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Lumifer comments on [Link] A rational response to the Paris attacks and ISIS - Less Wrong Discussion

-1 Post author: Gleb_Tsipursky 23 November 2015 01:47AM

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Comment author: Lumifer 30 November 2015 06:59:44PM *  3 points [-]

"right" is a problematic term in this case

"done right" is a sufficiently neutral expression often used in engineering context, I don't read moral overtones here.

[effective] repression doesn't cause rebellions

That's just a tautology.

it's mostly because the dead don't complain

Not necessarily "mostly", but historically it has been a very popular way for a "successful" repression. It's a bit more difficult to pull off nowadays, though.

it's not very effective

It depends on who you are repressing -- e.g. if it's an (ethnic, religious, cultural) minority, killing them all is very effective.

Because traditionally you kill the males and enslave the women, you can empirically find defeated populations in the genetic code of the descendants of the winners: they would have some matrilinear admixture, but none (or almost none) of the patrilinear admixture of the losers.

Comment author: polymathwannabe 30 November 2015 07:16:43PM -1 points [-]

you can empirically find defeated populations in the genetic code of the descendants of the winners

You lost me there. Why is that relevant?

Comment author: Lumifer 30 November 2015 07:26:12PM *  2 points [-]

This allows you to find empirical examples of ethnic groups that were successfully repressed by killing all the males -- even if you don't have e.g. literary sources. This has bearings on how popular and how successful repressions by kill-them-all methods were.

Comment author: polymathwannabe 30 November 2015 07:49:43PM -1 points [-]

If we Latinos are mainly descended from male Spaniards and female Natives, and still we fought wars to kick the Spanish out, what does it indicate, according to your thesis?

Comment author: Lumifer 30 November 2015 07:54:07PM *  2 points [-]

I don't have a thesis, just a few comments. I think that it's very possible to have a successful (from the repressor's point of view) repression and that historically one of the main ways it has been achieved was by making the repressed dead and broken.

and still we fought wars to kick the Spanish out, what does it indicate

That indicates that local elites desire wealth and power, often more than the metropoly is willing to let them have.