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Evidence that parasite prevalence predicts authoritarianism (2013)

journals.plos.org

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Re: Evidence that parasite prevalence predicts authoritarianism (2013)

#91
post #18

a plosone paper published in 2013, enough said

Can you elaborate? Thanks.

plos one is one of the journals that most people treated as none significant one in the field, and institutions in China effective ban researchers publish papers on it (https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07025-5). And the retractions from this journal is increasing (https://mobile.twitter.com/retractionwatch/status/1212396706...).

The reputation is so bad that wikipedia includes a sentence in the entry as "In 2016, Jeffrey Beall described PLOS One as a scientific spammer. Owing to concerns about the peer review process at the time, he considered the journal more as a digital repository than a scholarly publication.[41]" A recent event resonates with this which is described as "CreatorGate" on wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PLOS_One#CreatorGate), which even in the abstract of the paper, as quoted from retractionwatch (https://retractionwatch.com/2016/03/03/plos-one-retracting-p...), "The paper, about the biomechanics of hands, gives a shout out to “the Creator” as early as the abstract, which contains this sentence: 'The explicit functional link indicates that the biomechanical characteristic of tendinous connective architecture between muscles and articulations is the proper design by the Creator to perform a multitude of daily tasks in a comfortable way.'" If this can be slipped by review process, any thing can happen. I still yet to met any senior scientist who is proud to say in public whose group published on plos one.

Re: Evidence that parasite prevalence predicts authoritarianism (2013)

#92
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the modern age of efficient transit, the deaths caused by famine are becoming more and more a result of bad state/world governance. The famines still usually have a nonhuman cause that originally caused that assistance to be necessary. There are exceptions of course, like Yemen.

Famines can he and were caused by goverment (whether local or occupying) taking away resources (for war or other place) or mishandling storage of resources.

As I said, there is usually a nonhuman cause and exceptions exist.

Re: Evidence that parasite prevalence predicts authoritarianism (2013)

#94
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Famines can he and were caused by goverment (whether local or occupying) taking away resources (for war or other place) or mishandling storage of resources.

As I said, there is usually a nonhuman cause and exceptions exist.

All the massive famines I recall from history were in the exception category.

Plus, keeping enough supplies is one of government functions - through those prior French revolution the famines I recall were not in this category.

Re: Evidence that parasite prevalence predicts authoritarianism (2013)

#95
post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I said, there is usually a nonhuman cause and exceptions exist.

All the massive famines I recall from history were in the exception category. Plus, keeping enough supplies is one of government functions - through those prior French revolution the famines I recall were not in this category.

>All the massive famines I recall from history were in the exception category

I'll provide another example. The cause of Ireland's Great Famine was the potato blight, and no one thinks that the British intentionally imported the blight to Ireland. The million deaths were the fault of the British, who chose to export food for more money rather than feed the starving people.

Re: Evidence that parasite prevalence predicts authoritarianism (2013)

#96
post #9

A large exception would be Russia, and to a lesser extent, all of Eastern Europe. The extreme cold in Russia helps suppress parasites, yet it has historically been authoritarian. It’s also worth noting some of those countries that for awhile provided interesting exceptions, such as Liberia from 1860 to 1990, a famously free country though surrounded by authoritarian territories.

> such as Liberia from 1860 to 1990, a famously free country though surrounded by authoritarian territories. Liberia wasn't particularly free as most of us here might understand the term. While the freed slaves’ constitution was modeled on the US Constitution, civil and political rights applied only to the freed slaves who came over from North America and their descendants, while Liberia’s indigenous population was n…

> Monrovia’s Masonic Lodge

I'd heard of the Freed-Slave-vs-Local-Pop thing in Liberia before, but never about the Masonic Lodge. Got a source?

Re: Evidence that parasite prevalence predicts authoritarianism (2013)

#97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> such as Liberia from 1860 to 1990, a famously free country though surrounded by authoritarian territories. Liberia wasn't particularly free as most of us here might understand the term. While the freed slaves’ constitution was modeled on the US Constitution, civil and political rights applied only to the freed slaves who came over from North America and their descendants, while Liberia’s indigenous population was n…

> Monrovia’s Masonic Lodge I'd heard of the Freed-Slave-vs-Local-Pop thing in Liberia before, but never about the Masonic Lodge. Got a source?

This is so prominent an aspect of Liberian history that a simple Google search "liberia masonic lodge" will give you a great deal of reputable reading material.

Re: Evidence that parasite prevalence predicts authoritarianism (2013)

#98
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you elaborate? Thanks.

plos one is one of the journals that most people treated as none significant one in the field, and institutions in China effective ban researchers publish papers on it ( https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07025-5 ). And the retractions from this journal is increasing ( https://mobile.twitter.com/retractionwatch/status/1212396706... ). The reputation is so bad that wikipedia includes a sentence in the entry as…

Thank you
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