than in the USA OVERALL. A lot lower.
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They're not - look them up. Zeihan didn't bother fact checking the basics. Also about energy - Scotland is a huge energy exporter.
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@grimnir8872 12 December 2005 Independent article "By the mid 1970s, international convention had already agreed that the North Sea north of the 55th parallel was under Scottish jurisdiction. That meant around 90 per cent of the UK's oil and gas reserves fell within Scottish waters"
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@michaelbrown7142 Who the hell is Adrian?
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It's not objective, it's based on incorrect claims. Go fact check Scottish demographics, health and energy. Scotland is a huge energy exporter and demographics is way better than most of Eastern Europe. It's only slightly older than England and England is younger only because of mass immigration from high birth rate parts of the world like Africa.
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@booopwappp1323 Nah North Sea oil will be around for decades yet. Demand will keep increasing and the price is climbing. Yes the easy oil is gone but there's a lot left and the value is increasing. The point is this report was covered up at the time it only became public decades later. They lied then, why would anyone believe they're telling the truth now?
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So about typical for most of his videos.
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@baxtardboy His background is Stratfor which is a CIA linked consultancy. He's basically a propagandist for the Washington establishment with a history of making outrageous and unsubstantiated claims. I assume Washington would oppose Scottish independence in case an independent Scotland went in a NATO sceptical direction.
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Numbers don'#t lie but Zeihan has the numbers wrong. Demographics, health and energy - the situation is way better than he makes out. Far from Scots moving to London, Londoners move to Scotland to escape the crime and housing costs.
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The only real impediment would Spain - the Spanish state is worried about Catalonia.
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@hrogarfyrninga3238 This particular thread is about obesity.
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@Whaleydavey Sure - the point is this Zeihan clown is telling a mainly American audience some misleading and incorrect information to create a narrative which checking some facts reveals to be total trash. Obesity is an example. Telling Americans that Scotland has an obesity problem but not mentioning the USA is much worse. Telling us that Scotland has an especially old demographic - reality is it's about average for Europe, FAR from the worst in Europe. His whole narrative is based on these kind of false premises. Surely he's doing this deliberately. Likewise on many other topics where I know enough to know he's BSing.
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@wantanamera Go and look at some numbers. Whether in the US or in Britain, obesity is higher in certain non white demographics. And life expectancy for whites is higher than most too.
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@TrendyStone Sure. And you also believe the Russians are trying to drive to Warsaw to increase their own security? And that China will collapse because of demographics but Japan will become a regional hegemon despite its even worse demographics? And it's just a pure coincidence that everything Zeihan/Stratfor say align with Washington policy goals?
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@Henchman.24 No it's not! Glasgow City isn't much more than a tenth of Scotland's overall population. Why do you clowns spout utter crap about stuff you know nothing about? You could literally have checked this with google in the time you spent to write a post.
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@chrisy6707 On a lot of other subjects too, he talks very authoritatively but the facts don't stack up. He seems to be a propaganda mouth piece for the CIA or the state department. Background is Stratfor an organisation linked to the CIA
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Read the McCrone report - Scotland was subsidising England for years and it was kept secret by the government at the time.
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@cat-as-trophy The most "diverse" cities in Europe are absolutely awful to live in - crime, filth, high housing costs, lack of social cohesion - look at France right now. According to Zeihan logic, Somalia has a better future than Northern Europe because it has a young population.
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@cat-as-trophy Yeah it's definitely different, the other big difference is in most Asian countries, the amount of immigration is too small to be any demographic threat to the native population. In Europe there's neither quality control nor quantity control.
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@cat-as-trophy I couldn't agree more
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The reality is Scots don't need to move to London anymore, plenty of high sklll high pay jobs in Scotland. It's more like Londoners moving to Scotland to escape the crime and the housing costs.
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@johnmackenzie9028 Improving drilling technology is making stuff like that more economic to produce. The end of Scottish oil got called decades too early.
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