Having some sort of strong central government seems to be an important factor in how much violence a society tolerates. Where there is a strong government, the lid is kept on top of simmering interpersonal aggressions. Lose the state and things can get bad quickly.

I'm can't remember the source, but one scholar said that if you look at the recovered skulls of our hunter-gatherer ancestors or "cavemen" there was a fairly high percentage of bashed in skulls. That isn't to say they were terrible people -- just that violencce was resorted to fairly often.

Certainly, government power is weaker in Latin America--or in 1990s Russia--relative to the West. For that matter, Western government power was likely weaker several centuries ago relative to right now. This opened the door for non-state actors to engage in more violence.

Quite interesting that the most violent countries are primarily black and Hispanic.

https://archive.ph/Dk1Wc

Quite interesting that the most violent countries are primarily black and Hispanic. — Xanatos

Most interesting. — Ms. Marple

Superb observation. It never crossed me mind. Is it a coincidence though? Correlation dossn't imply causation, oui? Are we ignoring other relevant factors?

Quite interesting that the most violent countries are primarily black and Hispanic. — Xanatos

It is sad... I guess one of the main causes is that they live in poor and undeveloped countries. Then, they need to use violence to survive or get basic resources.
Among Hispanic countries only Spain and Chile are states where they care about people.

And Portugal, which can be labelled Hispanic since it was also a part of the Roman province of Hispania.

Well, it's probably not the whole story since there is the occasional non-homicidal black or Hispanic country such as Chile or Ghana.

Well, it's probably not the whole story since there is the occasional non-homicidal black or Hispanic country such as Chile or Ghana. — Xanatos

There you go! Nevertheless, an A for noticing a correlation. Have you tried comparing Africa to Europe?

And Portugal, which can be labelled Hispanic since it was also a part of the Roman province of Hispania. — Xanatos

Well, truste me when I say that they hate to be compared with Spaniards :lol:

What is the primary reason the murder rate in the United States is almost 5 times that of the United Kingdom? — Down The Rabbit Hole

Not specifically in comparison to United Kingdom but...

- Problematic gun laws
- Schools are "pay to win"
- No actual quality health care that's free
- Extremely costly basic insurance models
- No proper economic support when out of work
- Lack of actual state support for families in trouble
- High class-based inequality
- Systemic racism
- Degenerate media focused on entertainment instead of informing and unbiased educating
- Extreme neoliberal capitalism with little to no oversight
- High corruption and/or lobbyists being more powerful than politicians


List can go on, but basically, the overall extreme focus on individual independence in conjunction with a delusional extreme nationalism centered around viewing itself as the hegemony on the global stage and chosen by God.

USA is basically a form of extremely capitalistic neoliberal christian fundamentalistic nation. In such a place, everyone forces everyone else to be part of the nationalistic delusions but at the same time forces everyone to be left to handle their own life all on their own with little to no safety nets.

It's a shallow media and corporate mentality of everyone being together as a unified people, but no one is unified at all. A self-delusional narrative of a collective caring for each other while individually just profiting on each others misfortune.

I really don't know why people even have to wonder why the US has the problems that it has. Any type of study on how the US does things compared to other nations (that functions better for the well being of the people) clearly shows where the problem lies. Even the people and government of the US knows about all the problems and has insight into what is needed, but the people and government don't change because they're basically fundamentalists of the "American dream". It's like the people are drug addicts of the US mentality, they cannot move past it in order to implement necessary changes for the improvement of society.

It will take a collapse or new civil war to radically change the nation. Basically updating the constitution to make sense in a modern world and implementing social securities, free education, free health care etc. to let the people be able to navigate a highly competitive environment without tripping into poverty and despair at the slightest misstep.