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Comment by RcouF1uZ4gsC | Hacker News Reader

Is the Cobra effect story true or is it a racist British/Western trope “Look how devious and greedy the Indians/natives are, even when we are trying to make their lives better?”

Can you really breed Indian cobras in a home in captivity? Cobras are very good hunters and trying to keep them confined (remember how they are freed at the end of the story) and feed a growing population yourself is likely to take some time and effort, perhaps money that might not be worth the bounty?

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Or it's an Indian trope "look how stupid the British are" ?

Really? What about "look how clever the Indians/ natives are?" Not everything is racism. A similar result occurs every time something like this is tried regardless of race. Countless examples including in the U.S. and yeah people will run scams like this even if the scam is convoluted and twice as much work as doing the honest thing.

I don’t think it is clever to deliberately keep a bunch of cobras in your home and then set them free.

It's called animal breeding and people still make money doing it!

Improperly disposing of your animals when you realize there's no market for them anymore is the issue here.

Yeah but if you dreed a bunch of cobras in your house, it solves the rat problem and keeps the neighbors away

Im inclined to believe this theory based purely on how miss leading most written history has shown to be in terms of racism.

However, a very similar story has been proven true (or so Wikipedia claims): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Hanoi_Rat_Massacre

That story comes via the French and I don’t think it passes the sniff test.

In what scenario is it easier to cut the tail of a living (fighting) rat, than to kill it first and the cut the tail off a dead rat?

I think the point is that people were breeding rats so that they could make more money. Then when the ended the 'program', the rats just got released, making the problem worse, no?

It's a matter of the payoff though. Sure, it's easier to cut the tail off a single dead rat than a single live rat.

But if your goal is to maximize the number of rat tails you end up with, cutting it off a live rat is probably worth the additional effort.

You can breed a living, tailless rat to produce more rats.

> has shown to be in terms of racism.

by whom?

My take. I read a ton of history.

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