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The biodeterministic hypothesis effectively asks us to believe that there is some magical property of the 35th parallel that causes Koreans born above it to be genetically predisposed towards Communism and Koreans born below it to be genetically predisposed towards Capitalism. Ditto the border between the former East and West Germany.
Do you believe in magic?
It absolutely does not, that's an absurd strawman.
Nobody is literally 100% biodeterminist (in the sense that your genetics determines things like what language you speak). Biodeterminists believe that genetics matters a lot, not that it is literally the only thing that matters.
It's not an "absurd strawman" it's the logical consequence of the claim being made by multiple users in this thread (including the one i was responding to) that "bioleninism" will always trump policy and culture.
My point is that unless these people are prepared to argue that the observed disparities in quality of life between North and South Korea, East and West Germany, Red States and Blue States, etc... are all biological in origin I am going to argue that thier hypothesis has been falsified via experimentation, and that the best thing the "policy and culture don't matter" crowd could do for thier cause is to stop attracting attention.
No one is arguing that the differences between capitalist and communist countries are biological in origin. That the gaps in wealth between North and South Korea or East and West Germany are explained by economic policies alone is self-evident. That does not mean that biological and cultural differences don't exist or matter.
Looking at communist countries alone we can see the difference between those with high human capital (East Germany, the Soviet Union, North Korea), which are able to maintain an orderly society with advanced weapons manufacturing and scientific research and pose a credible military threat to their neighbors, and those with lower human capital (Angola, Benin, Cambodia, Ethiopia), which are a threat to no one but their own miserable inhabitants.
They are though, or rather they are arguing that people become capitalist or communist due to biology. Which then begs the question, what is it about the 35th parallel or the border between East and West Germany that causes genes to express themselves one way on one side and a different way on the other?
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