Bay 12 Games Forum

Quote from: Descan on April 18, 2015, 11:52:36 am

Not to mention, I think SG probably would go "Yeah, that sounds good," for an abolition of all armed forces, so your slippery slope there didn't exactly work as intended

Naah, I just want clarity and consistent positions - I'm perfectly fine with someone arguing for pacifism.

Quote from: Sheb on April 18, 2015, 11:30:20 am

I find your argument really weird Helgoland. If using conscripts is bad, don't use them. If the guy in front is using them, and you end up having to kill people that were sent there against their will, that's on him, not you, at least if you're fighting a defending war.

Using conscripts is bad, because you're endangering the life of someone for political gain (winning the war) against their will.
By the same argument, killing/attacking any enemy soldier (especially conscripts though) is bad for the same reason.

If the circumstances are such that killing enemy soldiers becomes acceptable (because the political gain - defending one's country from occupation, for example - has become big enough), for the same reason using conscripts must have become acceptable at the same time.
Thus if war - necessarily involving killing/attacking enemy soldiers, even if it is a defensive war - is acceptable at all, using conscripts is too.

Sure, the argument sounds a little bit weird, but only because we're used to thinking that non-soldiers dying is somehow worse than soldiers dying.

So are we going to continue along this line of logic & say if war is justified then using any weapon available is justified too. Napalm, Nukes, you name it?

Or that if your killing people anyway, then torture is a lesser evil, so that's perfectly ok too?

I don't think logical arguments about morality ever really work when your talking about a war. It's messed up to start with. Me myself I'd prefer it to be as little messed up as possible, whether it makes perfect sense in logic or not.

Quote from: Morrigi on March 27, 2015, 05:40:38 am

Quote from: Sergarr on March 27, 2015, 03:38:32 am

Quote from: misko27 on March 26, 2015, 05:41:35 pm

Quote from: Sergarr on March 26, 2015, 04:39:17 pm

...

Ok, let me rephrase: Putin wants to lead a superpower. Being a superpower is the aspect of the USSR that Putin is most interested in. He is a fan of that part. The other parts vary: some of them come with the territory and are embraced (an abrasive attitude in world affairs), others are incidental (like communism) and will be left behind.

But being a superpower without having a strong economical and political system behind you is impossible. Current Russia cannot physically be a world's superpower. Without communism or any other strong ideology, this is not possible. I don't believe that Putin doesn't know that.

Orthodox Christianity might do it.

It's absolutely not strong enough in Russia for that. It's also not a religion suited for world's domination, more for defensive purposes.

We need something new, something completely different from all the religions and ideologies of before, something which would use all the available knowledge to humanity and all the available information-processing instruments for maximum benefit to the society and its people.

It seems to me if you're after the "maximum benefit to the society and its people", it's best not to become a superpower in the first place. Nothing I know about the U.S. makes it seem like a good place to live if you happen to be poor/disadvantaged or part of a minority. I certainly wouldn't like to have been borne in the USSR, and China is hardly a prime example of human rights. I'm quite glad I live in an "unimportant" country.

I suppose there's a point to be had there, but generally, I'm not that stressed in places where I'm by myself.
I can't exactly just whip it out and start fapping in the middle of an argument.

Well, technically I could, but I think people would start to seriously question my sanity.

On the plus side it may well stop who ever is argueing with you in there tracks. Could be fairly effective. Have you ruled out it being caused by medication?

Why is this still a thing

Because some  people have an interest in perception & the fact that things aren't always as they appear? Or the fact that 2 different people will swear black & blue that something simply is 1 way or another,  then get worked up when the other person disagrees? Can see how the discussion irritates people when it's taking up the WTF thread, but here it has it's own thread.

I see blue/black but the "black" is a kinda dark greeny-brown.

Secondly, Scotland now has its own rolling news feed (rather than sporadic BBC Scotland sets) in the form of Common Space. I did put up a link to it a few months ago when it was going through a trial run, but it has formally launched now and it seems to be picking up steam. The editorial bias of Common Space is still towards independence but perhaps a bit more further left/"Student Left" than the National.

Amusingly if I'd just quickly looked at this page rather then clicking the news link I would of thought that Common Space was funded by the UK Government & had an annoying large ad on it. I wouldn't have bothered to look further if I hadn't come to the page from here. If that's someone deliberately trying to be clever then they're probably being too clever. More likely it's accidental & the editor knows what the paper is about & doesn't see it that way, where as I'm looking at the page with no idea what it's about.

Edit: A note on the format - I didn't actually notice the link to the side was even a link till my head went well it must be, & I moved the mouse over to it.

The only place I've really seen it is the other games forum where someone's talking about a game they're developing. "The you just joined to sell your game, your not a DF player" kind of comment. In a way that's understandable but often (at least to me) it comes across quite rudely & in some cases they are going to be DF players who up until then had no reason to post.

It can be a bit weird for a lurker, I read quite a bit on the forums but very rarely post. So I'm quite often here and have been for a while but still have a relatively low post count.

Soon! Soon, all the chocolate will be on sale. :3

So they'll only be double the price instead of triple?