Origins

We just want justice. We need to ask how and why people found themselves in “underrepresented” and “marginalized” categories in first place. Piketty [1], Katznelson [2] (white people are happy to go along with set asides and actions to address class inequity, as long as no Black or Brown folk are involved) might be worth pondering. I hope that everyone is using the opportunity to understand the processes that got us to mass uprisings in most U.S. cities. Funny, I had to have drawn out argument with a white surgeon — day after day a few months back. He didn’t think my mother’s Black life was worth much. [1] http://piketty.pse.ens.fr/files/Piketty2020SlidesLongVersion.pdf [2] http://origins.osu.edu/review/when-affirmative-action-was-white-untold…

Here, you can check out this guy: http://origins.osu.edu/milestones/july-2015-bartolom-de-las-casas-and-… And read his book: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/20321 Since it was written in the 1500s by an eyewitness, I trust you will find it satisfactory. For those who don't feel like clicking through, de las Casas describes a great deal of roasting people alive, chopping off their hands, noses and other body parts, all for the purpose of extracting the most gold from the New World in the least amount of time.

How do we know what is best for us? What and who should we believe? It kinds of remind me how Copernicus was banned centuries ago despite now we know he was closer to truth than anyone else. If we live at his times we would say he is crazy and certainly his YouTube channel would have to be deleted but why? I guess if someone is right, he will prove it eventually. Even if it sounds crazy but the person is determined we should have right to know it and decide if we agree. Why someone esle should decide for us what we can know. http://origins.osu.edu/milestones/february-2016-400-years-ago-catholic…

All fair. This is likely also related to the (likely stretched) story about a train full of radioactive meat that floated around for a while [0] that seems to get interpreted a little differently each time [1]. [0] https://time.com/4305507/chernobyl-30-agriculture-disaster/#:~:text=In… [1] https://origins.osu.edu/milestones/april-2016-eating-you-food-and-cher…

It happens everywhere. Including the US. One such story: PFAS contamination found on more than 100 Maine farms. https://www.pressherald.com/2025/01/15/pfas-contamination-found-on-mor… And of course we have even added industrial waste directly to our drinking water, on purpose: https://origins.osu.edu/article/toxic-treatment-fluorides-transformati…

> But it was Europe who conquered the world and colonized the so called new world, not China. A Chinese emperor once famously said to the British: “Our celestial empire possesses all things in abundance and lacks no product within its borders. There is therefore no need to import the manufactures of barbarians in exchange for our own products.”[1] Old civilizations are deeply connected to their geography, and once they settle down in a fertile area, they generally don't feel the need to colonize or fight people beyond their immediate neighbourhood. Barring a couple of exceptions, the Chinese and Indian experiences are very similar. The only reason Europeans went out on their ships was to find a sea route to India after their traditional routes were blocked by the Turks and the Arabs. [1] The Second Opium War (https://origins.osu.edu/read/second-opium-war)

Flouride is toxic, period. The argument that you are likely trying to make, to oppose my statement, is how much of it can a person ingest before having negative health effects and is it really good for your teeth. It might be better to read about its history of usage, and that many countries do not allow flouride in their drinking water, and have a cavity rate that is equal or less than that of the U.S. https://www.primallifeorganics.com/blogs/primal-life-organics-blog/is-… (The Neurotoxin Lurking in Medicine Cabinets Around the Globe) https://origins.osu.edu/article/toxic-treatment-fluorides-transformati… (Fluoride's Transformation from Industrial Waste to Public Health Miracle)

This has a long history to it of targeting individuals and whole countries: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_sanctions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_sanctions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_Sanctions_Unit https://origins.osu.edu/article/economic-sanctions-history-trump-globa…

It doesn't. The selling point is that it strengthens teeth but there really isn't strong evidence for that. An analysis done by Harvard found it to lower IQs in children: https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/10579664/3491930.pdf The data is from China but the levels at which effects were found can be found in some regions of the US. Water fluoridation started because it was a cheap and easy way to get rid of industrial chemicals: https://origins.osu.edu/article/toxic-treatment-fluorides-transformati…

That is not at all how that works. How do you reconcile this altruism with Britain's continued trade with and reliance on goods from the Americas and their continued use of slave labour? How is it that so many Westerners keep making these strangely naïve and surface-level readings of history and politics? You might find this interesting: https://origins.osu.edu/review/after-abolition-britain-and-slave-trade…

An article about a research paper: http://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/the-truth-about-galileo-and-his-conf… Another link: http://origins.osu.edu/milestones/february-2016-400-years-ago-catholic…

Here's an interesting aspect to the source of flouride of which most people are unaware: https://origins.osu.edu/article/toxic-treatment-fluorides-transformati…

Indeed. >"Gerrymandering," the practice of drawing legislative district boundaries so as to maximize partisan advantage, is far from new. Elbridge Gerry, the Massachusetts governor whose name literally became synonymous with the practice, worked his magic to create a salamander-shaped district over two hundred years ago. https://origins.osu.edu/article/re-mapping-american-politics-redistric…

