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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
There are objective reasons to prefer the Western version. For example, our military operates by rules of war that vilify the typical "rape, pillage, and burn" tactics favored historically. I don't get the sense that Islamic nations have really made that leap yet. We try to avoid nerve gassing our own citizens, and don't usually stone women to death for the sin of wanting to go to school, or drive. We also don't pay people to strap bombs to kids.
At no point am I trying to claim that Western culture is Crystal Spires and Togas. We have a lot of problems. But if it comes down to a comparison of "Whose Culture Is Better", or even the Lesser of Two Evils, I'm going to pick my side and stand by it.
edited 24th Jan '13 7:33:48 AM by Fighteer
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"Abu Ghraib, Fallujah, The School of the Americas, drone strikes on weddings; that's what I think of American commitment to the rules of war. It really comes down to whether or not you are more threatened by a concentration of power or multiple small distributions of power. I feel less threatened by a bunch of little guys.
(As for the "pass a nuke to a terrorist group to blow shit up for you" take, they won't do that, because if a non-state affiliated actor detonates a nuclear device, nuclear retribution will follow based on suspicion alone. As in, we think that nuke was funded by Tehran, Tehran gets microwaved. Nobody with access to nukes wants nuclear warfare to become more ambiguous and less clearly-defined. If Iran gets nukes, that will remain the case.)
Share it so that people can get into this conversation, 'cause we're not the only ones who think like this.Is this just paranoia and panic or is there a serious risk that this could actually happen.
Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.That's not paranoia; Republicans are actively trying to rig the electoral voting process to give themselves an advantage by establishing proportional voting only in states that went blue in 2012. It's been in the national news and we've discussed it previously in this thread.
As for my nationality, have I given the impression of being anything other than an American? Kind of weird.
As for the rest, I'm not going to play a game of American Exceptionalism. I am going to note that there are no "white" players in this game, so it's a matter of picking your shade of grey.
edited 24th Jan '13 8:24:05 AM by Fighteer
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"Yo, Starship, take a look at this, and call me paranoid. It's why the house is as messed up as it is.
edited 24th Jan '13 8:31:18 AM by DrTentacles
"Of course the Democrats are cheating, so we'll cheat back! What? No we won't change our insane platform that could severely hurt the future of our country, we'll just force our way in and screw everything up for everyone!"
That's what it sounds like to me.
I'm actually kind of worried about this even though I'm Canadian. The way our Prime Minister has been acting, there's a sizable chance some of these incredibly dumb moves could spill over here.
edited 24th Jan '13 8:42:24 AM by Zendervai
The Republicans have lost the popular vote repeatedly over the last few elections. Realizing this, they continue to try to find ways to make the popular vote magically not count. It's the tactic of a sore loser.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"Starship, they haven't just made it to the planning stage. They've made it to the execution stage. Gerrymandering is a real issue and it's becoming more and more pronounced in America especially in Republican controlled states.
Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. DickI just wish we lived in an Country where we could have independent boards to draw voting districts, and where those boards wouldn't immediately become partisan hell-holes. I wonder if there is a way to make that work.
Anything has to be better than "winning part gets to determine voting districts," because that leads to "Ok, my party won, so I'll draw the voting districts so next time, I will also win. Therefor, for the election after that, I get to draw the districts again, making us win again." It turns into a massive Unstable Equilibrium where the person in charge makes the rules. I've seen some pretty decent solutions, though. Something like the winning party makes the districts, but then the losing party gets to split/merge/screw with half of the districts. They're more complex, but it would be a lot fairer.
I'll bring up Switzerland again since it's actually kind of relevant. Switzerland is the only direct democracy in the world, where everyone votes on everything. This means that the government is rather nebulous, it takes forever to decide anything and it's really really easy to twist the vote.
For example, it took the Swiss 10 years to decide whether or not they wanted roundabouts. There was also that 'Minaret Scare' a few years ago where through a fearmongering campaign, the Swiss banned all minarets in the country. Yes, all four minarets. The only reason why Direct Democracy works in Switzerland is because the Swiss actually pay attention to the rules. Okay, they're kind of obsessed with the rules.
I don't know the details about this, but there was a minor scandal about eight years ago where something was passed because they "accidentally" reversed the wording. Like, vote yes to stop this thing no one likes.
Basically, there isn't a very good version of Democracy anywhere in the world, but most of the time it's better than just a straight dictatorship.
edited 24th Jan '13 8:56:02 AM by Zendervai
This.....is not good. Is there a reason we can't do like Dr. Tentacles suggests and go with independently demarcated districts?
It was an honorOther than the Cold War, institutionalized racism, institutionalized homophobia, misogyny, and American Exceptionalism....The Fifties weren't all that bad.
It was an honorBecause, as the good doctor said, "non-partisan" organizations in the US inevitably become partisan. Anything that touches US politics becomes partisan.
Writing a post-post apocalypse LitRPG on RR. Also fanfic stuff.

edited 24th Jan '13 7:28:06 AM by johnnyfog
I'm a skeptical squirrel