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Culture War Roundup for the week of May 6, 2024

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Brazil’s dysfunction is due to a very high black population

Wikipedia says their black population is 10%, i.e. a smaller percentage than what the US has.

We have better institutions

But institutions are made of people. They can only be as good as the individuals that comprise them. There's no magic dirt, no magic paper.

If you import the population of Central/South America wholesale, the people who staff your institutions will increasingly resemble the inhabitants of Central/South America, and they will begin to reproduce Central/South American conditions.

and can function with a lower average IQ than we currently have

But why would we want to?

Institutions have some weight - the difference between North and South Korea isn't their genetics.

I do also think that nations have some ability to absorb foreign migrants without dramatic change. America remains America, and I believe retains some fraction of it's original spirit, despite the native WASP stock having been diluted severely by Irish, Italians, and even G*rmans. But that capacity isn't unlimited and was founded on assumptions that no longer exist.

and I believe retains some fraction of it's original spirit

can you define its "original spirit"?

Wikipedia says their black population is 10%, i.e. a smaller percentage than what the US has.

But Brazilian pardos have much more African ancestry than mestizos elsewhere in latin America, including many who would be called black in the USA. Only those with entirely black ancestry- which isn’t the majority of the AADOS population- are considered negros(the Brazilian term; ‘black’ is considered offensive there).

There’s no magic dirt, but mesoamericans assimilate much better than anyone else does. Culture matters. Just go look at Russia- high average IQ, culture that inhibits fixing institutions.

Wikipedia says their black population is 10%, i.e. a smaller percentage than what the US has.

Going deeper into this, the Wikipedia article on the Demographics of Brazil makes it seem as though only those with almost entirely African ancestry are counted as black (at 7.6% of the population) and then indicates that 42% are classified as Pardos (with a mixture of white, indigenous, and black ancestry). The article on Pardo Brazilians includes some genomic analysis that indicates between 10 and 30% African genomic ancestry for Pardos in most areas, and that in many areas, those classified as black have at least 40% European genomic ancestry.