I am from time to time exposed to some dangerous idiots. Regrettably, they're everywhere.
One of these dangerous idiots recited a talking point which appears to be semi-popular among the racists among the dangerous idiots: Scientists claim that there's no real race difference in a scientific sense and we're all one species with minimal (though at times visible) differences. Well, racists get cognitive dissonance from this in their little grey matter. So they apparently made up the notion that blacks are still different (inferior) because they lack several per cent DNA from Neanderthals.
Well, next time you encounter such an idiot, agonise him with some well-deserved cognitive dissonance, please:
All humans share about 99% of their DNA with Chimpanzees and Bonobos. Obviously (obvious to any non-idiot), there can't be such a thing as several per cent DNA difference between Europeans and Africans.
Racists think humans differ noticeably when the difference is in reality as if one Leopard 2 tank was painted light green and its engine equipped for multi fuel while another Leopard 2 tank was painted in dark green and guzzling diesel only. Who cares? It's still the same thing.
If only the dangerous idiots wouldn't mess up so much. We should keep them away from political power (other than voting) at the very least!
S O
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Always fun to see that your topics about Milporn always get bombed with comments, such as attack helicopters, subs, carriers but topics about racism, human rights are often neglected.
ReplyDeleteThat's the weird stuff which readers tolerate because the author has an inexplicable weakness for it.
ReplyDeleteMost visit this page for the military topics and most of them feel more comfortable commenting on hardware than on the 'how to', econ theory or sociological stuff.
Very few milblogs stress that defending our freedom against foreigners is of little value if we don't defend it against our own kind.
You are wrong. 1% is the average difference between human and bonobo DNA. That does not say anything about diversity within the group of humans and bonobos.
ReplyDeleteThe diversity within a human group from the same geographic region is usually wider than their average difference to a group from a far away region.
As with all animals, we have a point of origin with greatest genetic diversity. For each and every animal on earth, the measure of genetic diversity is used to establish duration and success of population numbers. A small degree of genetic diversity, as evident with humans, points out that in a not so remote time they were close to extinction (typical bottleneck). There are a few places on earth where human populations were able to thrive over time relative to other regions. These do have the highest degree of genetic diversity. It's pretty much standard biological behaviour to increase the local gene pool with successful and different genes and create a more resilent offspring population. However, outside the place of origin for most human DNA, the Great Lakes of East Africa, our genetic variance is compareably small. This is compensated by a small influx of other forms of human development such as the neanderthals on the first waves of immigrants from East Africa. Later immigrant waves have not been shown to have continued this kind of intermixing with different developments of humans. Via the descendants of the first waves of immigrants outside Africa, they all share some genetic traits that have not been shown to have any effect on our nervous system. They do affect appearance. These other human developments' appearance has been integrated into the range of appearances we have today. Other than the neanderthals, there is some discussion of different groups in more southern regions of Asia. As we can establish that our cerebral functions are not affected by that genetic mixing, it's about arguing whether or not super models should have neanderthal chins and eyebrows. There have been cerebral affecting mutations that spread like wildfire in the human population and still do, but none shows a link to other human developments.
Arguing with genes, the most successful human group will have the greatest diversity and is the complete opposite of racism. Racism takes their ideas not from wild animals, but from domesticated forms under selective breeding characteristics for useable traits. The many side effects and the high degree of failure of these attempts is overlooked. How many unsuitable offsprings of selective breeding were eaten. How much has the fertility been increased (chicken are an extreme example).
Racism derives from R-strategists via breeding, while humans normally are K-strategists, (subconciously) maximizing the genetic diversity (this can be within a group and to some degree with far away groups). Next time, just ask a racist how many of his children he is willing to kill for selecting one pure bred trait and how much higher medical bill he is willing to pay for that trait's side effects?
These are more modern reconstructions of neanderthals:
http://www.rdos.net/neanderthal.jpg
http://phuturenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/neanderthal_child-1.jpg
http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/naturelibrary/images/ic/credit/640x395/n/ne/neanderthal/neanderthal_1.jpg
"You are wrong. 1% is the average difference between human and bonobo DNA. That does not say anything about diversity within the group of humans and bonobos."
ReplyDeleteI took note that you wrote more than I did, but you didn't say anything quantified about diversity within mankind either. So basically you wrote a lot, but didn't back up your first sentence's assertion.
“It's pretty much standard biological behaviour to increase the local gene pool with successful and different genes and create a more resilent offspring population. However, outside the place of origin for most human DNA, the Great Lakes of East Africa, our genetic variance is compareably small.”
ReplyDeleteMy understanding of the correlation of time depth of residency and genetic diversity is that it is related to the accretion of genetic mutations. http://www.understandingrace.org/humvar/race_humvar.html