cabalamat comments on On the Power of Intelligence and Rationality - Less Wrong

13 Post author: alyssavance 23 December 2009 10:49AM

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Comment author: alyssavance 23 December 2009 08:53:29PM 3 points [-]

"Those "native forces" were Neolithic people,"

Did you even read the article? They had twenty thousand people who were armed with rifles, which means that, even if they had a backwards culture, their technology was very far from Neolithic.

"Romans claim 50:1 casualty ratios for conquest of Gaul."

All numbers that ancient historians give for enemy armies are highly suspect in general (everyone wanted to exaggerate their triumphs).

"Hitler rose to a place of prominence in the early years of the party (1919 - 1923) largely as a result of his considerable skills in oratory, organization and promotion."

Yes- notice how rationality and intelligence are not on that list.

Comment author: cabalamat 24 December 2009 03:04:58PM 1 point [-]

They had twenty thousand people who were armed with rifles, which means that, even if they had a backwards culture, their technology was very far from Neolithic.

Even if you disregard the rifles, the Ndebele were not a neolithic culture, since they worked iron.