when it comes to africa for example i was taught that they’re poor cause their land isn’t harvestable or some bullshit like that, and then i find out as an adult it’s actually cause western countries fucked the shit out of them and huh that makes a lot more sense
I either got “that’s just the way it is” or outright racism. No concept of rescource extraction or colonialism, of how different parts of the world had different levels of relative development at different times, almost entirely due to material forces like raw materials and availability of trade.
That’s why for all the well deserved clowning it gets, I think there’s some value in Guns Germs and Steel in terms of being a very lib friendly introduction to the idea that geopolitics (and history overall but let’s not scare them too much) stems from material conditions rather than some weird spooks about different nations having personalities and shit.