First flaw in the Mexica-Movement’s argument: The Straw Man Argument.

A straw man argument is one that misrepresents a position in order to make it appear weaker than it actually is. In this case Jared Diamond does not hold, in his book, the position that Europe was the sole accredited inventor of firearms. Nor does he negate the fact that the technology originated with China. In fact he doesn’t dwell too much on the history of guns at all. Now why don’t we see what Jared Diamond has to say about the main topic of his book himself:

"Authors are regularly asked by journalists to summarize a long book in one sentence. For this book here is such a sentence: ‘History followed different courses for different peoples because of differences among peoples’ environments, not because of biological differences among peoples themselves.’" (Diamond 25)

Basically saying ENVIRONMENT is a key factor, apart from culture, that determines the dominance of one civilization over another and NOT the ethnicity or racial makeup of it’s people. This is an anti-Racist thesis. The speaker in the video cannot put 2 and 2 together and figure out why Jared Diamond uses the term "Proximate Causes." Well even grade schoolers know that proximate means ‘closest.’ In this case the closest and most immediately responsible cause for their success in defeating other civilizations was their Guns Germs and Steel.

As for Eurasia? The gun was invented in China and then developed further when it was introduced into Europe which the Europeans used as a weapon of conquest. I admit that Jared was bit careless in his choosing of this term but the Mexica-Movement wants to pretend that it is a major premise in his argument to try and discredit him as a person rather than try and discredit the argument found within his book. Notice that he NEVER cites any passage from the book nor does he elaborate in any kind of detail as to what Jared Diamond is trying to say in the book.

The speaker in the video also claims that a major flaw in Jared Diamond’s book is his refusal to admit that China invented the gun. Do I really need to explain why this is a straw man argument? Well where to begin? First, China having invented the gun has NOTHING to do with the thesis in Jared Diamond’s book, it does not add to it, it does not confirm it, nor does not contradict it and does not need to be included though it is surely helpfully worth mentioning it. Diamond, in his book, explains "how" some cultures developed the necessary conditions for successful imperialism. Diamond never addresses the "why," factor of imperialism. This book is not concerned with the "why"of imperialism or "why" Europeans conquered and colonized the world and not China; it’s main focus is the "how." How did the major, and most successful, European empires come about from their preliminary conditions compared to those of other cultures who weren’t as successful? This is the question that Guns Germs and Steel addresses and this is the model that he constructs throughout his book. Jared Diamond comes from a scientific background with a double PhD in physiology and biophysics thus his focus as a scientist is naturally the "how" NOT the "why."

On 1:46 in the video he makes a very sly assumption that Jared Diamond is using geography and plant ecology to "explain away" why China did not conquer in the same manner that the Europeans did, as if Jared Diamond purposefully created some kind of argument to defend European Culture.

Which brings us to our next flaw: Hasty Generalization.

He claims that it was Germanic barbarians who overran Europe and brought down the Roman Empire and substituted it completely with a barbarian culture. There are many factors as to why Rome fell and the Germanic hordes were only one of them. I think what he was trying to say is that the Germanic peoples known as the Ostrogoths and the Visigoths had a lot of influence in late Rome and contributed the most to it’s downfall thus their ways and their culture became the status quo in Europe after Rome fell. Also worth mentioning are the Anglo-Saxons in Britain who were also a Germanic people.

This claim that Europe is a willful and inevitable Germanic culture is flawed for two reasons. First it was not only Germanic peoples who overtook Europe. What happened to the moors who took over southern Europe in the Iberian Peninsula in 711 A.D.? Or the barbarian Hun to the northeast who were a major influence as well when they conquered most of eastern Europe in the 4^th and 5^th centuries? Not to mention that the Romans were not the only European civilization, there were also the Greeks in the Byzantine Empire which lasted until the 1400s. European culture is not exclusively a Germanic heritage as if the Roman culture was completely whipped out and replaced; after all, the Latin language, books, art, architecture, and much of it’s culture still prevailed.

Second, the Germanic people did not persist as bands of looters because during the dark ages they gradually became Christianized. Culture is never static and the Germanic people’s culture was no exception. Also, why didn’t these Germanic people ever expand and conquer to the east and pillage the Byzantine Empire the way they overtook the Romans, or move further south to battle with the Arab civilizations? Why did these Germanic people lay quietly in Europe until the non Germanic Spanish colonizers overtook much of the Americas before the Anglo-Saxons followed suit? Granted, there were the crusaded in between; but this was a political incident spurred with religious sentiment. By now you should be getting the idea of how complex this situation is and of the collage of cultures that clashed and diffused to create a Europe that is still very diverse in Language and cultures.

So in conclusion, read the book Guns Germs and Steel for yourself and do not let Mexica-Movement fool you. Be objective and read in context, do not cherry-pick and do not read with rose colored lenses.