And even before westerners like my ancestors intervened in China, people were taking drugs. It was just that they punished only the lower classes. http://www.victorianweb.org/victorian/science/addiction/addiction2.htm… https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/representations-of… Also don't forget Edgar Allen Poe in the US. Anyway, after the good white people of the world (/s, ie probably my ancestors in the us) decided that black people were still a real threat, we got the 1920s anti-pot laws (http://origins.osu.edu/article/illegalization-marijuana-brief-history) and it continued even until Nixon tried his successful early "make harsh drug laws to hurt minorities" strategy https://www.cnn.com/2016/03/23/politics/john-ehrlichman-richard-nixon-…

Ohio State backgrounder on Transnistria, https://origins.osu.edu/read/transnistria-history-behind-russian-backe… > ..ethnic migration resulted in its current ethnic diversity: 158,000 Russians (33.8%), 153,500 Moldovans (33.2%), and 124,200 Ukrainians (26.7%). Throughout the Soviet period, these ethnic populations lived in harmony, freely speaking their respective languages and intermarrying. Thus, nationalism was traditionally an unappealing ideology to the multi-ethnic communities of Transnistria. > ..The Transnistrians of 1989 and 1990 were not part of a grand Russian strategy to destabilize Moldova. Rather, the protests and independence referendums in these years were grassroots efforts by a multi-ethnic population, which felt threatened by Moldovan nationalism and pan-Romanianism. Only in the years after these actions did Moscow begin to exploit the conflict. As ties with Russia increased, Russian chauvinism usurped true linguistic equality and multiculturalism in Transnistria.

>Ukraine claims they'll fight to the last drop of blood, but theory and practice are a bit disconnected when you are a garrison in a city that's being approached by a few tens of thousands of soldiers and a few thousand tanks. Thinks looks different still if 50 other cities surrendered without a fight by the time it's your turn. You have to be really insane. Poles did it at the start of WW2 resisting for a month https://origins.osu.edu/milestones/september-2014-nazis-take-poland-an… https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/14/books/review/poland-1939-roger-moor… and again in 1944 for over two months https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Uprising Twice with no direct outside help. So much for international security guarantees. Btw Ukraine also had a toilet paper full of UK/US promises https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budapest_Memorandum_on_Security_Assuranc… how much good did that accomplish?

> Jefferson, and the founders in general, were referring to covenants or trusts governing the use of property after death, such that no living person had unrestricted use of it Did you read the article I linked? Cause that doesn't seem to be the case. He repealed the laws of primogeniture and entail, and he himself quoted Smith, showing that he was in agreement with Smith. And confirmed here as well: > Some founders wanted to eliminate inheritance entirely. In a letter to James Madison, Thomas Jefferson suggested that all property be redistributed every fifty years, because "the earth belongs in usufruct to the living." Madison gently pointed out the plan's impracticality. Benjamin Franklin unsuccessfully pushed for the first Pennsylvania constitution to declare concentrated wealth "a danger to the happiness of mankind." From https://origins.osu.edu/history-news/death-taxes-and-american-founders

Westerners, and Americans in particular, are very bad at understanding nationalism. This prevents them from understanding the failure of post-colonialism. Throughout Africa and the Middle East we see countries with straight borders that used to be colonies of Western powers. These powers left and left behind democratic governments. These governments are plagued by the fact that the countries they rule over are not nations. A country is a political entity - a set of borders enforced by an army. A nation is a psycho-social entity. It is a group that people identify with, normally composed based on ethnic, linguistic, or religious similarity. Nationhood marks an in-group. Americans have an anti-nationalist, universalist ideology, so their brains reject this reality to the detriment of the places their armies occupy. In most post-colonial countries, there are many different nations within an arbitrary border. Democracy does not work because the citizens don't see themselves as the same people. When a person gets power in the government, of course he turns into a "kleptocrat" instead of working for the common good because he doesn't value the "common good". He values the good of his people. These post-colonial countries are also prone to civil war. If one ethno-religious group gets the majority over another, the losing group doesn't see the government as legitimate. So there is war and genocide. The post-colonial idealists in the West have done more damage to the world than…

A list of references for both sides of arguments. Calgary removed fluoride from its water supply. A decade later, it's adding it back https://www.npr.org/2024/12/13/nx-s1-5224138/calgary-removed-fluoride-… Toxic Treatment: Fluoride's Transformation from Industrial Waste to Public Health Miracle https://origins.osu.edu/article/toxic-treatment-fluorides-transformati… Portland has a divisive relationship with water fluoridation https://www.opb.org/news/article/portland-oregon-water-fluoridation-hi… Fluoride Exposure: Neurodevelopment and Cognition https://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/whatwestudy/assessments/noncancer/completed/… Effect of fluoridated water on intelligence in 10-12-year-old school children https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5285601/ A tale of two cities finds that community water fluoridation prevents caries https://adanews.ada.org/ada-news/2021/august/community-water-fluoridat… Children exposed to higher fluoride levels have lower IQs, a government study finds https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/06/health/children-higher-fluoride-lev… DRAFT NTP Monograph on the State of the Science Concerning Fluoride Exposure and Neurodevelopmental and Cognitive Health Effects: A Systematic Review…