American Politics Discussion Thread

[BING_XI_LAO]

As someone who hates liberalism I find it very encouraging that Western liberals can't cope with free debate. Clearly the ideology is collapsing from its internal contradictions.

But okay, it's a civ4 forum and I want to be able to post updates in my PB63 thread sometime, so I will stop being inflammatory at least for a while and hope I don't get banned lol.

I can't imagine wanting to debate politics with lame people like non-gamers though. <3

[BING_XI_LAO]

@Bing

My neighbor doesn't like me very much and has treated me unkindly. I AM FORCED TO SHOOT THEM.

Putin is in no danger of being deposed. Although I suspect at least some of this is to distract Russians internally. I am sure there are 20 different reasons behind his actions. FORCED / HAVE TO is just ludicrous though.

Well Russian popular opinion absolutely wanted him to take action. While Russia is a controlled democracy via stuff like party registrations, Putin would eventually lose power if his popularity consistently tanked. Then his replacement would likely engage in interventions with far less skill and care, and would get actually aggressive, which would be a bad thing for everyone.

I'm told by my Russian internet friend that this woman, who lived in Donbass but has moved to Moscow, is praising the Russian recognition of the two Republics because "finally this war will end".

I think this Russian intervention indeed doesn't mark the start of a war but the end of one, just like the Russian interventions to save Artsakh and Syria. We shall see from the next few months though; maybe the Western-backed Kiev coup regime is suicidal and will keep up its aggression even now Russia itself is in the separatist republics.

[Charriu]

As someone who hates liberalism I find it very encouraging that Western liberals can't cope with free debate. Clearly the ideology is collapsing from its internal contradictions.

But okay, it's a civ4 forum and I want to be able to post updates in my PB63 thread sometime, so I will stop being inflammatory at least for a while and hope I don't get banned lol.

We had quiet a few people in the past who wrote inflammatory posts here and there. Noone to my knowledge has been banned for that, because they all participated on the main subjects of this forum. You might not be around for that long by here, but you are clearly here for the games and civ in particular. That could not be said about Pindarch.
What did happen in the past is that this thread was closed as a whole if the debate got out of hand, but no single user was banned. There were some instances in which a single post was redacted, because the poster used not appropriate language to address other people here. That so far was the strongest mod responses that I have seen (together with this ban).

[Mjmd]

Your argument is circular. Russia public opinion was fanned by the Russian government, so therefore the government now HAS to act. Its a logical fallacy. The key thing is that Russia government controls the situation. Again, I will 100% buy that this is to distract / unify their citizens. But saying that this is somehow organic is just laughable.

[Mjmd]

Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, the American people demand we invade Iraq.

[BING_XI_LAO]

Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, the American people demand we invade Iraq.

All the people who pushed the WMD hoax are anti-Russia though!!

[BING_XI_LAO]

Your argument is circular. Russia public opinion was fanned by the Russian government, so therefore the government now HAS to act. Its a logical fallacy. The key thing is that Russia government controls the situation. Again, I will 100% buy that this is to distract / unify their citizens. But saying that this is somehow organic is just laughable.

Russian opinion polls show a dramatic 20-point fall in government/Putin popularity when the age of retirement was raised. Do you think Russians don't have access to the news? That country doesn't have a China-style Great Firewall. For you to say that Russians are mind-controlled by the state is nonsense. Unlike Westerners they have experienced real historical disasters in their own lifetimes like the 1990s economic collapse, they have a far more substantive understanding of politics in that sense than Westerners do.

[AdrienIer]

"can't cope with free debate" is probably the worst take you could have on this situation. This forum has seen people post borderline nazi stuff (I'd say actual nazi stuff but that's not really the debate I want to have right now) and not get banned for them : in truth the moderation is usually way too lenient.

[BING_XI_LAO]

"can't cope with free debate" is probably the worst take you could have on this situation. This forum has seen people post borderline nazi stuff (I'd say actual nazi stuff but that's not really the debate I want to have right now) and not get banned for them : in truth the moderation is usually way too lenient.

Chillingworth cited Pindrich's opinions among the other reasons for the ban. Even short of banning there is a constant undercurrent from liberals here implying that people can only disagree with them insincerely or from a position of ignorance, and that Russians and Chinese are purely indoctrinated with no views of their own.

Even you are implying that Nazi stuff should be censored. So people can have all sorts of views as long as it doesn't belong to the losing side of the last era-defining world war? Wow really meaningful freedom there.
You can take your pick of the ideologies that won on the battlefield!

[Mjmd]

I'm saying people in a free speech democracy were deceived into supporting a war. If you think Russia isn't putting some mad effort into spinning this for their population and international consumption I don't think there is much to discuss.