[dylanjermiah]

I'd suggest you read the book, it's only 200 pages and I can't summarise it in one sentence. It's sad that someone down voted me for suggesting a book which has voluminous facts and history. Human progress is building on what we have learnt before, if we can't learn from history I don't know how we will make progress.

[Mz]

I did not downvote you. I asked a question. There are only so many hours in the day. So, unfortunately, I cannot read every single thing I wish I could read. It would be nice if you actually answered my question instead of recommending "read this book" for the third time. I heard you the first two times.

Peace.

Edit: and have an upvote as a token of good faith.

[dylanjermiah]

I was under the impression you were the parent I initially replied to. I apologise.

So in regards to your question, AA has been disastrous around the world. In India and Bangladesh hundreds of thousands of deaths, people burning each other in the street, terrifying stuff. All because of class wars instigated by benefits to one class over the other. Same results, on a different magnitude, in Malaysia, Nigeria, Iran, Australia and to a smaller extent the U.S. AA has never worked in all of recorded history.

[Mz]

Thank you. I am not a fan of affirmative action. But I also understand that a) it's a touchy topic and b) many people do not know what else to do and want to do something and c) it actually isn't possible to ever know for sure what the world would look like had these events not occured, so we do not know for a fact that it would have gone better had these initiatives not happened. Racism and hatred are rampant. Things might well have gone worse without these intiatives.

I still hope the world can improve on these models, but that is no small task.

Have a good day.

[bakhy]

this is ridiculous. "in all of recorded history"? hundreds of thousands of deaths? in Australia?! :D but i guess if you read it in a book, it must be true!

there's also a book out there claiming the Nazi regime was all the work of gay people. look it up, you'll probably love it.

[dylanjermiah]

If you had bothered to read my post..."On a different magnitude".

In India and Bangladesh there is recorded history of hundreds of thousands of deaths. The book sources these facts, if you want to invalidate anything I suggest you go to the original sources, not make a straw man arguement.

I will reiterate, read the book, read the sources -- if you want to invalidate something, invalidate the primary pieces of evidence -- than come back here and we can have a productive conversation.

[bakhy]

sorry, but you presented it very weakly. i checked wikipedia in the meanwhile, and it does it much better justice.

i certainly don't have the time or will to read a 200 page book for the sake of an HN discussion. this should not be a surprise. you could maybe outline something? i'm particularly interested in how exactly these killings came about. wikipedia quotes some criticism - that the examples were cherry-picked, and not even entirely comparable to affirmative action in the US, the contexts were too different (and, kinda funny, one critic states that he already published this same book in the 90s under a diff name :D). but then, wiki also quotes some very interesting arguments he laid out that i did not see here and that sound good.

all in all, i can agree it's a crude method, but hey, it's better than nothing. lots of people here pointing out problems and only some offering solutions, although strictly laughably unrealistic ones. certainly, no mass killings have happened in the US because of it, and such fear-mongering helps nothing. i personally would bet that, were the US a social democracy, all of this would probably be much less needed. when health and education are provided, opportunities are more available to everyone. but the way it is now, any disadvantaged group is more likely to stay that way.