Paralay's signature controversy

[Dilandu]

Seriously... guys, haven't you got anything better to do, then to start politsrach (rus. "political shit throwing") over signatures? Secretprojects is one of the very few techno-intellectual forums, that is still enjoyable and educative - exactly because it avoided being dragged into political squabbling. Could we PLEASE took some efforts to maintain such status quo?

P.S. A capybara cubs pic for morale purposes only:

 

[donnage99]

Regarding the remark about the "bloody dictator". The so-called "democratic leaders" have killed and continue to kill millions of people around the world, Putin is very far from them, as well as Stalin too.

False equivalence. No leader of a nation is morally perfect. That being said, you don't see biden plotting to throw trump out of a window or trump poisoning obama. Or trump arresting people for attending john mccain's funeral.

Regardless, I think we can agree that a signature is ok as long as it doesn't directly advocate any sort of violence toward civilians even when it praises leaders that do so.

example "putin is great defender of russia" is ok but "cleaning out ukrainians is a russian duty" would be inappropriate.

 

[Hood]

P.S. A capybara cubs pic for morale purposes only:

I'm a member of a couple of Discord groups and they always have a pets thread.
It's odd that we never have had that in the bar. Maybe more cute fluffy animals would cheer everyone up?
(just no pictures of naked owls because that will give you nightmares!)

 

[Antonio]

Maybe more cute fluffy animals would cheer everyone up?

Another possibility is to set up new forum, just for politics, and we could confront conflictive opinions there, under new nicknames. That would preserve a good relationship here.

 

[Archibald]

Okay, thanks you all for the healthy debate

@Scott Kenny - blew my mind. Will do it ASAP. Thanks @dan_inbox for the tip, too.

Done it.

 

[Arjen]

Another possibility is to set up new forum, just for politics, and we could confront conflictive opinions there, under new nicknames. That would preserve a good relationship here.

The obvious alternative would be for the politically incontinent to peddle their ideas on an existing, general history- and/or politics-dedicated forum.
They might have to deal with real historians, that could put them off.

I will engage in political discussions, but preferrably not here. I'm fairly sure I would disagree vehemently on politics with some of the experts here.

 

[hagaricus]

I'm not particularly triggered by this.

Growing up, my late father was a vehement conservative, his best friend was a socialist. They would sit up til the early hours discussing politics and world affairs, always disagreeing, but never losing their friendship or their tempers. I have always looked on this as the perfect example of how we should approach such matters.

I disagree with Paralay, but I still appreciate his useful and knowledgeable posts. I disagree with many other users on this forum as well, but once again, this community is one of common interest and the diversity of opinions is part of its joy and strength. We would be poorer without it, and the real danger is in letting such differences distract our attention from the core topics which interest us all.

 

[Orionblamblam]

I like how "Putin is conducting a genocide" is deflected with "But the rules are so vague that you could possibly make the point that killing one dude is a genocide".

It was a *general* commentary on "genocide" in political discourse.

Your reply to water this down by taking the Convention Rules out of context sadly says a lot about the kind of person you are, and I'd hoped you were better.

Sadly you're not.

Whatever. In short, you've misunderstood my point and used that misunderstanding to imagine me as some kind of enemy... when if you'd bothered to think about it for more than a second, you'd realize I'm on record as being on *your* side.

Good job on becoming an object lesson as how these things spiral out of control.

 

[Justo Miranda]

Putin must be a very smart guy to ride the Russian tiger for so long, smarter than myself and many of those who judge Putin's ruthless behavior. In my opinion, in order to understand the character, it is necessary to differentiate between what is right and what is necessary. Putin is doing what needs to be done, and the West expects him to do the right thing. If the U.S. had used nuclear bombs in Korea and flattened Hanoi with B-52s, it would have done what was necessary, but instead it did the right thing, initiating the long decline that leads us to the absurd international situation we are experiencing. I don't know which of the two solutions is better for the future of the West, and you probably don't either.

 

[Orionblamblam]

P.S. A capybara cubs pic for morale purposes only:

DON'T fall for the propaganda... Capybara would kill us all if they could! they're just biding their time! They are almost as bad as Ewoks.

 

[lancer21]

Another possibility is to set up new forum, just for politics, and we could confront conflictive opinions there, under new nicknames. That would preserve a good relationship here.

That is exactly what i was thinking about, and i would add, an INVISIBLE forum, where members can join BY REQUEST. It's good to see in previous posts moderators and members who offered mature, conciliatory and balanced views on this subject, and also one can see a number of members who just can't help themselves to keep pushing their political views and arrogantly lecture others of their side's righteousness even in this discussion. It can be seen that these members oh so offended by Paralay's signature are by far the most responsible for the repeated off-topic political disturbances that have happened here in the last period, in fact probably this thread is an opportunity to actually clearly "unmask" so to say many of those responsible. Though it's not actually than many, i would be surprised if there are more than a dozen or so, some names i have in my head don't add up even to that.

So yes, an invisible forum to the rest of us, only accessed by request, where Archibald and Orionblamblam and Forest Green and whoever else wants can go and hold hands together all day and hiss and moan how bad man Putin is and how great America is and all such rubbish. The rest of us then can be spared of such disruption on the open forum and we can carry on in peace with really interesting discussions on subjects of interest.

This would have to be backed by strict policing of the open forum to keep it clean of such political baiting and posturing, any offences being dealth with sternly, warnings, thread bans, outright bans if offences repeat, there would be no more excuses since there would be a dedicated forum for political stuff. It's up to the mods what rules they want to enforce there, i certainly wouldn't want to touch such a forum with a barge pole (hence recommending it be invisible).

 

[Justo Miranda]

For the last seventy years the West has blindly believed in soft power, but the bitter reality is that soft power does not exist, ask Guterres, the international press and humanitarian organizations if they have managed to stop a war or dethrone a dictator.

 

[Arjen]

an INVISIBLE forum, where members can join BY REQUEST

This forum already offers the option for a private conversation with multiple members. Invite your friends, etc etc, invisible to anybody else.

 

[Archibald]

So yes, an invisible forum to the rest of us, only accessed by request, where Archibald and Orionblamblam and Forest Green and whoever else wants can go and hold hands together all day and hiss and moan how bad man Putin is and how great America is and all such rubbish.

(sigh)
Scoop: I'm not American. I'm just an European baffled by all that rampant right-wing demagogy, everywhere (Europe, Argentina, Brazil, USA, Turkey, Israel, Russia and many others - including my own country in a coming 2027 election, where I fear the worst may be happening - sigh)

 

[Antonio]

Scoop: I'm not American. I'm just an European baffled by all that rampant right-wing demagogy, everywhere (Europe, Argentina, Brazil, USA, Turkey, Israel, Russia and many others - including my own country in a coming 2027 election, where I fear the worst may be happening - sigh)

That looks like a standard "anti-fascist alert" call from the left-wing demagogues. All in all this is going politics again, I see no difference.

We should keep calm and get politics away from the forum's main subject

 

[overscan (PaulMM)]

I think we've got all the value we are going to get from this discussion.