USS destroyer sailing by chinese disputed islands

#82
#82
Rasputin_Vol said:
So far, I haven't seen one answer that said "the American people"...
Click to expand...

'Muricans...

anigif_enhanced-6574-1393376497-2.gif
 
#83
#83
Grand Vol said:
Of course it is okay for us to criticize our leadership.

However, we tend to draw the line at slobbering over another nation's leader. Which you do...often...obsessively often.

So if Russia is so awesome and wonderful, move there. What is stopping you?
Click to expand...
You keep saying us and we. Methinks you're like a few species of bird that puff up and span their feathers in order to appear larger.

I see his point. The line you just drew is arbitrary. If we're so close minded and stupid as to think we are the best at everything and there is nothing to admire about other countries, then there are no discussions here worth having.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 4 people
#84
#84
Rasputin_Vol said:
I could make the case that right now, the US is more corrupt, run by more powerful oligarchs and is more socialist today than Russia is right now.
Click to expand...

I am not arguing the merits of American government. I am arguing the issues of the Russian political system. I agree that the American political system in its current form is all sorts of messed up.
 
#85
#85
DinkinFlicka said:
You keep saying us and we. Methinks you're like a few species of bird that puff up and span their feathers in order to appear larger.

I see his point. The line you just drew is arbitrary. If we're so close minded and stupid as to think we are the best at everything and there is nothing to admire about other countries, then there are no discussions here worth having.
Click to expand...

Ras's point is ridiculous. It's a straw man. No one here unabashedly supports all-things America or the US govt. We're highly critical of these things, some more than others, collectively. That's the primary point of this entire forum. If it weren't, we wouldn't be here, to your point.

Grand's point, however, is that, while critical of the US, Ras (and others like him) is never critical of other governments and societies, like that of contemporary Russia. If other places are so great and America is so corrupt and hell bent on its collective destruction, then moving elsewhere is a simple and obvious alternative in such a case.
 
Last edited:
#86
#86
volprof said:
I disagree about the new age communism. I think Putin's government is leading Russia towards a neo-fascist state. It's not nearly as over-the-top in its rhetoric/ideologies or as hell bent on conquest as its European forbears of the interwar period, but it retains much of that movement's basic principles. Perhaps a better term for this recent trend (and we've seen it elsewhere recently too, in places like Hungary, Turkey, and in European far right movements) would be "New Fascism," since it is staunchly socially conservative, statist, ethnocentric (though not as severely as Old Fascism was), andro-fixated (masculinity is championed and the strength of the male body eroticized), and revanchist/irredentist to some degree.

I think of the New Fascism, spearheaded by Putin, as the contemporary "enlightened" man's version of fascism, by which I mean that no rational "enlightened" man nowadays could support the endless and unabated raw genocidal and violent expansionism of the Old Fascism. But he could conceivably get behind "watered-down" versions of its ethnocentric and androcentric ideas that provide him with a convincing narrative as to how he and his country have been wronged and how his country can reclaim its rightful place at the table of nations.
Click to expand...

I can agree with several of your statements. For me it boils down to the "governmental privatization" of industry. Despite claims of privatization of industry, the Russian government still maintains a large degree of control over their private sector.
 
#87
#87
volprof said:
Ras's point is ridiculous. It's a straw man. No one here unabashedly supports all-things America or the US govt. We're highly critical of these things, some more than others, collectively. That's the primary point of this entire thread. If it weren't, we wouldn't be here, to your point.

Grand's point, however, is that, while critical of the US, Ras (and others like him) is never critical of other governments and societies, like that of contemporary Russia. If other places are so great and America is so corrupt and hell bent on its collective destruction, then moving elsewhere is a simple and obvious alternative in such a case.
Click to expand...

This.
 
#91
#91
DinkinFlicka said:
You keep saying us and we. Methinks you're like a few species of bird that puff up and span their feathers in order to appear larger.

I see his point. The line you just drew is arbitrary. If we're so close minded and stupid as to think we are the best at everything and there is nothing to admire about other countries, then there are no discussions here worth having.
Click to expand...

I'm glad you tossed the "if" onto your second paragraph. Because nothing is further from the truth.

But before you get busy defending Ras from the big mean peacock, you probably should check his post history. And see just how far his admiration goes. Because when everything the West does is bad and everything Russia does is good, you begin to see how your defense of him is hypocritical in nature.

And furthermore, if you want to continue defending the kind of person that openly admits they are going to vote for Hilary to "compete the downfall of the United States" you really begin to see the peacock isn't quite as wrong as you thought.

Do some homework and get back to me.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 person
#93
#93
SergeantVol said:
I am not arguing the merits of American government. I am arguing the issues of the Russian political system. I agree that the American political system in its current form is all sorts of messed up.
Click to expand...

So is I either highlight the point that America could be far better or if I comment on how another country may be doing certain things right compared to us, does that mean that I need to leave the country?

I've often bad mouthed some folks in my family for doing stupid things, but that doesn't mean I want out of the family. It just means that I want family to do better... same is true with my comments regarding the US or any other country.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 person
#95
#95
Pacer92 said:
Speaking of fascism...

https://www.rt.com/news/320294-catalonia-independence-ban-un/
Click to expand...

Catalonia’s push for independence from Spain is illegitimate, as the region has not been recognized by the United Nations as a non-autonomous territory, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told Spanish media.

“When one speaks of self-determination, certain areas have been recognized by the United Nations as non-autonomous territories. But Catalonia does not fall into this category,” Ban said in an interview with Spanish newspapers El Pais, El Mundo, ABC and La Vanguardia.

Since the beginning of decolonization after World War II, the UN has considered “non-autonomous” those territories that are geographically separate and distinct ethnically and culturally from the country, which is administrating them.
Click to expand...

In his effort to dismiss the Catalonian Independence movement, he strengthen the argument for the Basque movement...
 
#96
#96
Ya'll remember that time Obama nationalized the oil industry and other parts of the energy sector, kind of like a fascist govt., since this is a key sector for self-sufficiency?

Me neither.
 
#97
#97
Rasputin_Vol said:
So is I either highlight the point that America could be far better or if I comment on how another country may be doing certain things right compared to us, does that mean that I need to leave the country?

I've often bad mouthed some folks in my family for doing stupid things, but that doesn't mean I want out of the family. It just means that I want family to do better... same is true with my comments regarding the US or any other country.
Click to expand...

I'm just wondering if you needed to put a weapon to their head in making your argument(cruising a destroyer by disputed islands) or did diplomatic discussion usually settle the matter one way or the other?
 
#98
#98
Pacer92 said:
I'm just wondering if you needed to put a weapon to their head in making your argument(cruising a destroyer by disputed islands) or did diplomatic discussion usually settle the matter one way or the other?
Click to expand...
We have been sailing those waters since ww2. Suddenly china changes the map and we are invading "sovereign territory"
 
#99
#99
Pacer92 said:
I'm just wondering if you needed to put a weapon to their head in making your argument(cruising a destroyer by disputed islands) or did diplomatic discussion usually settle the matter one way or the other?
Click to expand...

You do know the Chinese sailed its ships within 12 miles of Alaska in September right?
 
New posts
You must log in or register to reply here.

VN Store



Back
Top