(Part 3) Top products from r/ShitAmericansSay

> Thanks for the link about the Solutrean Hypothesis. It's not very convincing, but it's interesting to speculate about alternate histories.

It's an interesting hypotesis but has almost no basis. It is fundamented on some similarities between Solutrean and Clovis lithic assemblages. It particularly relies on a specific flaking thechnique called overshot flaking which is present in both Solutrean and Clovis and almost nowhere else. It is a very weak connection because while it is a very rare technique, it is perfecly possible that it developed independently. On the other hand, it has two strong flaws: one is that there is a gap of 4.000 years between one culture and the other, and the other is that genetic evidence points towards East Asia as the most probable origin of the American first settlers.

The theory itself has almost no basis, but the scientific debate is interesting. And the book written by its two main supporters (Bruce Bradley and Dennis Stanford) is one of the best books about Clovis culture and Clovis lithic technology ever written: Across Atlantic Ice: The Origin of America's Clovis Culture

> yet when it comes to music, suddenly popularity becomes a marker of quality.

It's a bit of a tangent – and you might be completely across this anyway – but plenty has been written and spoken about the collapse of traditional "low" and "high" cultural distinctions, with instead a focus on popularity as the indicator of worth, validity, etc. I really enjoyed this book on the subject.

Because American culture rewards confidence.

Slightly off topic: If anyone is interested in learning about some of the history of the American psyche, I highly highly recommend the book "Born Fightin'" by Jim Webb. He traces the immigration and influence of the Ulster-Scots (known here as Scots-Irish) in the US, and the ways that they have influenced, and continue to influence America, from militarism to suspicion of outsiders and government to country-western music to feuds in Appalacia.

I read it awhile ago in a book about the region. I'm pretty sure it was either City of Gold or Inside The Kingdom

You should read this http://www.amazon.com/Hell-Barbados-Ethnic-Cleansing-Ireland/dp/0863222870

It's a great account of what happened.

>Once routine settles in, people become lazy, and laziness leads to accidents…

Exactly. This happens pretty much everywhere. Hospitals, airplanes, etc etc.

There is an interesting book regarding this called "The checklist manifesto"

Because that's how they got the country in the first place. And because that type of person who takes and "defends" "his" land by force has been glorified since the very beginning. I recommend this book, especially if the claim that the second amendment and gun culture today stems from the trauma of British rule always seemed somewhat fishy to you as well (or maybe especially if it didn't).

Blacks in Europe were free before and after the start of the slave trade and it is only the boom of the slave trade which enslaved people with black skin into slavery forever. As the slave trade was in it zenith, there is documentation of free slaves arriving from the Americas to settle in European cities and took up trades. Some became musicians, writers, painters, scholars.

While some worked in houses and the like, they weren't slaves in the way one would think of slaves in the Americas. They were servants, seen as people, although inferior/subservient, and not slaves/farm equipment/beasts.

If you want to read more on this, you can start with this book and work your way from there.

Or you can go here, I just found this and am editing in the link:
http://afroeurope.blogspot.com/2010/08/history-of-black-people-in-europe.html

Nazi Germany actually sent lawyers to the United States to learn about the racist legal system in the US to help them create their own. When they returned other Nazis didn't believe some of the laws could be so racist like anti miscegenation laws.

https://www.amazon.com/Hitlers-American-Model-United-States/dp/0691172420/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1505057658&sr=8-1&keywords=hitler%27s+american+model

Someone wrote a book in the 60s about it, so it's basically tradition at this point.

https://www.amazon.com/Anti-Intellectualism-American-Life-Richard-Hofstadter/dp/0394703170



https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/our-humanity-naturally/201506/anti-intellectualism-is-killing-america

Good news! I have some reading for you!

"However, models from the past decade consider total extinction very unlikely, and suggest parts of the world would remain habitable"

This is what the top scientists, generals, theorists and strategists believe. There is a reason why during the cold war NBC protection was integrated into so much military equipment.

Here is a good book on the subject, it discusses it at length

I completely understand that! I’m trying to focus my masters on it, but I’m not sure how “in vogue” the theory is right now. My focus would be on the relationship between civil religion and American evangelicals.

One book I expect would be fairly related but I’ve yet to dive into completely is [American Covenant](American Covenant: A History of Civil Religion from the Puritans to the Present https://www.amazon.com/dp/0691147671/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_tCYIBb6H87ZES).

I imagine scholarship on the relationship between civil religion and the trump administration specifically will be rolling out in the next few years.

for more reading on this I suggest the book "lies my teacher told me" http://www.amazon.com/Lies-My-Teacher-Told-Everything/dp/0743296281

Oh, an even worse version of this book, great

Do people really believe that the destroying both Hiroshima and Nagasaki was the only way to get the Japanese emperor to surrender?

The Japanese recognized that defeat was inevitable. By summer 1945 Japanese Navy was unable to conduct major operations, oil supplies were running short, Japanese factories were struggling or unable to keep up with military demands.

Japan was provably ready and willing to surrender.

Nothing can excuse the deaths of so many civilians.

Further info for those interested. Atomic Diplomacy: Hiroshima and Potsdam by Gar Alperovitz.

> It's beyond me that you both believe what you just said

It's beyond me that people like you are so militantly ignorant that even when someone provides facts that disprove what you believe, you're shocked that they would believe it over what you believe, which is a gigantic load of insanely idiotic nonsense designed to help you cope with your inferiority.

Notice how none of the people who downvoted me could actually provide a cogent counter-argument? This subreddit is a cesspool of ignorance.

> AND think that the americans won ww2.

The allies were losing the war before the US joined. That's a fact. The US did the most in N. Africa, the Med, Italy, and western Europe post D-day, while fighting the Japanese on the other side of the planet at the same time with almost no help. The US industrial power was also responsible for providing the vast majority of war material that all the allies used in the conflict.

'The United States is a country of machines. Without the use of these machines through Lend-Lease, we would lose this war.' Josef Stalin (1943)

It's shocking that you actually refuse to believe established facts that every educated, honest person in the world believes.

>The same ones who raped, murdered, and looted Germany

Are you implying that allied soldiers didn't do the same? You could start by reading this for example. An estimated 140,000 German women were raped by US soldiers alone.

Here:

Tactics of the Iraqi insurgency

IRAQ: Insurgents’ Tactics

The U.S. Army and the Battle for Baghdad

The U.S. Army in the Iraq War – Volume 1: Invasion – Insurgency – Civil War, 2003-2006

The U.S. Army in the Iraq War – Volume 2: Surge and Withdrawal, 2007-2011

Insurgency and Counter-Insurgency in Iraq

See also:

RAND corporation urban warfare collection